Bees+Group


 * = ..............................................................................Table of Contents........................................................................... ||
 * = Chapter 1 ||
 * = Chapter 2 ||
 * = ﻿Chapter 3﻿ ||
 * = Chapter 4 ||
 * = Chapter 5 ||
 * = Chapter 6 ||
 * = Chapter 7 ||
 * = Chapter 8 ||
 * = Chapter 9 ||
 * = Chapter 10 ||
 * Chapter 11 ||
 * Chapter 12 ||
 * Chapter 13 ||
 * Chapter 14 ||
 * Chapter 14 ||



__**Chapter 1**__

5. When Rosaleen stands up to T. Ray about the chick, Lily says, “his boots whispered uncle all the way down the hall.” (Pg. 12) I think means that he gave up trying to hurt the chick when Rosaleen stood up to him. Normally when people say “uncle” it means that they give in to you. The personification in this quote is when his boots talk. It helps convey the author’s message because not only is he walking away and giving up, but even his boots are saying uncle. Jane W

1. at the beginning of the chapter the epigraph describes how bees react to queenlessness and how they are lost. In that time period, a mother did almost everything for her daughter, especially her hair. Lily describes her hair as “not put together”(pg 8-9) and she is lost without her queenbee. In her desire to be like other girls her age, lily tries to apply for a charm school. Sadly because she has no mother she is denied. Frances B

2. From chapter one we can determine that the “rules” are very different for black people and white people. White people are treated very kindly by most everybody. Black people even thought they had “rights” we treated very badly. “You’re under arrest, he told Rosaleen. Assault, theft, and disturbing the peace” (kidd 33). She didn’t assault the men they assaulted her and she got blamed for it. She wasn’t disturbing the peace the men were. She was just walking with lily and they caused the disturbance by saying rude things about Rosaleen. Now I don’t think what Rosaleen did was right but she could have chosen to handle it another way or just ignore it. Brie W

Mike D 6) Identify a simily the chapter. What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor.  One simile that i found in this chapter would be "her floating down to me like a tiny parachute, collapsing without a trace among the piles of shoes. The difference between a simile and a metaphor is that a simile is a phrase that describes something in comparison to the characteristics of something else, using the words as or like and a metaphor directly compares two things, which may be quite different, because one has a characteristic that is similar to the other.

1 The quote in the beginning of chapter 1 relates to this chapter in a lot of ways. Lily lost her mom and in this, he mom is the queen bee. Lily feels lonely without her "queen bee" and T.Ray just makes her feel worse. issues like this happen throughout the world. huey



__**Chapter 2**__

2 The meaning of “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (kidd 41) is lily this is your chance. If you don’t take it now it wont be open to you later. It was Lily’s one chance to leave her abusive father. Like the bees in the jar she kept. Once the jar was open they stayed for a while, not sure if it was a trap. Eventually they left, and moved on with their lives. Lily realized that this was her chance to leave the jar she was trapped in and move on with her life. To escape that horrible place she knew as home and start a new, better life with Rosaleen as her mom, the one person who cared about her. Brie W

6. Lily’s interactions with Rosaleen are similar to a girl’s interaction with her mother’s in many ways. She listens to her, stands up for her, and she even bailed her out of jail. Rosaleen also cares for Lily a lot, even though she doesn’t always show it. When they got in a fight, they ended up forgiving each other in the end. They’re always there for each other. Jane W

1) T.ray isn't that racist.He can be racist at times, but inside hes not. He is very mean to lily though, not because shes black, but because T.Ray wants to be better than everyone else. "why its the funniest goddamn thing i ever heard: you thinking your mother is your guardian angel." he laughed again. "That woman could care less about you,"(kidd 39). T.Ray always changes the story of how lily's mom died and he just wants to feel better than her.  huey e.

