Preview

The Secret Life Of Bees Argumentative Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1463 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Secret Life Of Bees Argumentative Essay
“I thought about August’s words. People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different” (Kidd, 293). Although it may seem as if this quote has a negative viewpoint, in relation to Lily, it represents how her life took a turn for the better and how she developed on the knowledge she obtained. In the novel ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ Lily’s decision to leave her home allowed her to learn and grow. To begin, Lily learns that she can care for yourself and create your own happiness. Additionally, Lily learned that who you are affects your life, including your internal struggles and decision-making skills. As well Lily learned to look at the world with positivity and treat everyone with respect. All these reasons show how Lily grew throughout the novel.

To start off, Lily learns that she only needs herself and that she is her own happiness. First of all, in the end of the novel Lily was putting away her mother’s things when she finds a pile of mouse bones. Lily cleaned them and started to carry them around, she said “every day I carried them around in my pocket and could not imagine why I was doing it” (Kidd, 278). She thought about them when waking up and made a connection between the bones and her deceased mother. As the book went on Lily came to realize she no longer needed them, she noted “I
…show more content…
All in all, these are many of the significant life lessons Lily discovers, she learns that she can care for yourself and create your own happiness. Additionally, she learned that who you are affects your life, including your internal struggles and decision-making skills. Lastly, Lily learned to look at the world with positivity and treat everyone with respect. In conclusion, in the novel ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ Lily’s decision to leave her home allowed her to learn and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the main literary elements in Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees, is conflict. The author displays this conflict through racial prejudice, Lily Owens and her father, Terrence Ray Owens (T. Ray), and through Lily and her mother, Deborah Fontanel. This book is set in 1964, when African American’s had just gotten the right to vote. T. Ray and Lily lived just outside Sylvan, South Carolina (The Secret Life of Bees, page…

    • 75 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, August acts as the unorthodox religious leader of the Daughters of Mary and contributes to Lily’s character and growth. August proves to be a leader, and a positive influence towards Lily in every action she performs. She welcomes Lily, a white girl, into her house during the 1960s, a time when racial segregation was prominent. By doing so, August goes against the popular social views, and jeopardizes her reputation for Lily. August teaches Lily many life lessons such as love, hope, and the importance of religion. Because of August, Lily becomes stronger, and more aware of the society in which she lives in.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout the story Anne Frank learned at a young age how hard life could be and the hope for better things to come.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Goodbye,’ I said, and there was a tiny spring of sadness pushing up from my heart.” Lily is aware that all of her memories are in that house and her town, but she takes the risk of never returning again to help the people she loves. This is a true act of heroism taking risks for the people who mean the most to you. In The Secret Life of Bees women are made to think that they are inferior to men and that men hold all the power. Lily’s father T-Ray treated women very unequally and often said that women had less opportunities and were not able to do all the things that men can do. Growing up her whole life with only T-Ray and no mother-figure has left Lily to believe that women really are inferior and not as capable as men. After meeting the daughters of Mary Lily started to no longer underestimate the power of women as she saw the example of Mary, who was a women that was able to do remarkable things. She also learns the power of women by meeting the boatwright sisters who are all remarkably strong. All the women in The Secret Life of Bees are inner heros in their own way and they all show the true…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Lily decides to leave she had to find out where she can go, Lily thinks, “The town written on the back of the black Mary picture’...‘Or else she knew people there who’d cared enough to send her a nice picture of Jesus’ mother.”(Kidd 43). The first thing Lily thinks of when she knows she has to find another place to live without the problems her last housing arrangement had. She realizes that the people who gave her deceased mother the picture cared enough to send her the picture. Lily was most neglected to being cared for when she lived with T. Ray, so that is the first thing she strives for when changing her situation. When Lily first captures the bee she makes sure the bee is cared for with pollen and enough air for the bee to survive, therefore the bee has everything Lily didn’t have when living with T.Ray. Due to her neglect she decides to go to a place where she believes her mother was once cared for, which is Lily’s ultimate longing in…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Larkin’s use of alliteration when unfolding the content, that of Bleaney’s room, ‘flowered curtains, thin and frayed, Fall to within five inches of the sill’(l.3-4) creates an ironic bleak description of the things which presumably once surrounded Mr Bleaney; this contrasts the function of alliteration as its usually used in a playful manner. Using such a feature allows some light-heart, creating a rhythmic flow to the poem, despite the dismal atmosphere being presented. Larkin uses alliteration quite a few times in Mr. Bleaney, ‘Behind the door, no room for books or bags’ (l.9) signifying that the room in which he resided in was so box size that there was no space for leisure or anything exciting, not even behind the door where it may not…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The classic story line of the hero’s journey can be recognized in almost every book, movie, or short story written. Even in some stories that would not be that obvious, such as the historical fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Although not very recognizable two out of the three main stages of the hero’s journey are departure and initiation. These are apparent through out Lily’s journey to find herself and her mother’s history. The third main stage, return, is not as apparent in the novel.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Being an striking theme in Secret Life of Bees, absence is shown through the novel in many different fashions. It is important to note that her mother's leaves her in a horrific manner, but her father leaves her in a more slow and painful way. Lily will never be completely alright after her terrible childhood, the absence of her mom will always carry a heavy burden on her back. Also, her father’s emotional cold heartedness and disappearance will forever leave her longing for parental love. Overall, her parents left Lily in a hole that she has amazingly dig herself out of with the help of many supporting actors. Abandoned by everyone that loved her at a young age Lily was certainly headed down the road of failure until she met the wonderful calendar sisters, and the Tiburon…

