Summary Of Secret Life Of Bees

"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here." Asserted from the 2002 novel Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd blew her breath in the lungs of this novel making sure that this story would never die. Based upon a time where life in the American South was tremendously different then what we know as life today and where not all people were treated with the same respect. The vivid pictures painted throughout the novel puts the reader in the middle of time with an authentic feel of how life was back then in 1964.
The novel included a group of women who formed a sisterhood brought together by love, faith and freedom. Lily, a brave 14 year-old Caucasian girl desperately wants to know about her mother's past urging her to run from a troubled home with her African American maid Rosaleen. Lily and Rosaleen ended up at the Boatwright sister's August, May and June doorstep where she’s welcomed to stay with them. August the oldest of the sisters, was an African American businesswomen with a warm heart.
She had the intentions to always do the right thing and strongly opposed discrimination in the South. August built a good life for her sisters June and May and kept true to her roots.
Secret Life of Bees was surrounded by a time in the past where there was a racial division in the South.
The first event that related the novel with the South during that time is when Lily's maid Rosaleen was taunted by three white men while on her way to vote. Rosaleen who was angered poured chewing-tobacco juice on the men shoes and then was taking to jail along with Lily. Back then a lot of African Americans had little to no rights and events similar continued to follow. During Lily's time at the Boatwright's sister’s home, she met a friend of the sisters Zach which was an African American boy. Lily and Zach started to grow feelings for one another and decided to go on a date one day. Tempers flared when Lily and Zach were seen together at the movies and Zach was immediately arrest. An additional event like this included in the Secret Life of Bees felt so real when it came down to interracial dating during that
time.
The Secret Life of Bees was very authentic. Numerous events in the novel shined a bright light on what took place in the South during that time. Through it all five women within different races came together, formed a sisterhood and gained hope through a spiritual Black Madonna that was worship since slavery days.