5. Why is lily angry with Rosaleen? Do you think that she is justified in her feelings? Rosaleen is an independent woman who sticks up for herself but sometimes that can get her into trouble. In that time period African American woman had very little or no rights. When rosaleen defends herself and pours her jar of snuff on the white man’s shoe she is beaten up and arrested. Lily thinks of rosaleen as a mother figure and when she gets arrested and put in the hospital, lily “lost” her. Frances B

Mike D. Yes I think that T. Ray is a racist person because he is constantly going crazy on lily. For example, when Lily and T. Ray were in the car and he was going all out on Lily about how she is lucky that he got her out and how Rosaleen doesn’t deserve to get out because she poured snuff juice.



__**Chapter 3**__

5. I think when Lily found the jars of Black Madonna Honey as a sign because it helps her find a place to stay. If she hadn’t seen them, she wouldn’t have found August’s house. I think that staying there might help her figure out more about her mother. The picture on the honey was the same as her mothers, so there might be more mysteries about her mom. Jane W

Mike D 3) I think the significance of Rosaleen’s odd dream could be that Rosaleen feels that Martin Luther King would be proud that she stood up for herself and her rights. She stood up for herself when, “Rosaleen lifted her snuff jug, which was filled with black spit, and calmly poured it across the tops of the men’s shoes” after indirectly being called a very dark fat nigger.

4. I think Lily looking for a sign is a demonstration of faith. I think it is a demonstration of faith because she believes that god will give her a sign to show her if what she is doing and where she is going is right. She is a child on her own for the first time. She needs guidance and Rosaleen is merely following and asking what they are doing. So Lily is choosing faith to guide her on her way. Brie W

6) "lily child, there ain't gonna be any place that will take a colored woman. I don't care if she's the virgin Mary,nobodies letting her stay if she's colored." (Kidd 60) this quote that Rosaleen said implies that she lost faith in the civil rights act. It is so negative about getting a place to stay because of her past experiences. Huey e.



__**Chapter 4**__

2. Lying help Lily because it gets her and Rosaleen a place to stay with food and jobs. This is also good for Lily and Rosaleen because nobody can identify them. So if offices or T. Ray comes looking for them nobody will know who they are talking about. It is bad because if anybody finds out that they have been lying then they will be mad and Lily and Rosaleen might get kicked out or somebody will turn them into the cops. Brie W

4. Rosaleen doesn’t correct Lily’s lies because Lily is the one who came up with them, and if anyone is going to get in trouble, it’s going to be her. She doesn’t care how they get to live somewhere, she just cares that they actually get to live somewhere. She’s also probably aware of the fact that if Lily does tell the truth, they may not be able to stay there. August isn’t going to want to keep a random white girl who shot her mother and a fugitive. Jane W

4) On page 78 it says “ but I was brand new to it, and my skin had never felt so white to eating off their dishes, and lying in their bed, makes her feel like a white person because she was getting served instead of her serving someone else. It was different for her and she felt what it was like to be white in that time. Huey e



**__Chapter 5__**

3. June lets Lily know that she doesn’t want her to stay at the house by being very cold to her and hardly talking to her. When June and August have the conversation about Lily on the porch (Pages 86-87), she clearly states that she doesn’t want Lily there at all. I think she doesn’t want her there because she knows Lily is lying to them. She also probably thinks that keeping her there with them will get all the sisters in some sort of trouble. June thinks that someone has to be looking for Lily and they’ll do something bad to them when they find her. When June says “But she’s white, August” (page 87), I don’t think she’s being racist like Lily thinks. Maybe she thinks that her and her sisters will get in trouble for living with a white person because back then everyone was segregated. Jane W

Mike D 2) The significance of Lily’s wondering about May’s sensitivity and how she wondered “Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?” (95) Is that with most things the more you talk about it the more you seem to accept it. For example if somebody died, normally people would go and talk about it with other people instead of keeping it inside of them and have it tear them apart.

