“I had to get away from T.Ray, who was probably on his way back this minute to do Lord-knows-what to me.”(Kidd 41). Lily Owens, the main character of Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, constantly lives in fear of her father’s temper has to take her wellbeing into her own hands when his temper gets too much for Lily to handle. She was living in an abusive relationship with her father T. Ray, until she runs away and finds safe haven with a family her deceased mother once knew, The Boatwrights. The open jar shows the theme of “saving yourself from unwanted situations” that is strewn throughout the book The Secret Life of Bees when Lily has to save herself from an abusive kinship, and decides to find a loving…
Stories have an extremely important effect on the lives and the characters in the novel entitled, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid. This book is about a young 14 year old girl named Lily Owens. She has to go through life knowing that she killed her mother and that her father loathes her. She runs away form home and breaks her friend Rosaleen out of the hospital. They finally find a home, based on the clues that Lily’s mother left behind, and moves in with a family that accepts her for who she is rather than what she has to do, she can express her individuality. She gets a different look at the world and can see how stories, discrimination and family dynamics are important and valued differently. The stories in this book have three major functions in setting the stage for a good novel. They are: stories can be interpreted in many ways, stories can help people escape reality, and stories can have a lasting impact.…
Lily Owens, who is the main character of The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, is a courageous girl who overcomes many challenges throughout the novel. For one thing, when she is curious, she is determined to do anything. Another example is she is not afraid to twist up the truth for her needs. Lastly, Lily performs heroic acts throughout the story. Throughout the novel, Lily Owens demonstrates the meaning of courage.…
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…
The Secret Life of Bees: A tale of what the true meaning of family is, and the unsuspecting places we find love.…
Colors and matching emotions we are familiar with most commonly are dark and light. Dark colors can initiate the unknown, death, or fear while lighter colors can resemble welcoming feelings, prosperity, and goodness. What about colors like green ? Green is often is associated with growth, prosperity, and hope. For instance, in the book and recent movie, “The Great Gatsby,” where the protagonist, Gatsby is longs for the companionship of his long lost love Daisy. Gatsby revolves his entire life around gaining her affection and even lives directly across a large lake from Daisy to keep an eye on her. The author of this story puts a green light at the end of the dock found at Daisy’s home. Gatsby spends countless nights looking at this light hoping that one day his lifelong dreams will come true. The light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope and progression into the direction of his…
Sue Monk Kidd incorporates literary devices throughout her novel The Secret Life of Bees. Monk uses devices such as symbolism, character relationships, and motifs to help the reader better understand her novel and have a connection with it as well. The symbolism of the black Mary, the relationship between August and Lily, and the motif of bees are incorporated into the novel.…
Gatsby’s love with Daisy is depicted when they are both looking out the window at the pink clouds above the sea line (Fitzgerald 101). In the end of chapter 7, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is also shown. When he waits outside her house in almost a stalking manner just to make sure she gets to bed safely. While he is standing out there, his pink suit is described as glowing underneath the moon (Fitzgerald 153). This pink suit symbolizes his love for Daisy. This general color can also mean something completely different. It can also be a symbol for death or dangerous events. An example of this death color is shown in this quote from the end of chapter 8: “The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water (Fitzgerald 173).” The red is not only suppose to stand as an illustration of the blood in the pool but as a representation of Gatsby being…
The novel The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd represents the maturation and development of one main central character. Before Kidd wrote this novel, she graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.S. degree in nursing, and she worked in nursing for many years. Later in life, in Kidd’s mid-twenties, she grew to love writing, and she eventually attended school for writing and obtained a degree in this profession. The novel, The Secret Life of Bees, started off as a short story that Kidd wrote, until she decided to turn the short story into an actual novel, she published in 2002. Although this is not Kidd’s first novel written, she often focuses on the development of one main character in her novels. In this novel, Lily Owens,…
Green is usually associated with the emotion of envy and jealousy. Gatsby says, “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,”. That color characteristic really embodies Gatsby’s feelings each time he stares at the home of Daisy and Tom across the bay. Then the text goes on to say, “Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” When the text says that the green light might possibly have now vanished forever, it is refering to how in Gatsby’s eyes they are almost together already, but right after that Gatsby acknowledges that they aren’t together yet. “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock.” After being suddenly so close to Daisy again, and…
In physics, a color is a visible light with a specific wavelength. Black and white are not colors because they do not have specific wavelengths. Instead white light contains all wavelengths of visible light. White is generally used to represent purity, innocence, and new beginnings. In chapter 1, page 19, Daisy states while speaking to Nick, “From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white–.” Daisy and Jordan’s childhoods crossed paths with their purity, free of obscenities, and complete with innocence. Essentially, they both had safe beginnings with corrupted ends.…
In two vastly different books, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, one theme remains of constant importance throughout both, that love, in its overwhelming consumption, has either the power to build or to destroy. Despite being set one hundred years apart, both Pip and Lilly experience this crippling emotion, but handle it in adverse ways.…
For example, when Daisy’s room is described as pink we automatically associate it with feminine attributes. This association leads to us correlating Gatsby’s pink suit with femininity.The color green has always been associated with greed or jealousy. Therefore, when we see that the light at Daisy’s house is green it is immediately connected with desire and the need to possess. Also, as the lake between East Egg and West Egg is described as green to show the lower class residents of the West Egg’ desire to one day be able to live in the upper class East…
The green light on Daisy's dock, represents Gatsby's ultimate goal of reuniting with Daisy and having her love forever. It acts as a beacon to him, reminding him of his goal and focusing all of his attention on achieving it. He literally cannot take his eyes off of the beacon and therefore, his goal. The color green also symbolizes money, which is a motivating factor for Gatsby and Tom.…
Chapter 1 Bad Fortune It is the dawn of 2017 in an alternative universe. A universe filled with magic, a universe filled with comfort. Everything comes to you with the clap of a hand.…