Katie B
#1. Lily shows signs of queenlessness because her mom died and she lives with only her dad and Rosaleen. She can’t tell anyone her problems, and she can’t spend quality time with her mom anymore. You can tell that she really misses her mom when she says, “But you know when I missed her the most? The day that I was twelve and I woke up with rose petal stains on my panties. The only one that I could tell was Rosaleen.”(Kidd, 13) Also, Lily’s friends all have pretty hair that their moms did, but Lily had messy knotty hair, and raggedy clothes. She’s a mess without her mom. Even though Lily has Rosaleen, it’s still not the same as having her mom, because Rosaleen loves her, and takes care of her, but she doesn’t have the same quality of love as a mother would have.
Nick C
#2. It is in 1964 and Blacks were just given their civil rights. They are still mistreated and hated. Lily and Rosaleen are on their way to Rosaleen’s church so she could get registered to vote. When they are on their way to town, they stop at Lily and T-Ray’s church. Then Brother Gerald walks out and is talking to Lily. He says they must leave because he does not want Rosaleen (who is black) in his church. So they leave the church and continue walking. When they are about to arrive at the church, they came on the wrong side of town. When they are walking along a gas station that is empty, the three employees are being very racist towards Rosaleen. One of the guys at the gas station looked up and said, “Where’re you going, nigger?”(Kidd 31). Rosaleen couldn’t help to answer. When she told them that she was going to register to vote, all three guys stood up and walked over to them. They started saying derogatory statements. Then Rosaleen took her snuff jug and poured it all over the three guys’ shoes. Then the guys came after her. When the cops came they arrested Rosaleen for theft, assault, and disturbing the peace. Since she is black, she was arrested even though she was the one who was beaten. In the 1960’s, this proves that blacks were treated differently then whites.
Shawna D
#4. Jim Crow laws separate blacks and whites. Back after the civil war down south segregation was occurring, also known as Jim Crow Laws. The laws separated blacks and white from going to the same school, drinking at the same water fountains, and even riding the same bus. Today it is still occurring in some places, “It’s funny how you forget the rules. She was not supposed to be inside here. Every time a rumor got going about a group of Negroes coming to worship with us on Sunday morning, the deacons stood locked-arms across the church steps to turn them away. We loved them in the Lord, Brother Gerald said, but they had their own places(Kidd 30).” This quote explains that blacks still aren’t totally accepted into the places whites are. Like Brother Gerald says, blacks had their own places. That says something about segregation. Now most people today just think of segregation like it’s something from back then. But still people see blacks and whites as different people. The United States is a big melting pot. A melting pot is a mix of all different cultures and races. Blacks are the same as whites, we all share the same equalities and I believe that blacks should have no less or more respect than whites.
Chris D #5
On page 12 in The Secret Life of Bees Rosaleen stands up to T. Ray. In the story T. Ray runs inside and wants to cook Lily’s chick that she cared for very much. Throughout the novel Lily has very little power over T. Ray so she had no choice but to hand over the chick. Fortunately, Rosaleen stands up for Lily and tells T. Ray, “You ain’t touching that chick” (Kidd 12). This meant a lot to Lily because it was the first time since her mom died that anyone backed her up. Right after this incident, T. Ray marched away and “His boots whispered uncle all the way down the hall.” This was an excellent way to state that T. Ray gave up. If person is in a fight and screams “uncle” they are basically saying that they give up. Likewise, in the novel T. Ray gave up on the argument with Rosaleen and realized he wasn’t getting the chick from Lily.
Kevin B
#6
“I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest.” This is a simile because it uses the word like and compares the shinning wings and bits chrome. The quote shows you that she is thinking of bees.
“Like me selling peaches.” This is a simile because she is explaining how her mom had woven sweet-grass baskets and sold them on the roadside. She then relates to her selling peaches.
Chapter 2: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B
#1. I think T-Ray is racist because he bailed Lily out of jail instead of Rosaleen, and how T-Ray says “He’s the meanest nigger-hater in Sylvan. I wouldn’t be surprised if he down right killed her. You’re lucky I got you out!”(Kidd, 37-38) it shows how T-Ray has no respect for Rosaleen and he is definitely racist. He called her a “nigger” and he doesn’t like her at all. I think there are degrees of racism because there are some racist people that will beat black people because they just hate the fact that they live on this earth, and there are some people that will make racist jokes. There are also types of people that just discriminate against them, but they don’t really do anything about it. I think T-Ray is a mix between the last type of racism and the first. I definitely don’t think any degree of racism is OK, because they are people, just like us, just a different color of skin.
Nick C
#2
The metaphor “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” means that it is time for her to go and get out of this house. It is saying that the house is the jar and she is the bees. It is saying that the jar is open meaning that it is safe to the house without T-ray stopping her. The light is green for her to leave and escape her life to start a new one.
Kevin B
#3
I do believe that lily is ready to hear the truth about leaving T-Ray and how she died. “The truth is, your mother ran off and left you.” This tells you that the mother left lily and didn’t decide to come back. Wishful thinking has helped lily go through life because if she didn’t believe that her mother died on accident then she would not like roasaleen as much as she does.
Chris D
#5
Throughout this chapter, tensions have been rising between Rosaleen and Lily. This started because she felt that Rosaleen acted stupid at the town. We know Lily feels this way because she “felt mad at Rosaleen too. Why couldn’t she just apologize?” (Kidd 46). Furthermore, when Lily runs away and takes Rosaleen with her, Rosaleen feels that Lily only broke her out of jail for her own personal benefit. Due to this Rosaleen starts criticizing Lily and starts insulting her. Lily eventually looses it and starts yelling, “You find your own way from now on” (Kidd 54) I feel that Lily is justified to act this way because Lily could have left without breaking Rosaleen out of jail but she did it anyway. I feel that Rosaleen should have been a little more appreciative of this instead of criticizing Lily.
Shawna D
#6. Interactions with a mother are always the same. The kid always thinks he/she is right and always has the opposite decision then the mother. The mom always responds with a “I’m the
mom so I’m right” or “You listen to me.” Let’s see how Rosaleen and Lily act together.