6. “Oh, Lily. Girl. You got to stop all this” (kidd 100).Rosaleen said this to Lily when she was talking about her mother possibly being alive still. This shows Rosaleen’s point of view or third person. Therefore the book isn’t only in first person (Lily’s point of view). Brie W

1) When June says “but she’s white August,” lily finally sees that black people don’t like white people. That they don’t really want to talk to white people, or even be near them. She thought that white people had it all and that everyone loved them. Right at this moment she found out that wasn’t true. Huey e




 * __Chapter 6__**

5. If I was Lily I would be very upset at June’s attitude. “I wanted to touch her vanishing red heart, too, as much as anything I’d ever wanted. As I rose from my chair, my head was still swimming some. I walked toward the black Mary with my hand lifted. But just as I was about to reach her, June stopped playing. She stopped right in the middle of the song, and I was left in the silence with my hand stretched out. Drawing it back, I looked around me, and it was like seeing everything through a train’s thick window. A blur passed before me. A moving wave of color. I am not one of you, I thought” (kidd 111) She felt so isolated being the only white person in that house. She just wanted to be part of the religion and June wouldn’t have it. Lily just wanted to fit in for once and she wasn’t “allowed” to according to June. June didn’t have any right to keep Lily from touching the black Mary’s heart. Lily needed strength and June kept it from her. Lily needed somebody to understand her and she thought that the black Mary would, but june wouldn’t let Lily have that. June wouldn’t let Lily have that strength, that one person who understands her. Brie W

Mike D. The most commonly asked question in South Carolina is “Where do you come from?” This is clearly stated after Neil asks Lily “Where do you come from?”(105). I think the number one question asked for students here at Hunterdon Central is probably “What’s up?” Everyone asked the same thing every time someone goes up to talk to someone else. This question is mainly asked because it is asking in general what is going on, how’s it going and other questions like those.

4. I think that the Daughters of Mary meet at August’s house instead of a church because their religion is different than the one they practice at their church. If they went to a church, they’d probably have a much different way of doing things than them. The church probably doesn’t have the wooden statue of Mary in it. I think that the Daughters of Mary’s religion is much more focused on African-American people than what the conventional church practices. Their religion is much more personal to them specifically. Jane W

__**Chapter 7**__

3. Zach gets upset when Lily suggests that he should be a professional player because he thinks that white people think that that’s the only way black people can be successful. Zach thinks that Lily is saying that he can’t be successful any other way than if he plays sports. She doesn’t think that though, she just thought that since he was good at it, he would want to do it professionally. Jane W

Mike D 5) The metaphor Lily uses at the end of page 133 is “the word is a great big log thrown on the fires of love.” (133) this metaphor means that impossibility is just another thing that keeps something like true love from happening. Realizes this after being in the car with Zack and licking the honey from his hand out in the field.

6. Lily’s attitude has changed since she came to live with August and her sisters because she is less racist. She now views them more of the same level and not them being lower then her. She also realizes her old views were really messed up. She realizes that she was more racist then she thought she was. She thought she was pretty fair but since moving it in with the sisters she sees her old ways weren’t the best, she was nicer then most people but still she was racist. Brie W

__**Chapter 8**__ Mike D 1) I think August told Lily about how Eskimos have 32 different ways of saying love and we only have to as a way of expressing how limited we are in this world sometimes. By this I think she means that different races have different amounts of freedom especially at this time since this book is taking place in South Carolina in 1964, were racism is the most common thing in the country.

