“The Secret Life of Bees,” by Sue Monk Kidd is a book that focuses on a white, 14 year old girl, Lily, who runs away from home with her black house-keeper, Rosaleen, in a time where racial segregation was still thriving. When Lily was as little as 5, she was standing in a room with her mother and father and holding her fathers gun while he was distracted by her mother. She fired the gun, killing her mother. She was left with her father who didn’t let her read and abused her physically and mentally. She felt trapped and the only person that looked out for her and cared about her was Rosaleen. To find out more about her mother and her mystery, Rosaleen and Lily fled to Tiburon, South Carolina, a place where Lily had found her mother had been. They randomly knocked on the door of August, May, and June Boatwright, black sisters who welcomed them into their lives as long as they worked for their honey business, tending to bees. Lily and Rosaleen have a different perspective on the world than the boatwright sisters because of their different lifetime experiences.
The lifetime experiences that Lily and Rosaleen share make them more naive than the boatwright sisters. One example of Lily and Rosaleen naivety is that they had hardly ever encountered racial segregation to an extreme level. When they got to the “Calendar sisters” house for the first time, they weren’t expecting someone to be unkind to a white person but, June was really uncomfortable with a white person staying in their house, therefore she was really unhappy and unkind to Lily especially. This was surprising to Lily because her race had never before made her the minority. She was used to being surrounded by white people so when she was treated differently because of her race, she felt guilty and also sympathized more with black people. Rosaleen was familiar with Racial segregation, but she wasn’t used to black people being superior. She took advantage of this by instead of taking care of Lily, she started to take care of May, the most troubled boatwright sister. Lily and Rosaleen were new to this way of getting treated, and this was changing the way that they looked at the world.
The Boatwright sisters are very different from Lily and Rosaleen, because they all have so many life experiences, and so much knowledge about the world and what is going on around them. The sisters aren’t resilient people, and not recovering from their many losses have given each of them the ability to comfort other people and make them feel like they are worth something. When they were little, May’s twin sister, April, committed suicide. Ever since, May has been having tantrums daily, and feeling the weight of the worlds problems. June and August have routinely made her feel better and calmed her down. Doing this has made August and June more sensitive people, and more capable of helping others emotionally. They have been through it all, none of them healing, but all of them working together to try to heal each other.
The Boatwright sisters knowledge of the world, and Lily and Rosaleen’s knowledge of the world made their time together different for all of them. Lily and Rosaleen were learning of a new culture and what really went on in the world. The Boatwright sisters knowledge and impulse to help others was important to Lily and Rosaleen, because it gave them an opportunity to both be informed of what was happening in America at that time, and do so in a safe environment where their presence was becoming more wanted every day. The different perspectives the Boatwright sisters and Lily and Rosaleen have on the world teach each group the lesson of kindness.
The lifetime experiences that Lily and Rosaleen share make them more naive than the boatwright sisters. One example of Lily and Rosaleen naivety is that they had hardly ever encountered racial segregation to an extreme level. When they got to the “Calendar sisters” house for the first time, they weren’t expecting someone to be unkind to a white person but, June was really uncomfortable with a white person staying in their house, therefore she was really unhappy and unkind to Lily especially. This was surprising to Lily because her race had never before made her the minority. She was used to being surrounded by white people so when she was treated differently because of her race, she felt guilty and also sympathized more with black people. Rosaleen was familiar with Racial segregation, but she wasn’t used to black people being superior. She took advantage of this by instead of taking care of Lily, she started to take care of May, the most troubled boatwright sister. Lily and Rosaleen were new to this way of getting treated, and this was changing the way that they looked at the world.
The Boatwright sisters are very different from Lily and Rosaleen, because they all have so many life experiences, and so much knowledge about the world and what is going on around them. The sisters aren’t resilient people, and not recovering from their many losses have given each of them the ability to comfort other people and make them feel like they are worth something. When they were little, May’s twin sister, April, committed suicide. Ever since, May has been having tantrums daily, and feeling the weight of the worlds problems. June and August have routinely made her feel better and calmed her down. Doing this has made August and June more sensitive people, and more capable of helping others emotionally. They have been through it all, none of them healing, but all of them working together to try to heal each other.
The Boatwright sisters knowledge of the world, and Lily and Rosaleen’s knowledge of the world made their time together different for all of them. Lily and Rosaleen were learning of a new culture and what really went on in the world. The Boatwright sisters knowledge and impulse to help others was important to Lily and Rosaleen, because it gave them an opportunity to both be informed of what was happening in America at that time, and do so in a safe environment where their presence was becoming more wanted every day. The different perspectives the Boatwright sisters and Lily and Rosaleen have on the world teach each group the lesson of kindness.
Really great job Iris! You really elaborated on all your points and ideas throughout the entire response. The amount of background in the introduction is almost perfect, giving you enough information to understand the characters you're talking about, yet still not revealing too much about the rest of the book.
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