Lily thinks to herself, “I wanted those men to die in hell begging for ice water, but I felt mad at Rosaleen, too. Why couldn’t you just apologize? Then maybe Franklin Posey would let you off with just a beating. All she’d done was guarantee they’d come back(Kidd 46).” This quote describes how lily is actually mad at Rosaleen for putting up s fight with the policemen instead of just saying sorry and negotiating. Every child will think of something the mother did wrong.
“There’s nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you’ve hung it so careful. I laid my head against Rosaleen’s arm. I wanted her to pat life back into place, but her hands lay still on her lap(Kidd 50).” This shows how Lily has a emotion for Rosaleen that she loves Rosaleen like a mother. In the end children and mothers always make up and forgive each other. Rosaleen I guess is still kind of frustrated but lily love Rosaleen and thinks that Rosaleen can make everything better.
Chapter 3/4:The Secret Life of Bees.
Chris D
Ch 4 #2 On page 72 in The Secret Life of Bees Lily has a decision to make. Lily and Rosaleen arrive the house of August Boatwright and make up a lie to convince August and her sisters to let her and Rosaleen stay with them. Lily tells August, “We ran away from home and don’t have any place to go” (Kidd 72). Lily decided that it would be better to lie than straight up tell August that she is only there to find out about her mother because she knew that August would just tell her to leave. By lying and telling August she has no place to go, August begins to feel sympathy towards Lily and Rosaleen and lets them stay. This is what Lily was hoping for because now she can look around and find the connection between August and her mother without flat out telling August. Furthermore, she hopes that in the future she can gain August’s trust and she will tell her about her mom. However there is a negative impact from this lie. This cost is nothing that can be paid off or fixed. This cost is the pain of guilt. Lily feels extremely bad about lying to August. Guilt bothers Lily and she tries to avoid it but she had no choice in this given situation.
Shawna D
#5- Chapter 4 Back then in the South many whites were controlling and blacks were counted as nothing. There were basically whites overpowering and surrounding blacks. This was happening to Lily but in the opposite way, “Staying in a colored house with colored women, eating off of their dishes, lying on their sheets-it was not something I was against, but I was brand-new to it, and my skin had never felt so white to me(Kidd 78).” This quote explains a big part of Lily’s life. She is finally realizing that she is not different from any colored person. This is so unreal to Lily because usually there’s a black mixed in a bunch of whites but her it is the opposite. Lily’s thoughts are roaming, “I though they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think of was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this. That’s what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me(Kidd 78).” Lily does think that she has more qualities then blacks. She realizes that she is a little racist and a little judgmental. But she also thinks about how August is so talented and smart, unlike anything she had seen before. This shows how everyone can be equal and everyone should have the same rights.
Nick C
#6- Chapter 3
Rosaleen has not lost faith in the Civil Rights Act. Rosaleen asks lily where they are going to stay and get food. Lily replies saying that they will find a motel or rent a room for a night. Then Rosaleen says to Lily, “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, nobody’s letting her stay if she’s colored” (Kidd 60). Rosaleen is saying that even if the person has a high ranking, they will still not be allowed in if he/she is colored. That’s when Lily asks, “Well, what was the point of the Civil Rights Act?” (Kidd 60). Lily is confused as to why the President passed the act if no one in the country is going to abide by it. “Doesn’t that mean people have to let you stay in their motels and eat in their restaurants if you want to?” (Kidd 60). Then Rosaleen says “That’s what it means, but you gonna have to drag people kicking and screaming to do it” (Kidd 60). What Rosaleen means is that you have to bust people and annoy them to do what you want and to help a colored person. Rosaleen has not lost faith in the Civil Rights Act because she is saying that you will have to drag people and convince them to do something for a black person.
Katie B
#1-Chapter 4
Some differences and similarities between Rosaleen and August are: Differences:Rosaleen 1.Rosaleen has no manners. 2. Rosaleen is a big fat woman 3.Rosaleen doesn’t care what happens. 4.Rosaleen thinks she’s the boss of everyone 5.Rosaleen is really tough 6. Rosaleen chews snuff Differences:August 1. August has manners 2.August is a sweet,pleasant lady
3.August is skinnier than Rosaleen
4.August cooperates well with her sisters, May and June, and her helper, Zack
5.August is very cultured 6. August does not chew snuff like Rosaleen Similarities:Rosaleen and August 1.Both are very caring 2.Both are very hard-working 3.Both are African American women 4.They both are a "mother figure". Rosaleen to Lily, and August to her two younger sisters.
Kevin B
Chapter 4 #4
Roasaleen does not correct Lily’s lies because Roasaleen doesn’t want to embarrass her in front of her friends. “August shook her head. Roasaleen shook hers, too, but for a different reason (Kidd 73).” This quote shows that Roasaleen was not going to correct her lies, but instead shook her head.
Chapter 5:The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B
#4: In the quote at the beginning of the chapter, it points out that bees live in the darkness. This is true for Lily because she is the only white girl living in a house with a bunch of black women, so she is feeling discriminated against especially by June, and she can feel what the blacks normally feel. You can tell that Lily feels discriminated against when June says “But she’s white, August.”(Kidd, 87). Also, when Lily describes her anger by saying “I wanted to march up there, flip a couple tables over, and say, Excuse me, June Boatwrite, but you don’t even know me!”(Kidd, 87)
Chris D
#2
On page 95 Lily is told that May feels other people’s pain and this made her wonder “would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?” (Kidd 95). Lily thought about telling her about T. Ray’s mound of grits, the death of her mother, and all the other things that bothered her to share the pain with May. Ever since April died, May feels the pain of the rest of the world. Now that Lily knows this she is considering taking advantage of May just to relieve some of her own pain and problems. Lily “wanted to know to know what happened when two people felt it” (Kidd 95). I feel that this is an extremely selfish thing to do because May has enough problems that upset her and she doesn’t need to deal with Lily’s as well.
Shawna D
#3
Ever since Lily and Rosaleen got to the house, June has always had this feeling that Lily shouldn’t be there and she was bad news. June is catching onto Lily’s lies. June get suspicious, “You know she’s lying, said June. I know, August told her. But they’re in some kind of trouble and need a place to stay. Who’s gonna take them in if we don’t- a white girl and a Negro women? Nobody around here (Kidd 86).” June knows Lily is lying. August is kid of catching on also but August has a feeling that Lily is supposed to be here, like it was destined to happen. August knows that if Lily and Rosaleen don’t stay, they will be caught by the cops, beaten again, or even killed. No one will take them in. June is questioning, “What if her father really didn’t die in the so-called tractor accident (Kidd 87)?” This explains the suspiciousness of June and how she doesn’t in fact believe Lily. June wants lily out but August won’t let her.
