The Secret Life of Bees - Molly Jones

The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, has multiple interesting characteristics that make it such a good book. It shows people female power, racism, the Southern culture back in the 1960s, and how mothers can impact your life. It has life lessons throughout the book and even shows stuff about bees and honey. It is based in South Carolina where a 14 year old girl, Lily lives with her father, T. Ray and her black housekeeper or nanny, Rosaleen.  Lily’s mother was killed and it is a blurred memory for her. Kidd shows this in her writing with good voice and narration. She also includes many themes that explain and show the importance of this book. Another thing I liked about this book was where she decided to have setting be in, South Carolina. It ties the whole book together and it adds in the Southern and racism aspects to the story. Overall this book would be the type of book I would recommend to my daughter just as my mom did to me when choosing the books I had to read. Its funny and makes me want to keep reading, but at the same time teaches about the South in the 60s.

The voice in which the author, Sue Monk Kidd, decided to write it as, really spoke to me in the novel. Kidd has Lily narrating the story how she remembers it. Even though it is written as a teenager’s point of view, Kidd still adds good vocabulary and makes it flow. Within Lily’s voice we learn about strong women and how females can still be important even in a male prominent world. She is telling the story but at the same time is the protagonist. She tells herself as a determined girl that wants to learn more about her mother’s past. Kidd makes Lily sound sophisticated and has sometimes dark, smart, important thoughts that she writes. An example of one is, “I have noticed that if you look carefully at people’s eyes the first five seconds they look at you, the truth of their feelings will shine through just for an instant before it flickers away.” (104-105) She tells the readers something that you probably would not think about when you first see them, but it is something so little that it makes it good.

There are so many important themes in this book that make it the great book that it is. The first one is the female power and how women can still make a business in this world. In the beginning Lily has to grow up without a mother but Rosaleen comes in to be her stand in mother. She teaches Lily about women and being strong against men and racists. She also is strong because of her urge to register to vote. Lily’s father has no respect for women and Lily feel guilty about her mother’s death. August Boatwright, probably the strongest women in this book, teaches Lily about their religion, the Daughters of Mary, and it teaches about the power of women and that the voice of Mary is inside all of us. They believe that women can be free and nothing should stand in their way. Another important theme in this book is the bees. In the beginning of the book, Lily always had a swarm of bees in her room but when T. Ray would come in, they would never be there. She captures one in a jar and this shows her that Rosaleen and her need to fly away from this loveless home. At the Boatwright home, bees is a big part of their life. Their honey jar attracted Lily to come to their home and it’s almost as she was directed their. There are many metaphors about the bees, like how every bee a job in the hive, just like everyone in the house had job. Racism is a huge theme in the book because it is set in the South during the 60’s. Even though Lily is a white girl that has a racist white father, it is almost like she doesn’t see the color in people’s skin. She doesn’t care that Rosaleen or August or even Zach is a different skin color than her. She loves each and everyone of these people no matter the color of their skin. Lily is shown the racial prejudice in both towns in South Carolina, with Rosaleen getting arrested and Zach getting arrested. Even a policemen comes to the Boatwright house and asks her why she is living with all black women. She hears and sees stories about people being beaten and and killed because of their race. There are still many more themes in this novel, but these are the main important ones.

South Carolina is right in the South of the United States. Lily describes Sylvan, South Carolina, as, “Sylvan, South Carolina, population 3,100. Peach stands and Baptist churches, that sums it up.” (8) The setting is important in this novel because it really shows what happened in the 60’s and it has the history part of this story. Tiburon, the other town in the books is described by Lily as, “Tiburon was a place like Sylvan, minus the peaches. In front of the domed courthouse someone had stuck a Confederate flag in the mouth of their public cannon. South Carolina was Dixie first, America second. You could not get the pride of Fort Sumter out of us if you tried. (65) Lily describes these towns not very well and they seem not as important to her. The setting ties to the race part of the book because it is in the South. Race is a problem in both these towns and you're either black or white. The blacks get treated terribly which Lily knows all about because she has seen and heard stories about it. The setting of this story really ties everything together and makes everything make sense.

The Secret Life of Bees is a great book that really taught me a lot. It taught me about female power, which for me as a girl was very important and made me think about how much more women can do than people really think. It also taught me about history of the 60’s and race. With teaching me this much, it also was funny and had parts that I really enjoyed.