    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Secret Life of Bees is a novel written by Sue Monk Kidd that was published in 2001. It is about a girl named Lily who runs away from home with her maid Rosaleen. They wanted to get away from danger and racism. In the house, Lily finds out secrets about her dead mother and tries to learn more about her. The story shows a lot of cruelty. When an author uses their writing to represent cruelty in a story, it can be helpful in contributing to the overall theme or message. The cruelty that occurs in the story is racism, and it helps develop the theme of anyone can overlook stereotypes. In the book cruelty is shown when the three men are harassing Rosaleen on her way to register to vote, and when Lily was afraid to tell anyone that she and…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Her abusive father blames Lily for the death of her mother, not that he seems to care much about it, just enough to point fingers. After an incident involving her African-American care-taker forces Lily to run, she searches for any little traces of her mother she can possibly find. Her search brings her to the Boatright sisters, where she finds a home, answers, and more of motherly figures then she would have if her mother hadn't died.The Secret Life of Bees is a coming of age fiction novel written by Sue Monk Kidd. The story is set in the early to mid 1960s where plaid mid thigh kilts and cashmere twinsets were in style, not that Lily Owens had ever been able to experience this fashion statement due to her fathers strict ways. Lily starts in Sylvan, South Carolina, but in her search for her mother she moves the story along to Tiburon, South Carolina. The books mood is serious, due to death, injury, and other hard circumstances. Lily fights through these rough circumstances making the mood of the book also inspirational. The main lesson learned is said by a character named August whom employs Lily “Most people don't have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside hive. Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about.” This goes along with the famous quote “don’t judge a book by its cover”, because you cant always see whats going on inside a persons…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The poet Maya Aneton once said “It [is] one of the greatest gifts [a person] can give [him or herself] to forgive. Forgive everybody.” It is difficult sometimes for people to forgive themselves for past issues or transgressions. The result often becomes an inability to exculpate others as well. However, if a person can seek forgiveness, then happiness will become more apparent in his or her life. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd demonstrates how contentment becomes prevalent in a person's life through the characters Lily and June once they seek forgiveness. Lily, a fourteen-year-old runaway white girl, not only struggles to forgive herself, but her father, T Ray, and her mother for their wrongdoings in her lifetime. Similarly, June, one of the Boatwright sisters that takes in Lily when she runs away, strives to pardon her ex fiance and Lily’s mother due to the undeserved way they treated June in her past.…

    • 1679 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates the irrationality of racism by not only portraying black and white characters with dignity and humanity but by also demonstrating how Lily struggles with and ultimately overcomes her own racism. Kidd moves beyond stereotypes to portray whites and blacks with the multifaceted personalities that we find in real life. Lily is not a racist in the same way that the group of men that harass Rosaleen are racist, but she does evidence some prejudice and stereotypes at the start of the novel. She assumes that all African Americans are like Rosaleen, an uneducated laborer-turned-housekeeper. Lily imagines that all African Americans are likewise coarse and uneducated. But when Lily encounters unique, educated, thoughtful August Boatwright, she must change her assumptions and combat her prejudice. At first, Lily feels shocked that a black person could be as smart, sensitive, and creative as August. Recognizing and combating her shock allows Lily to realize the truth about the arbitrariness and irrationality of racism. Like Lily, June must also learn to overcome racial stereotypes. As individuals, humans can display a complex array of personality traits and characteristics, regardless of skin color or ethnicity.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, Lily the protagonist is a young girl growing up with an abusive father and a harsh environment. Lily wants to escape the reality that T-Ray (father) has shaped about herself and her deceased mother . Lily leaves her abusive household going into an unknown situation putting her beliefs and determination into the faith of her mother. Rosaleen, Lily’s…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lily Owens changes dramatically, when she starts spiritually growing. This is when Lily finally accepts that sometimes you don’t need a physical or biological mother, and that the Mother of Chains would always be there in her heart. Lily realizes this one night in the Boatwright’s house when she went to visit the colored Virgin May statue, and placed her hand on the red heart on the statue chest and side “’you are my mother…You are the mother of thousands”’ (269).That quotation from Lily shows her acceptance of life and that she is growing spiritually. The reason why it shows spiritual growth is because, before mother Mary she always ignored religion and anything spiritual. Another way Lily shows that she is changing spiritually is when her and Rosaleen and the two Boatwright sisters, August and June go looking for May because, she went missing after going to the Wailing Wall to go and grief. Well looking Lily begins to say “Hail Mary, full of grace, Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen”’ (191). This quotation appositely show Lily’s spiritual growth and her maturity growth because, she is finally looking for a spiritual dependents which is praying to Mother Mary who she looks up to. Furthermore Lily has grown spiritually due to those reasons stated before.…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays