Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees
Set in the American South in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act and intensifying racial unrest, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees is a powerful story not simply about bees, but of coming-of-age, of the ability of love to transform our lives, and of the often unacknowledged longing for equal women and human rights. Although this novel is not one of a higher reading level, Kidd displays many hidden meanings, ones that require the reader to dig beneath the surface. Addressing the wounds of casualties, betrayal, and the lack of love, Kidd shows the power of women uniting together to treat those wounds, to care about each other and themselves, and to create a community of true family and home.
The Secret Life of Bees is a fictional …show more content…
In order to show this, Kidd builds on the hive and bees as a metaphor of life. Bees represent people working together in a society, which is represented by the hive. "The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness" (3). The beehive has been known in history to represent the soul, death, and rebirth. The hive is presided over by the queen, or mother-figure. In explaining that bees have secret lives that are not immediately perceptible, August speaks metaphorically of people. As the plot progresses, we learn that almost every character has an explanation for his or her actions that cannot be seen immediately. We know that Lily is pretending to be someone that she is not in order to find out about her mother. We learn that May is so emotional because of her twin's suicide (142). August tells Lily that T. Ray was not always the cruel man he is now. He was once tender and sweet and become embittered when Deborah died (201). Lily also finds out that her mother was not the perfect women she imagined. Throughout this story, Lily learns people, like the bees, are often motivated by forces that cannot be understood
The Secret Life of Bees is a fictional …show more content…
In order to show this, Kidd builds on the hive and bees as a metaphor of life. Bees represent people working together in a society, which is represented by the hive. "The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness" (3). The beehive has been known in history to represent the soul, death, and rebirth. The hive is presided over by the queen, or mother-figure. In explaining that bees have secret lives that are not immediately perceptible, August speaks metaphorically of people. As the plot progresses, we learn that almost every character has an explanation for his or her actions that cannot be seen immediately. We know that Lily is pretending to be someone that she is not in order to find out about her mother. We learn that May is so emotional because of her twin's suicide (142). August tells Lily that T. Ray was not always the cruel man he is now. He was once tender and sweet and become embittered when Deborah died (201). Lily also finds out that her mother was not the perfect women she imagined. Throughout this story, Lily learns people, like the bees, are often motivated by forces that cannot be understood