5. When Lily notices the black Mary label she stuck on herself was becoming “unglued” (152), I think it symbolizes that she’s ready to touch the heart of Mary. She put the label on her heart, and when it starts to come off, it kind of symbolizes that she’s ready to let her heart out and tell August the truth about her mother. The label is also of black Mary, and when she touches black Mary’s heart, she said she would tell August. Her heart has been stuck inside of her for a while, and she’s finally going to get it “unglued” and come clean about everything. Jane W

__**Chapter 9**__

1. August is saying that even if you are bad at something as long as you love it you should still do it. If you love something and keep at it you will get better and then you will love it even more. Lily has fallen in love with bee keeping even when he gets stung it doesn’t really bother her “I managed to get stung on my wrist while replacing a lid onto a hive box”(Kidd 167). She didn’t really mind and right after August got the stinger out August told Lily that she was now a true bee keeper. Lily loved hearing that. She loved bee keeping and kept getting better at it. Brie W. __**Chapter 10**__

1. August knew something was wrong with May when she went out to the wall because of the way May reacted to the news of Zach going to jail “May’s head was angled to the side, and her eyes were fixed on a cross-stitched picture of a birdhouse that hung on the wall. It struck me all of a sudden that her eyes weren’t actually seeing the picture. They had glazed completely over… In the silence I heard May’s breathing grow louder and ragged. She took several steps backward, until she came to the wall. The she slid down onto the floor without making a sound”(Kidd 186). May wasn’t reacting the way she normally does by singing “Oh Suzanna!”. May had just totally shut down and wouldn’t respond to anybody. Then when she snapped out of it she went to her wall. August knew this was bad. Brie W.

. Mike D 5) One time when I wanted to have a little bit more personal space was when I just moved into my new house. I had to give my furniture to my brothers since I had a bunk bed. I had to sleep on the floor. Not fun. I had to stay with them for a month and it was just way too much because they are so annoying. They don’t understand personal space. I was so happy when I finally got my own furniture. It turned out a lot better once I had my own room because I had always had to share a room with them and it was a huge relief to get away from there.

4. When Lily says “it would be selfish to pour this into her cup” (201), she means that she doesn’t want to tell August about her problems when August is already sad about May. Lily wants to tell August about her mom really badly, but when May died, telling her would be way too much. Lily was being polite by not telling her then, because August needed her time to mourn and say goodbye. Things like that take a long time and Lily can’t just storm in and tell August her life story. Jane W

__**Chapter 11**__

2. “It takes honeybee workers ten million foraging trips to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey”(Kidd 214). This quote means that working hard pays off, but even if you work really hard you don’t always get everything you want. Lily used to work very hard for T.Ray but she didn’t get what she wanted. Now she works very hard for August and she gets what she want. Lily went on a foraging trip and found the bright pink house and found “nectar”. The nectar Lily wanted was a loving family. She finally found it. Brie W.

. Mike D  5) One time when I wanted to have a little bit more personal space was when I just moved into my new house. I had to give my furniture to my brothers since I had a bunk bed. I had to sleep on the floor. Not fun. I had to stay with them for a month and it was just way too much because they are so annoying. They don’t understand personal space. I was so happy when I finally got my own furniture. It turned out a lot better once I had my own room because I had always had to share a room with them and it was a huge relief to get away from there.

4. Routines affect our lives a lot without us even realizing. When our daily routines change, everything seems completely different. Every time someone dies, June plays the cello as a routine. So when may dies, she plays it a lot to cope with May’s death. After May’s death, everyone’s routines are going to be so different because they have to go through them without her. If the temperature went up to 100 degrees, I think that August would go tend to the bees. Part of getting over death is to continue with your routines to feel how it is without them. Even though she would be extremely sad, August has to say goodbye. Jane W




 * __Chapter 12__**

1. SIMILARITITES: They both ran away from home because of T Ray. When they ran away, they both went to the honey farm. They both stayed at the honey farm when they were little. They look alike too. They both love August and staying at her house. DIFFERENCES: Deborah gets really involved in her own problems and forgets about the people she loves. Lily is loyal to all the people she loves. Deborah actually used to be in love with T Ray, and Lily has always hated him. Deborah was kind of crazy as a child, and had an imaginary friend and played with dolls. Lily spent her childhood being sad about not having a mother. Lily learned that people are not perfect and they will always make mistakes no matter what from her mom’s choices. My mother makes good and bad decisions that I can learn from, too. The good ones, like not drinking or doing hardcore drugs, I can learn from. When she makes bad decisions I can learn from them too, by remembering not to do those things. Jane W