June has negative thoughts about Lily, “But she’s white, August (Kidd 87).” June thinks that just because lily is white she shouldn’t be in the house. August, May, June, and Rosaleen are all black. I think June feels that whites are evil and mean but Lily is sweet she isn’t like some other whites. Lily doesn’t beat up blacks or call them names but June thinks lily is like that.
Nick C
#5-When Lily says, “Since Mr. Johnson signed that law, it was like somebody had ripped the seams right out of American Life” (Kidd 88), she means that everyone is acting different since the President passed the Civil Rights Act. When the President passed the Act, all of the colored people start acting like they are the best. It is like the whites and black traded places. In the house, the whites are being mistreated and the blacks are acting like they have all the power. Now Lily is feeling what Blacks felt before the act was passed. Lily is debating whether to stay in the house now.
Kevin B
#1
Lily realizes, after she over hears the conversation between June and August, that she is the odd ball. She is the odd ball because she is white and all of them are black. “Not that I was white but that it seemed like June might not want me here because of my skin color (87).” This tells you that she does not want some one of the other race with her. Lily does not have the right to be offended because of all the stuff that the white race put the black race through. If she does feel offended then she should leave the group.
Chapter 6:The Secret Life of Bees:
Nick C
#1: The number one question asked in South Carolina is, “Where you from?” That is the most common question in South Carolina because people want to know if they have some kind of connection. When he asked, Lily was thinking, “IT was rare, though, for Negroes to ask white people where they’re from, because there was nothing much to be gained from it, as their stories weren’t that likely to link up” (Kidd 105). The most common question in our school would probably be “What’s up?” It is “What’s up?” because it is the most common term when two people pass each other in the hall way. It is also always in a conversation and is being asked 24/7.
Katie B
#4: Some reasons why the Daughters of Mary are meeting instead of attending the conventional church are because they wanted everyone to come to them. Also, they might have wanted more privacy, and they didn’t want to go into the church because they are holding a voting session. Lily thought it was very strange that they weren’t going to a church because she said “On Sunday, I thought they would go to church, but no, they held a special service in the pink house, and people came to them.”(Kidd, 106)
Shawna DeGrange
#2. The verses august reads in the bible attribute to African American people because they relate to blacks versus white. Lets see what this verse consists of.
One of the verses in the bible was, “And Mary said… Behold, from the henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things….He hath scattered the proud….He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exhaled them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away (Kidd 107).” This is very detailed and very important. This verse is saying how all generations shall worship Mary and great things will happen. Its also saying how the mighty or whites will be taken down to a low degree. He filled the hungry or blacks with good food and he emptied the rich or whites of all the money. This shows how whites are so much higher ranking then blacks and how all things will be taken away from whites and given to blacks. Blacks are treated so disrespectfully and deserve to be given back what was taken away from them.
Chris Dolan
#5
When Lily is walking up to touch Mary’s vanishing heart, June stops the music disallowing her to touch the heart. Lily felt like an outcast and thought, “I am not one of you” (Kidd 111). This greatly upsets Lily and now she understands what it feels like to be an outsider. All her life she has seen blacks be a minority and now the tables have turned. However, June is obviously doing this on purpose and it is wrong of her to do that. If I were Lily I would have lost control and went outside to have some time for myself. When I cooled down, I would also straight up ask her what I did wrong and why she was holding a grudge on me. Hopefully by doing this peace would not be completely destroyed and June will finally tell me what the problem was causing her to eventually accept me. At the end of the day, Lily and June don’t need to be close friends but June’s attitude toward Lily needs to change.
Kevin B
#3
The Queen in this chapter is most likely to be August because she holds a group called the Daughters of Mary. This is a group of all blacks and instead of going to church they would go to this. Lily was telling us that “on Sunday I thought they would go to church, but no, they held a special service in the pink house, and people came to them. It was called the Daughters of Mary, which August had organized (Kidd 106).” This shows that August has organized this group for all of them, Queenie, Violet, Lunelle, Mabelee, and Cressie. These members show up to her house every Sunday at the same time 10:00.
Chapter 7:The Secret Life of Bees: Nick C
#4- Lily cries because she is falling for Zach. Lily said, “I’d thought the whole thing was about my lost future, the one Mrs. Henry encouraged me to believe in by plying me with books and summer reading lists and big talk about scholarships to Columbia college, but sitting there close to Zach, I knew I was crying because he had that one-side dimple I loved, because every time I looked at him I got a hot, funny feeling that circulated from my waist to my kneecaps, because I’d been going along being my normal girl self and the next thing I knew I’d passed through a membrane into a place of desperation. I was crying, I realized, for Zach” (Kidd 128). What Lily is trying to say is that she was crying over her lost future and over Zach. She had lost her future because she left home and broke Rosaleen out of jail. She was crying over Zach because she liked him, but knew they could not be together because he is black and she is white and it would just be bad if they were. When a black and a white are together in this time period there are racial comments being said about both people in the relationship. They will be hated and torn apart eventually. So they cannot be together.
Katie B
#5: When Lily says “I can tell you this much: the world is a great big log thrown on the fires of love.” (Kidd, 133) she means that Lily and Zack can’t be together so the flame burning is their love that can’t be together. You can tell that they like each other because Lily always thinks about him, and Zack said “My boys beat me up for looking at white girls like you.”(Kidd,126)
Shawna D
#2. Lily, now that she has ran away, does not have much of a future because she has no where to go, “I don’t think I have much of a future now, being and orphan (Kidd 120).” This quote explains how now that lily has run away she has no future because right now she has so education, no family, and no home. Lily was planning on being a writer and a teacher but now she can’t do that because she left her home her dad can not give her an education and she can’t give herself an education.
Chris D
#3
Zack gets upset when Lily suggests he could be a professional player because Zack he is tired of the stereotypes against blacks. Zach gets annoyed be Lily suggesting this and angrily shouts, “Why is it sports is the only thing white people see us being successful at?” (Kidd 120). Zach has a passion for being a lawyer but he is tired of everybody telling him that the only thing he would be good at is professional ball just because he’s black. He wants to be looked at as a person, just like everyone else, instead of a black. Furthermore, as soon as people see him, he doesn’t want to be instantly associated with sports without people even getting to know him. In addition, he encourages Lily to “Imagine what’s never been” (Kidd 121). This is said while Lily is trying to tell Zack that it would difficult for him to be a lawyer because there has never been a black lawyer before. In conclusion, Zack wants Lily to judge people on who they are, opposed to what they are.
Kevin B
#6
Lily’s attitude has changed towards black people because she says that people “at [her] school made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself had laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in. Now I wished that I could pen a letter to my school to be read at opening assembly that would tell them how wrong we had all been. You should see Zachary Taylor, I’d say (Kidd 116).” This quote tells you that lily has gathered more feelings for black people, and can now see that blacks are just as normal as whites.
Chapter 8-9:The Secret Life of Bees
Katie B:
#7-Chapter 8
The Beehive and the Pink house have their similarities and differences. They are similar because the beehive and the pink house are both very busy. Also, they both house the leader of the “clan” of people, or bees. They are different because in a beehive, all of the bees are the same. They all have similar jobs, and they all look alike. However, in the pink house, they don’t all look alike, they have different personalities, and they all do different things.
Shawna D
#1-Chapter 9
August and Lily are tending the bees when Lily asks if she could be a beekeeper one day and August responds, “Actually, you can be bad at something, Lily, but if you love doing it, that will be enough (Kidd 167).” This quote explains how if you have enough passion for something then you can do it. Even if your horrible at a sport and you love it you can still play. It doesn’t matter about how good you are in something, all that counts is that you have compassion and love for the thing. Say you were bad at doing nails, if you l9ove it enough then you can do it, you can work hard towards the thing.
Chris D
#1 - Chapter 8
In this world there are many different types of love, yet in the English language there is only one word for love. Meanwhile, “there are thirty- two names for love in one of the Eskimo languages” to express the different kids of love (Kidd 140). For example, there is a difference between loving a chip and loving a person. Emotional there is a huge difference between the two types of love yet we use the same word. In addition, August says, “I love May, but it was still hard to choose Caribbean Pink” (Kidd 147). This illustrates the type of love that August has towards her sisters. It is extremely difference than her love towards something like a coke.
Kevin B
Ch 8 #5
This quote is a metaphor to her life because as the sticker is becoming unglued it relates to her life because she is becoming more and more unstuck to her farther T-Ray. Even though she is becoming farther away from her farther she is also getting to the point where she realizes that her lies are getting to be noticeable. She finds out that she has to start to tell the truth instead of telling lies. August tells Lily that she “can talk to [her]. You know that, don’t you? (Kidd 122).” This quote says that August knows that she is lying to her but want to make feel at home and that she talk to August when ever she feels.
Nick C
Chapter 9 #5
The meaning of Lily’s dream is pretty much saying that she misses her mom and wants her back in her life. Since she is imagining her mom being around, she is always in deep thought thinking about what her mom would be doing now and how she would be caring for her. She is constantly thinking what life would be about today if her mom was still here. She is sad at what she has done and wishes her mom was still with her everyday at that very moment.
Chapter 10:The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#3: When Lily says that it “would be selfish to pour this into her cup.” (p 201) It means that she didn’t want to tell August about the truth with her name and her mother, because August was already grieving Mays death, and Lily knew that August would be much more upset and mad if she knew the truth. Also, Lily didn’t want august to be overwhelmed with emotions, over the truth, and May’s death, so she just decided it would be a better idea not to tell her just yet, but I think she definitely will tell August when she accepts May’s death and moves on. You can also tell that Lily feels bad for August when she says, “When I peered up at her, though, she was brushing tears off her face, looking for a handkerchief in her pocket, I knew it would be selfish…” (Kidd 201) because she feels really bad for August because of the loss of her sister and she was really upset, so it definitely wouldn’t have been a good time to tell August the truth.
Chris D
#4
After May commits suicide Lily feels the urge to just come out and tell August the truth about whom she is and why she is there. She considers telling August, “I’m not Lily Williams, I’m Lily Owens, and it was my mother who stayed here” (Kidd 201). Although this may clear up all the lies Lily had been telling, now was not the time to alert August of this because August is going through a hard enough time with her sister gone. When Lily realizes this, she decides to not tell August because it “would be selfish to pour this into her cup” (Kidd 201). In other words, August has enough problems to deal with and she doesn’t need one more just to make Lily feel better. Due to this, Lily decides to keep the truth about her and her mother to her self, at least for now.
Shawna D
#1
August knew something was up with May. She knew this time May was worse than the other times. “Ill go with you, said August. May spoke over her shoulder. No, please, August, just me. Just me, said may, turning to face us. Just me (Kidd 188).” This quote is showing how May really just wants to be alone. She needs time to think and usually May would let August help her but this time, no. August starts to think something’s up. She tries to take her mind off of it but, “May had been gone for a whole five minutes when August got up and began to pace. She walked out to the porch and back and then started out toward the wall. After twenty minutes she said, that’s it. Let’s go get her (Kidd 189).” This shows the feeling in August how she is worried even after so little time. August has an eerie feeling about May and May’s feelings about Zach’s encounter. Earlier in the book August mentions to not tell May about Zach’s encounter because May loves Zach and she cares about him and would be devastated if she found out. August knew something was wrong because May was out there longer then usually and August was suspicious when May had to go out to the wall by herself, at night, and in the dark.
Nick C
Ch 10 #2
The Wailing Wall did not sustain May through Zach’s incarceration because she was really close with Zach. She also could not handle everything that was happening between the sad story of Lily’s mother and all the bad news in the world. Since May had an illness and got really upset every time something bad happened. She could not handle it. May had a twin sister named April. April had killed herself and ever since May had a problem dealing with other peoples’ problems. When Lily was talking about her mom, May could not handle it anymore and decided she needed to end her life like April did. If May lived today, she probably would have been put in a mental institution to get help and cope with all the sadness in the world. She would also have been given some kind of anti-depressant to deal with her illness and to help her survive everyday life with out a huge mental breakdown.
Kevin B
Ch 10 #5
The rituals in this chapter are about how when someone dies they then cover the bee hives with black cloth. The rituals help people cope because they realize that death is the new begging of life and not the end, new life will be made and it will be one huge cycle. As Lily asked August if “putting black cloths over the hives will help May get to heaven (Kidd 206).” August then replies with, “goodness no (Kidd 206).” She said that it does no good for May but for the people still living on earth. It reminds them that “life gives way to death, and then death turns around and gives way into life (Kidd 206).”
Chapter 11:The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#2: The quote at the beginning of the chapter relates to the chapter because all of the women and bees are working so hard just to produce one thing, and have only one result. The women’s purpose is to celebrate Mary’s day, and they worked so hard to make it a good day, and they even stopped making honey, and just made cakes. Also, the bees and the women are working really hard just to make honey, and there is only one final result, which is honey. They work so hard just to get one thing out of it.
Kevin B
Ch. 11 #5
When Lily wants to go back into the honey house Rosaleen said that she was frustrated that Lily wanted to move back. “Rosaleen put her hands on her waist. Good lord, all that fuss you made about me moving out and leaving you, now here you are wanting to leave me" (Kidd 218). Rosaleen didn’t really care that she wanted to move out but was just annoyed about the fact that she just moved into the pink house. When I was younger I would always want to be with my mom and at about 13 I wanted to just be away and thought she was so lame. I now see that my mom is still a huge part in my life even though I think I am old enough. "Actually, she didn't care one bit that I wanted to move out" (Kidd 218).
Shawnaa D
#1 After Zach was put into jail his emotions stirred up and changed his ways. His feelings had changed to anger. Lilly does not like this and explains, “There was a place inside him now that hadn’t been there before. Heated, charged, angry. Coming into his presence was like stepping up to a gas heater, to a row of blue fire burning in the dark, wet curve of his eyes (Kidd 216).” This quote shows the change of emotions inside of Zach. He is still the same on the outside but deep inside he has a buildup of anger that he can’t cool down. Ever since those rude whites put him in jail for no reason he was angry at the world and what is has become. The world is unfair and especially a disgrace towards blacks.
Lily talks to Zach about his anger, “Sometime. Lily, I’m so angry I wanna kill something (Kidd 230).” Zach says this to Lily in his own words. Lily says how she doesn’t want Zach to turn in to those mean kids that go around fooling around because they have nothing better to do. Zach has changed is anger and it increased greatly.
Chris D
#3 When Lily talks to Zack for the first time since he got out of a jail, she starts to say “If I were a negro girl” but immediately gets cut off by Zack (Kidd 216). Zack responds with “We can’t think of changing our skin, change the world – that’s how we gotta think” (Kidd 216). He tells her this to let her know that it’s not about the color of the skin; it’s about the other people’s opinion on the color of their skin. Lily was unaware of this up until now because she always felt that she and Zack couldn’t be together because he was black and she was white. Likewise, a few years ago Barack Obama ran for president of the United States. However, there was no other black president before him. Instead of just giving up and wishing he could change his skin, he decides to pursue his dream of becoming president. This is a good example of a real person that decided to change the world opposed to changing his skin.
Nick C
#6
Zach’s goals for his future connect to Lily’s saying, “Sometimes I would be hooked on that chain along with them.” Because he feels that he should go and play pro ball instead of a lawyer because all of his friends and coaches and family want him to. He wants to go to school to be a lawyer because he wants to make a difference in the world and be very successful. He feels that he should listen to the chain of people telling him to go pro instead of following his life long dream to become a lawyer.
Chapter 12:The Secret Life of Bees
Shawna D
#4 All of Lily’s life she had this image of her mom, Deborah that she couldn’t get out of her head. Lily thought her mom abandoned her she thought Deborah was a bad mother but yet loved Lily. Lily wanted forgiveness from her mother.
“After she’d been here three months and was feeling a little better, she started talking about how much she missed you. Finally she went back to Sylvan to get you (Kidd 253-254).” This shows how when lily said “I’d wish she’d rot” she was wrong and I think Lily felt bad after finding out her mother came back to get her. Lily realized that her image of her mom was wrong. Her mom did not abandon her, she just had to leave for a little to get better. Lily now finds out her mother did in fact love her and care for her and Lily loved her mother too.
Katie B:
#3: The quote, “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 she spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor…. Her true role is less than of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often according 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) can relate to Lily’s anguish because when lily’s mom was pregnant with lily, she was unhappy and she wasn’t doing much and she didn’t really have the ability to care for her young by herself, and that’s the only reason why Deborah stayed with T-Ray. Then she realized that she couldn’t be with T-Ray any longer because she just didn’t love him, so she left Lily with T-Ray. When Lily found that out, she felt really angry and betrayed by her mom, and she felt like she was lied to and she didn’t love her. Lily thought that her moms love was just all a lie. That’s how the quote can relate to Lily’s anguish in this chapter. You can tell Lily was really angry at her mom because she said, “Unwanted. I was an unwanted baby” (Kidd 249).
Nick C
#5
Deborah and T.Ray were bad parents and good parents. T.Ray was the bad parent because he had no respect for Lily and treated her like crap. Lily lived 14 years of life miserable and not able to do anything that she really wanted to do. She also had to live her life knowing that she shot and killed her mother. T.Ray was deeply in love with Deborah, but Deborah did not love T.Ray. Deborah only married T.Ray because she was pregnant with Lily. Deborah’s love for Lily was not affected by her personal issues. Deborah loved Lily very much and took great care of her. T.Ray has a bad temper and let his personal issues interfere with his treatment towards Lily. He physically abuses Lily and has short temper when it comes to caring for her. Lily is always second in his life behind the peach farm. T.Ray is always grumpy and is not a very good parent.
