Racism In Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life Of Bees

In 1964, racism in the South was as prominent as ever. Lily Owens, protagonist of Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life of Bees, found herself stuck smack in the middle of it. From the beginning of the book, readers recognize that Lily has very few people in her life; her mother is dead, and Lily is the reason, so that leaves her with her malicious father, T-Ray, and loving maid, Rosaline. In the first few chapters, readers feel the tension grow in Sylcon, South Carolina, where they live. Tension grows between Lily and her father, and through whites and blacks, as the Civil Rights Act has just been passed. On July fourth, Lily goes into town with Rosaline, where Rosaline intends on registering to vote. Due to abhorrent racists, this does not happen.
Lily’s life changes dramatically. What began this whole spiral of chaos was after Lily fell asleep in her father’s peach orchard late at night, and he found her later in the morning. Absolutely furious, T-Ray forced Lily to kneel over Grits, which was nothing new for her. What changed this series of events was the next day, after Lily had woken up, T-Ray said to her “‘Would it be too much to ask you to get out to the peach stand and do some work? You’re not Queen for a day, you know.’” (Kidd 25) This was not the first nast comment T-Ray had made, however this changed something for Lily. After processing this, Lily said to herself “this may sound crazy, but up until then I thought T-Ray probably loved me some.” (Kidd 25) Lily finally recognized that her own father does not love her; infact, he may even resent her. After this realization, the decisions following were a lot easier for Lily to
Lily responded with a bold “you don’t scare me” (Kidd 38) She may as well have set a bomb off. T-Ray whirled around, and swung at Lily. She ducked, and he totally missed, however this did not stop him. Lily screamed at him that “[her] mother will never let [him] touch her” After a while of arguing, T-Ray told Lily the worst thing she could possibly hear. He yelled “The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back to get her things, that’s all. You can hate me all you want, but she’s the one who left you.” (Kidd 39) This was groundbreaking for Lily. Her whole life, she thought her mother had just been cleaning out the closet, and to hear that she was really leaving was devastating. Lily always found comfort in the idea that her mother had loved her, unlike her father. Finding out this was not true caused her to cry and cry and cry. After hours of crying, Lily convinced herself that T-Ray was lying as a way to punish her. Still, there were so many unanswered questions. This was the last straw. She packed a few of her most important things, and decided she was leaving home. She was going to go sneak Rosaline out of jail, and set off to Tiburon, where she thought valuable information about her mother