3. “If the queen were smarter, she would probably be hopelessly neurotic. As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in the darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor…. Her true role is less then that of a queen then a mother of the hive, a title often accorded to her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young”(Kidd 232). This quote relates to Lily’s anguish because it tells how her mom and her were trapped in T. Ray’s farm house. They weren’t allowed out, they could not “leave the hive”. Lily’s mom did not make the rules “her true role is less then that of a queen then a mother of the hive”, she was only the mother. Then when Lily’s mom left she didn’t take Lily with her “…her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young”, she couldn’t care for Lily because she left. Brie W.

4)Lily’s thoughts about her mom were nice and happy. Lily thought that Deborah, her mother, would always be there for her. When Lily is actually talking with August, things don’t turn out the way she wanted. She found out that Deborah left T.Ray and Lily to stay with august. August didn’t finish thought. she also said that Deborah came back for Lily, but T.Ray stopped her and Deborah from leaving. Lily I think now thinks that her mom is a little more bitter. In my opinion though, I think if she came back for me, than I would be fine. Huey E.

5) Because Lily is “a spitting image of her” (235) mom, Deborah, T.Ray is constantly reminded that she left him. He takes his anger out on Lily, “He yells all the time”(238). He tries to be a good father by being protective but is accidently over protective. Deborah was T.Ray’s opposite in the way she raised Lily, with love and compassion. Lily remembers, “I found myself in my mother’s arms, breathing in her smell. She smoothed my hair ‘don’t worry.’” For years Lily thought her mom loved her and cherished her; she put her mom on a pedestal, that is until Lily found out that her “mother left me”(251). When Lily finds this out she is very angry and keeps repeating “I hate her”(251). August tries to calm Lily by explaining that “she was depressed, but not crazy”(252) and explained how “she went back to Sylvan to get you”(254). Lily’s mom only went away so she would be able to raise Lily by herself in the future. She loved her very much. Frances B.

Mike D. 6) Yes, I definitely think that Lily has found the mother inside of herself because she has always been raising herself since T. Ray was never there for her and only beat her instead. She had to be the one that got Rosaline out of the jail and the hospital. She was also the one that got them to the bright pink house owned by the 3 sister, May, June, and August.




 * __Chapter 13__**

1. “A worker [bee] is just over a centimeter long and weights only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself”(Kidd 257). This applies to Lily because she is such a small child but she carries the burden of knowing that she killed her mother “It was my fault she died. I-I killed her”(Kidd 241). She carries the weight of not only her mother’s death but the weight of her killing her mother and then being stuck to live with her mean abusive father. “It was my fault she died. I-I killed her”(Kidd 241). “You are unlovable, Lily Owens. Unlovable. Who could love you? Who in this world could ever love you?” (Kidd 242). She felt unloved, like she couldn’t be loved because she carried the weight of the world on the shoulders. Brie W.

Mike D. An important thing that Lily realizes is that “No matter how hard you tried, no matter how many jars of honey you threw, no matter how much you thought you could leave your mother behind, she would never disappear from the tender places in you” (Kidd 273). This is completely true. You will never be able to completely eliminate your mom from your life. There will always be something inside of you telling you that you miss her or anything of that nature.

In chapter 13 lily says her “mother was William blake’s rose”(275) A rose is a symbol of beauty and her mom was very beautiful. The poem also states that the rose was sick and life destroyed the rose. Lily’s mom was very depressed when lily was little and in the end, life destroyed her. Frances B.