Chris D
#6
A common mother-like characteristic is being able to show compassion by giving love. Up until this chapter Lily is unable to show that trait and love herself. Lily blames herself for the death of both her mom and May. Due to this Lily is unable to find the mother within herself and keeps thinking “You are unlovable, Lily Owens. Who could love you” (Kidd 242). As this chapter progresses August convinces Lily that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and that she really is lovable. She does this by listing all the people that love her; such as Rosaleen, May, Zack, the daughters of Mary, and most importantly she, August Boatright, loves her. After hearing this Lily is finally able to find the mother within her and show the mother- like love towards herself. This is an important step for Lily in growing up and becoming the mother she dreamed her mother was.
Chapter 13:The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#2: In this chapter, I think Lily is wrong for thinking that you can’t talk yourself out of anger. I have done it many times, and all you have to do is think of the positive things in the situation, and just calm yourself down. When Lily says, “Either you are angry or you’re not.” I think that she was just so caught up in the moment and she was having a tantrum. She was just thinking of all of the negative things with her mom and she was so convinced that her mom just left her because she didn’t want to take care of her. She also means that you can only be really angry or not mad at all. You can’t just be a little bit mad. Again, I just think lily was having a temper tantrum and over reacting and not being reasonable at all. I think Lily’s anger does justify why she was smashing August’s honey jars because she just needed something to let out all of her anger and she thought that throwing the honey jars against the wall would relieve the anger deep inside her. You can tell that Lily just wanted to do it to relieve anger because she said, “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child. I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it. I wanted to throw something all the way to heaven and knock God clean off his throne.”(Kidd 259)
Nick C
#3
The events in the chapter move Lily toward peace with her mother because when she reveals her anger and that she is so mad she feels relieved that she got it all out. Lily was angry and threw honey jars and a bucket at the wall because she was mad about her mother leaving her. She kind of feels more relaxed and better about herself. Her tantrums tell a story of how she feels about her mother and what her mother has done to her. Her revealing this information lifts a huge weight off of her shoulders and lowers the anger towards Deborah. She feels better because she let it all out and let her mom know how she feels.
Chris D
When Lily finds out that her mother left she becomes extremely angry and depressed because all her hope for having the mother she dreamed of was gone. All this time Lily thought her mother was going to bring her with her when she was a child and she now finds out that her mother came to the Boatwrights’ house without her. This is too much information for Lily to take causing her to violently throw jars of honey against the walls of the honey house. The only thought that is going through her head is “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child” (Kidd 259). Lily is in shock that this is true all her life she never imaged that possible. Furthermore, when T. Ray told her that her mother left her she refused to believe that because she was positive that he was lying. This is the main reason why everything was so hard on her.
Shawna D
#1 The quote at the beginning of the chapter explains lily’s suffering how, “A worker bee is just over a centimeter long and weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself (Kidd 257).” The quote applies to Lily because Lily is just a kid she’s not a responsible adult that has fully matured. She can’t take on things that an adult normally does. She’s small but very mighty. She carries the weight of her life on her back which is heavier then her. Lily’s life is full of anger, hate, love, joy, and many other emotions. She has to deal with her mother’s life and what her mothers story is, she has to deal with Rosaleen and how they might get caught for running away, and she has to deal with T-Ray basically wanting to kill her because of how angry she is. Now remember lily is only a teen and she has all these problems. How hard do you think it would be if you had these problems? So lily is carrying all this weight on her shoulders and still pushing through.
This shows how angry lily exactly is, “I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it. I wanted to throw something all the way up to heaven and knock God clean off his throne (Kidd 259)” Lily is upset about her mom and her whole story about leaving Lily and all that. She was so angry she just wanted to let it all out. Since lily is religious you can tell how angry she is because saying she wanted to knock God off her throne is big. God is the Father of all and Lily wanted to take him out. Kevin B
Ch. 13 Quote
In this chapter Lily had a temper tantrum and was throwing honey around and breaking jars left and right. After she threw all the honey around she the realized that she had to face reality and clean all of it up. As she said here that she “worked with heaviness inside, with my spirit emptied out” (Kidd 265). This quote tells you that Lily knew she had to face the music and start to clean up the honey house. Lily then worked very diligently to clean the house up and got it all done.
Chapter 14:The Secret Life of Bee's
Shawna D
#1 Lily is starting to get her mother inside of her and, “Next I gathered up the mouse bones that I’d kept in my back pockets, realizing I didn’t need to carry them around anymore. But I knew I couldn’t throw them away either, so I tied them together with a red hair ribbon and set them on the shelf by the fan. I stared at them a minute, wondering how a person got attached to mouse bones. I decided sometimes you just need to nurse something, that’s all (Kidd 284-285).” Lily is finally finding the mother inside of her. She is feeling better by nurturing something and taking care of something like a mother would do. Lily is carrying around the mouse bones to make her feel better and feel content, relaxed. This does make sense to me because sometimes you just need something to love and care for. You need something to make you feel happy.
Nick C
Chapter 14 #4
The quote at the beginning of the chapter is explaining how a bee hive cannot live without a queen bee. Once the Queen bee dies the hive mourns and has no idea what to do and cannot survive without it. It kind of relates to Lily because she found out that Deborah was going to leave her. In Lily’s case, Deborah is the Queen bee and Lily is her worker bee. When Lily finds out that Deborah was going to leave her, she broke down and was so sad for so long. She was coping with her problem by just sitting around and doing nothing all day.
Chris D
#11 At the end of the novel when T. Ray arrives at August’s pink house a lot of drama takes place. For example, T. Ray sees Lily as Deborah as refuses to let her leave again. By trying to prove his point he slaps Lily in the face and aggressively yells at her. Once all that is settled and T. Ray realizes that he is talking Lily, he calms down. When Lily and her father finally have a normal conversation, Lily builds up the confidence to ask “The day my mother died.” “Did I do it?” (Kidd 299). For the first time in the novel a sensitive side of T. Ray comes out when he says “I could tell you I did it. That’s what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it to herself, but both ways I’d be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you” (Kidd 299). When reading this I was shocked to hear the compassionate way T. Ray said it. I expected him to straight up say “yes you killed your mother.” However, that wasn’t the case. T. Ray tried to make it easy on Lily telling that he would rather just have her believe that she was innocent, but he also wouldn’t want to lie. I feel that this was the most father-like action that T. Ray did throughout the story.
