The Secret Life of Bees

At some point in our lives, we meet someone who changes something about us. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character Lily Owen's viewpoint makes up the central focus of the story. Through Lily, we learn about love, racism, and society within the worlds of Tiburon and Sylvan, South Carolina; through her, we learn about how most people are not what they seem on the surface. People's lives are usually much more complicated than they appear. This is the major theme of the novel. Like August Boatwright said, human beings would not understand about the complexes life that happened inside a hive. Bees have their own mysterious way of living that human could not comprehend with. (P.148, Paragraph 3) Lily's journey is one of painful secrets and shattering betrayals but that ultimately helps her find the thing her heart longs for most.

Lily is a fourteen-year old girl who lived with her cruel father, T. Ray, after her mother died. Lily always question about her mother, Deborah's death and her past. One day, Lily's black housekeeper and mother-figure, Rosaleen, is unfairly imprisoned because of defending herself against the white men who are racism. Lily helped Rosaleen escape, and brought Rosaleen with her on a journey to Tiburon, a place where Lily may find her mother's past. In Tiburon, Lily and Rosaleen met the calendar sisters, August, June, and May and found out that Deborah have lived with the calendar sisters after she left T. Ray. Through her journey with Rosaleen and the calendar sisters, Lily gives herself an opportunity for a bright future and finally learns what it is like to be part of a loving family.

Living with a harsh father, Lily has suffered through her past fourteen years. She mentions in the beginning of the novel during the exposition that anyone believes death is the worse thing doesn't understand what life means. (P.2) Lily's life has been profoundly influence by her mother's death. She implies that living with someone's death can be more painful than dying. Also, Lily thinks nothing could be worse than living with her father, T. Ray. Furthermore T. Ray does not appreciate any of Lily's efforts; she can not feel any love from T. Ray. Eventually, Lily can not take T. Ray's cruelty anymore and decide to go on a journey with Rosaleen.

As a character, Lily has two most significant characteristics are her determination and her longing for maternal love. She firmly believe that she should not leave Rosaleen alone after Rosaleen confront a group of racist men in Sylvan. This confident allow Lily to help Rosaleen escape from prison and go search for her mother's past. All the information Lily has was Tiburon could be a town where her mother stopped in one day and never returned to again. However, her determination forces her to seek out any remaining traces of her mother. In seeking her mother, Lily finds mother substitutes, Rosaleen,