2)Lily said in chapter thirteen, “Either you are angry or you’re not”. I think that you can talk yourself out of your anger. It may be hard sometimes to stop your anger, but it can be done. Usually it helps if someone else talks you out of it especially a loved or close one. Huey e

3. In the beginning of chapter 13, Lily was still angry at her mother because she thought that her mom didn’t want her. Then, August brings her a box full of her mother’s things and Lily starts to move towards peace with her mom. Inside the box there are a lot of different things, but the one that stands out the most to Lily is a picture of her and her mother in a frame. Just the fact that her mother brought the picture with her shows that she did want Lily. This makes Lily start to feel lovable again, and she’s not as mad with her mother. Jane W



__**Chapter 14**__

7. Deborah didn’t leave because T. Ray was mean. T. Ray was mean because “he’d loved Deborah Fontanel, and when she’d left him, he’d sunk into bitterness” (293). When T. Ray starts to get mad at Lily in August’s house, it reads, “before coming here, my whole life had been nothing but a hole where my mother should have been, and this hole had made me different, left me always aching for something, but never once did I think what he’d lost or how it might’ve changed him” (293). If Deborah had never left him, T. Ray would be a completely different person. He loved her so much, and when she left, it tore him apart leaving only anger and bitterness. Jane W

**//__"They are the moons shining over me."__//** **//__Analysis's__//**

The science of bees and bee-keeping is present throughout the entire novel //__The Secret Life of Bees.__// August tells Lily the “bee yard etiquette” (92), which is “don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and long pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved” (92). August teaches Lily how to be a proper bee-keeper, which is going to be one of the most important things throughout the book. She also teaches Lily how to actually take care of the bees and harvest honey. In the novel, August tells Lily many specific things about bees that are very fascinating. For example when she says, “We have to make sure the queen has plenty of room to lay her eggs, or else we’ll get a swarm…if you have a queen and a group of independent-minded bees that split off from the rest of the hive and look for another place to live, then you’ve got a swarm. They usually cluster on a limb somewhere” (93). When August says this, you can tell she knows a lot about bees and their secret lives. It makes the book a lot more interesting because all of the facts she says about bees are true. Lily soon learns all the jobs of the different types of bees: “Field bees were the ones with good navigation skills and tireless hearts, going out to gather nectar and pollen. There was a group called mortician bees whose pitiful job it was to rake the dead bees out of the hive and keep everything on the clean side. Nurse bees, August said, had a gift for nurturing, and they fed all the baby bees. They were probably the self-sacrificing group, like the women at church socials who said, "No, you take the chicken breast. I'm just fine with the neck and gizzard, really” (148). This shows how the book really goes in depth about bees and bee-keeping. It teaches all the different kinds of bees, how they act, and how to take care of them. Jane Wadsworth

Characters Lily is the main character from the book. She is a teenager whos mother is dead and who has an abusive father T-Ray “My hair was black like my mothers but basically a nest of cowlicks and it worried me that I didn’t have much of a chin. I kept thinking I’d grow one the same time my breasts came in, but it didn’t work out that way.” (Kidd 9). T-Ray is Lilys abusive father who was left by Debora. He owns a peach farm and he is a very mean man “ I had asked God repeatedly to do something about T.Ray” (Kidd 3). Rosaleen is Lily’s stand in mother “Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy- who I call T.Ray because “Daddy” never fit him- hadpulled her out of the peach orchard, where she had worked as one of his pickers” (Kidd 2). She takes care of Lily and loves Lily like her own child. Lily views her as a mother. The boatwright sisters are April, May, June and August. April and May were twins. May always felt April’s pain. April was troubled and killed herself when she was young. May then started to feel the pain of the world. May always sang “Oh! Suzanna” when there was something sad. It was her happy song. May was tired of feeling the weight of the world and killed herself to. June resents Lily for a long time but softens up. She plays the cello. She is very proper. August is very kind. She is a bee keeper and teaches Lily how to be a bee keeper. August loves Lily like they are family. Zach and Lily like each other. He is also a bee keeper. He is August’s nephew. Brie W.