Kevin B
Ch. 14 #7
T Ray became mean because Deborah left him. As it says here T Ray yells, “You never should have left me” (Kidd 295). T Ray really got taken back by the whole situation because if Deborah didn’t leave T Ray, he would have had a better relationship with Lily. Lily was saying that T Ray really showed his emotions for the first time. If T Ray didn’t become so dirty and gross Deborah would not have left him.
Shawna D Relationship- Lily and Zach In the book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, there are many heated, emotional relationships between many characters. Some of the relationships are Lily and Zack, Lily and Rosaleen, Lily and August, Lily and June, Lily and T-Ray, Lily and Deborah. These relationships are very connected. There are various ways these characters are connected. I am going to explain to you about Lily and Zach’s relationship.
Lily is the main character of the book. Her mom is Deborah who dies supposedly from Lily accidentally shooting her. Zach is a colored boy who Lily meets in Tiburon, South Carolina, the place she ran away to. Zach attends school in Tiburon and Lily is being housed by August and her sisters who own a honey business. Zach works on the bee farm. This is how Lily and Zach meet.
Lily starts to observe Zach and realizes he’s different than any other colored boy, “There was nothing white about Zachary Lincoln Taylor. Even the whites of his eyes weren’t exactly white. He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hair like most of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn’t help starring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome (Kidd 116).” This is when Lily first meets Zach and she is observing him. She see’s him and is already characterizing him. She thinks is a very good looking colored guy. She was surprised about him being so handsome.
Lily couldn’t take that, “He wrapped one arm around me and pulled me across the seat to him. I’d thought the whole thing was about my lost future, the one Mrs. Henry encouraged me to believe in by plying me with books and summer reading lists and big talk about scholarships to Columbia College, but sitting there close to Zach, I knew I was crying because he had that one-sided dimple I loved, because every time I looked at him I got a hot, funny feeling that circulated from my waist to my kneecaps, because I’d been going along being my normal girl self and the next thing I knew I’d passed through a membrane into a place of desperation. I was crying I realized, for Zach (Kidd 128).” This quote is showing Lily’s growing feelings for Zach. She likes him a lot but she knows she can’t be with him because he is black and she is white. She is crying for Zach because she just wants to be with him when she is not allowed. At thins point in the book it is the most feelings Lily has had for Zach so far.
Last but not least Zach changes. Something inside of him is growing, “There was a place inside him now that hadn’t been there before. Heated, charged, angry. Coming into his presence was like stepping up to a gas heater, to a row of blue fire burning in the dark, wet curve of his eyes (Kidd 216).” Zach has this feeling of hate inside of him. He was so furious about getting put in jail for no reason. He is trying to keep his hatred away from lily but its hard and Lily notices this. Their relationship is getting weaker.
Lily and Zach’s relationship is very strong. The first time Lily saw Zach she knew that she was attracted to him. But Lily also was very upset because blacks weren’t even allowed to like whites they could barely look at them. They had a relationship of love. They were basically boyfriend and girlfriend. They did their work together and spent time together after work hours. In the book their relationship grew very strong but subsided a little after Zach being put into jail. Finally, by the end of the story Lily and Zach were close and very good friends.
Chris D
Character - T. Ray
Throughout the novel many characters go through drastic changes. One of these characters is surprisingly T. Ray. In the beginning of the story T. Ray’s “only kindness was for snout, his bird dog” (Kidd 3). This most upsetting part about this is that he had a fourteen year old daughter, Lily. After Lily’s mother died she felt abandoned and alone because she had no one close to talk to when she experienced social and physical problems. Whenever Lily made a mistake she was punished by being force to kneel down onto “a mound of grits the size of an anthill” (Kidd 24). This was an excessive and excruciating punishment for Lily to go through and most parents would never even dream of doing something such as this.
When August and Lily finally get the chance to discuss the true story of Lily’s mother, Deborah, Lily discovered that T. Ray wasn’t always and cruel and mean as he was to her. Surprising August tells her that he was actually really caring and compassionate. This shocks Lily to hear that the man she grew up with that was always negative and unsupportive was actually a nice guy. August tells Lily of how Deborah and Terrance Ray started out perfect and he “treated her like a princess” (Kidd 248). However this love grew off and T. Ray progressively started to care less and less about Deborah. This is when the problems in their relationship started to occur and it carried all the way the death of Deborah Fontanel.
However, towards the end of the novel something drastic occurs in the personality of T. Ray. After a big argument with Lily in which he mistakes her for his dead wife Deborah, T. Ray starts to play a father-like role for the first time in the novel. T. Ray finally sees Lily happy at the Boatwright’s house and decides that it’s best for him to leave her there. Right as he is pulling out Lily stops him and asks him the truth about who really killed her mother. T. Ray sympathetically responds, “I could tell you I did it. That’s what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it herself, but both ways I’d be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you” (Kidd 299). The old T. Ray that Lily knew growing up would have never said something as caring as this. Instead he would have just yelled at her and tried to make her feel bad for killing her mother. The new T. Ray did the opposite. He told her the truth in the most comforting way he could to try to make it less painful on Lily.
Kevin B
Themes-Love
One of the themes in this book was love and Lily showed she loved Rosaleen by taking stuff to her, “I’m taking some things to Rosaleen” (Kidd 43). This shows that Lily has feelings for her and does not want her to suffer in jail. Lily left a note that said bye and left the house not even telling her father. Lily said that she herd her dad go out on to the porch and scream Lily, Lily over and over again. This showed how much Lily loved Rosaleen because she left her own father for her. Even though Lily didn’t like her dad that much it didn’t mean that she had to do this for Rosaleen.
Lily had so much love and hope for her mother and since she has been with August and the whole crew she started to love the black Mary picture. She showed that she loved them by putting the picture of her mother and of black Mary in her pocket. As she says here, “Taking a deep breath, I stuffed my mother’s black Mary picture and her photograph into my pocket’ (Kidd 176). This shows how Lily still believed that her mother didn’t hate her but that she loved her. Even though T.Ray kept on telling lily that her mother didn’t like her, Lily kept strong and still believed that wasn’t true. In my thoughts this is true love.
Lily also had love for the Mary statue she didn’t like to see the statue being broken or anything she just wanted it perfect. As Lily says here, “I glanced at poor, shackled Mary. I couldn’t bare seeing her like that” (Kidd 228). Lily loved the statue and wanted the whole May thing to be over so that she could go back to normal.
