The+Secret+Life+of+Bees

**The Secret Life of Bees** by Sue Monk Kidd

In the novel, Secret Lives of the Bees, Sue Monk Kidd, tells a powerful story about a fourteen year old girls' search for herself. The story takes place in 1964 in the southern state of South Carolina. The time period was at the end of segregation even though many people had not accepted it. Through a lot of trials and hurt, and what seemed to be hopeless experiences, Lily Owen finds answers and most of all love. Lily lived with her abusive and angry father in the beginning of the story. He blamed her for the death of her mother. When she decides to leave she takes her only friend, Rosaleen, who was their black maid. When Rosaleen stands up to three racists, she gets beaten and arrested. Lily breaks her out of jail and together they run. Along the way Lily searches for answers. She writes her thoughts in a notebook on a daily basis. She finds a small wooden plaque with the image of a black Virgin Mary pasted on it with the words "Tiburon, S.C." carved on the back. She decides to go there to uncover the truth about her mother. When she found a pepto-bismol pink house in Tiburon she knew it was a safe place. The Boatwright sisters take them in to stay at their farmhouse. The sisters' names were August, May, and June. They were patient with Lily and very kind. Before long Lily started opening up to them, especially at the bee farm. August used the bees to teach Lily. She compares the bees to the world in a number of ways." Most people don't have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about". She was letting Lily know she was aware there were secrets in her life but she know it would come out when she was ready for it to. Lily was a white girl living with black women. She was a runaway and her life must now remain a secret, like the bees inside the hive. She also told her about the importance of the female. She told her the queen bee is the mother of thousands, like Mother Mary. Lily also observed while those she loved were persecuted. She chooses to do something about it. When Rosaleen was beaten she helped her. When her first sweetheart, who was black, got arrested and May committed suicide, Lily starts realizing she needs to tell the truth about her past. This story was one I truely enjoyed. Lily was an innocent little girl who was very unhappy and had been constantly put down and belittled. Instead of being the victim she had the courage to stand up for what she believed and to move forward. On her journey to find answers she realized it was her parents who had made the bad choices and her life was her decision. Finding powerful black women to encourage her when times were hard made her even stronger. Their love helped Lily deal with the ugliness of the outside world. Lily was able to realize color did not matter, the white people in her life had been cruel, not the black ones. She found strength to even confront her father. I enjoyed the way she found out that at the beginning of the story the bees swarming in her room was a symbol of death, but at the end they were a symbol of her life. I would highly recommend this book because it supports the theme that we all need to be loved and in life we can find that love.