It is pretty obvious that I am not a literature person. I am probably the one who understands the least in the class. So I apologize if I make glaring errors for this presentation or miss key underlying story plots.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was first published in 2002 by Viking Penguin Publishing after having started the work in 1997 and later released in Trade Paperback in 2003 by Penguin Books. The Secret Life of Bees has sold more than 3 1/2 Million copies and is translated in twenty different languages.
Sue Monk Kidd is also the author of the newly released novel The Mermaid Chair and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter among other works. She has received numerous literary awards for both fiction and non-fiction works.
Sue lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband Sandy and their black lab aptly named Lily. She has a website giving a little background information as well as information regarding her books. It is http://www.suemonkkidd.com
The Secret Life of Bees is about a 14 year old girl named Lily living in Sylvan, South Carolina with her father Terrance Ray, whom she refers to as T. Ray. T. Ray owns Peach orchards and sells peaches. Lily has a house attendant named Rosaleen. Lily's mother Deborah died ten years a go during a scuffle between her and T. Ray. Lily believes that when T. Ray knocked the gun out of Deborah's hand, she picked it up and caused it to discharge.
Lily really likes Rosaleen and she has daydreams wishing that there was no color barrier and she could be adopted by her. She even mentions that if they lived in a foreign country like New York, she could be adopted.
T. Ray has violent tendencies. He strikes Lily a number of times through out the book. He also has an unusual punishment forcing her to kneel on dry grits. T. Ray never mentions his wife and becomes agitated at Lily if she brings up the question. He also tells her that she killed her mother by acident which along with Rosaleen's imprisonment, causes her to run away.
Rosaleen was imprisoned after going into town to register to vote, she gets in an excursion with three men playing poker and pours the contents of her snuff bottle on their shoes. She is arrested, and the men are allowed to assault her while in police custody. Lily breakes her out of the guarded hospital and they run away. Lily is determined to take her to Tiburon, South Carolina because a picture that belonged to her mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary pictured as a black woman has the named of Tiburon on the back.
Lily and Rosaleen hitchhike a ride close to Tiburon and Lily discovers that the picture she has is on the lable of honey being sold in a local store. They go to the pink house of owners of the honey. There she meets the owners the Boatwright sisters, May, June and August. She also mets there hired help Zack and June's future husband Neil.
Lily and Rosaleen help the Boatwright sisters with the honey business and household chores. Lily falls in love with Zack. She learns that her mother had been to the very same place. Zack tells her that he wants to be a lawyer. She meets the lawyer Mr. Clayton Forrest and makes a collect call to her father from his office. Zack is eventually arrested, May committs suicide when she discovers this. The sisters tell Lily about stories of bees coming back to life after death. June gets married to Neil.
Lily talks to August about her mother, even though she lied at the beginning of who she was, the Boatwrights knew. August told her about her being her mother's nanny and how she came to South Carolina from Virginia to be close. About how she married T. Ray because she was pregnant, even though she was not happy. About how she did run away from Sylvan and went to Tiburon and went back to get her daughter, the day she died. Lily flips out and smashes honey jars in her honey house room.
T. Ray comes to get her, the collect call from the law office told him where. He hits her again. After fighting back, she refuses to leave and he decides to let her stay there. August says that she is the heir to the honey business. T. Ray says that he would be lying if he didn't say that she killed her mother. Lily in her mind finally forgives, her father, her mother and most importantly herself. In the end she was looking for her mother who was gone, and finds a family.
Questions:
The $64,000.00 Question - who shot Deborah. Was it really Lily? Did she shoot herself? Did T. Ray shoot her? Was it an accident, or was it murder?
When T. Ray leaves Lily at the Boatwrights house, did he have a change of heart or was that he feeling all along that he wanted better for his daughter? Lily said that he never said I love you. Did he show it by his actions?
Lily shows the difference in thought between norhtern and southern states by saying going to a "foreign country like New York. Where the differences that glaring that people viewed other states as being foreign countries?
Did Lily have to come to terms with her mother's actions or did she just have to come to terms with herself?
Lily describes Zack as "one of those drum majors for freedom on page 231. It probably doesn't mean much, but I picked out this line since I was Drum Major of the University of Pittsburgh Varsity Marching Band.
Posted by ChristopherParfitt at May 4, 2005 01:10 PM | TrackBackYou didn't have to worry about being the only one that doesn't know much about literature. I am not a big reader of this type of stuff, so i don't understand it or like it much. I am more of a history person. I look forward to your presentation.
Posted by: scott clark at May 5, 2005 05:46 PMNo I think that you did great describing the plots and everything that happened throughout the story. In the book, it describes that Lily did shoot her mother by accident and T.Ray didn't lie to her about that. I thought at first that T.Ray did because he was harsh and mean and by the way he was fighting with Lily whom he thought was "Deborah" seemed like he was about to kill her, but it turned out to be Lily the one who actually killed her mother by accident. Once again, excellent description of the book.
Posted by: Irina at October 13, 2006 04:27 PM