Nick C
Religion
In the Secret Life of bees, the religion is about African Americans and what they believe in. The African Americans believe in a Black Mary. The name of the statue is Black Madonna. On every Sunday, the Daughters of Mary come over. The Daughters of Mary are friends of the Boatwright sisters. August tells a story every Sunday of how the Slaves gained their freedom. That story was “Back in the time of slaves, when people were beaten down and kept like property, they prayed every day and every night for deliverance. On the islands near Charleston, they would go to the praise house and sing and pray, and every single time someone would ask the Lord to send them rescue. To send them consolation. To send them Freedom” (Kidd 107-108). This is explaining what African Americans used to do when they were slaves. They prayed every day for their freedom and to be respected equally.
They also have another story about a slave named Obadiah. “One day, a slave named Obadiah was loading bricks onto a boat that would sail down the Ashley River, when he saw something washed up on the bank. Coming closer, he saw it was the wooden figure of a woman. Her body was growing out of a block of wood, a black woman with her lifted out and her fist balled up.
Obadiah pulled the figure out of the water, and struggled to set her upright. Then he remembered how they’d asked the Lord to send them rescue. To send them consolation. To send them freedom. Obadiah knew the Lord had sent this figure, but he didn’t know who she was. He knelt down in the marsh mud before her and heard her voice speak plain as day in his heart. She said, ‘It’s alright. I’m here. I’ll be taking care of you now.’
Obadiah tried to pick up the waterlogged woman who God had sent to take care of them, but she was too heavy. So he went and got two more slaves, and between them they carried her to the praise house and set her on the hearth.
“By the time the next Sunday came, everyone had heard about the statue washing up from the river. How it had spoken to Obadiah. The praise house was filled with people spilling out the door and sitting on the window ledges. Obadiah told them he knew the Lord god had sent her. But he didn’t know who she was.”
“The oldest of the slaves was a woman named pearl. She got to her feet and said, ‘This here is the mother of Jesus.’
“Everyone knew the mother of Jesus was named Mary, and that she’d seen suffering of every kind. That she was strong and constant and had a mother’s heart. And here she was, sent to them on the same waters that had brought them here in chains. It seemed to them she knew everything they suffered.”
“The people cried and danced and clapped their hands. They went one at a time and touched their hands to her chest, wanting to grab on to the solace in her heart.
“They did this every Sunday in the praise house, dancing and touching her chest, and eventually they painted a red heart on her breast so the people would have a heart to touch.
“Our Lady filled their hearts with fearlessness and whispered to them plans of escape. The bold ones fled. Finding their way north, and those who didn’t lived with a raised fist in their hearts. And if ever it grew weak, they would only have to touch her heart again.
“She grew so powerful she became known even to the mast. One day he hauled her off on a wagon and chained her in carriage house. But then, without any human help, she escaped during the night and made her way back to the praise house. The master chained her in the barn fifty times, and fifty times she loosed the chains and went home. Finally he gave up and let her stay there.”
“They called her Our Lady of Chains not because she wore them. They call her our Lady of Chains because she broke them” (Kidd 108-110). Now every Sunday the Boatwright Sisters, Rosaleen and Lily, and the Daughters of Mary, said their prayers to the Black Madonna and worshiped her powers. They continue what the slaves have done and pray for freedom and to become citizens.
Katie Bausmith
Relationships:
At the beginning of the book, Lily said how sometimes she would get really mad at Rosaleen, and sometimes almost hate her because she would embarrass her and Lily was so annoyed by the things that she was doing. When Rosaleen spit on the peoples shoes, Lily was really annoyed and embarrassed how Rosaleen was being so manly. Also, after Rosaleen spit on their shoes, she got herself and Lily in trouble, and I’m sure Lily wasn’t very happy about that. However towards the end of the book, Lily realizes how much she loves Rosaleen. Lily even says “ I hugged her around her waist and said “I love you, Rosaleen” which I wasn’t expecting to come out.”
Also, Relationships between Lily and June changed drastically. At the beginning of the book, June definitely did not like Lily. When Lily touched the heart of black Mary, June stopped playing her cello. Also, June would ignore Lily, and say mean things about her, and about how her aunt must be worried about her, implying that June wanted Lily to go back to where she came from. But, near the end of the book, June also realizes how much she likes Lily, and how they are all like sisters, living in one big happy family. June started to love Lily, along with her sisters, August and May. The relationships between lily and other characters weren’t so great, because she was a little which girl in a house full on black women, but towards the end, everyone came to their differences and learned to love eachother.
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
Final
Chapter 1: The Secret Life of Bees.
Katie B
#1. Lily shows signs of queenlessness because her mom died and she lives with only her dad and Rosaleen. She can’t tell anyone her problems, and she can’t spend quality time with her mom anymore. You can tell that she really misses her mom when she says, “But you know when I missed her the most? The day that I was twelve and I woke up with rose petal stains on my panties. The only one that I could tell was Rosaleen.”(Kidd, 13) Also, Lily’s friends all have pretty hair that their moms did, but Lily had messy knotty hair, and raggedy clothes. She’s a mess without her mom. Even though Lily has Rosaleen, it’s still not the same as having her mom, because Rosaleen loves her, and takes care of her, but she doesn’t have the same quality of love as a mother would have.
Nick C
#2. It is in 1964 and Blacks were just given their civil rights. They are still mistreated and hated. Lily and Rosaleen are on their way to Rosaleen’s church so she could get registered to vote. When they are on their way to town, they stop at Lily and T-Ray’s church. Then Brother Gerald walks out and is talking to Lily. He says they must leave because he does not want Rosaleen (who is black) in his church. So they leave the church and continue walking. When they are about to arrive at the church, they came on the wrong side of town. When they are walking along a gas station that is empty, the three employees are being very racist towards Rosaleen. One of the guys at the gas station looked up and said, “Where’re you going, nigger?”(Kidd 31). Rosaleen couldn’t help to answer. When she told them that she was going to register to vote, all three guys stood up and walked over to them. They started saying derogatory statements. Then Rosaleen took her snuff jug and poured it all over the three guys’ shoes. Then the guys came after her. When the cops came they arrested Rosaleen for theft, assault, and disturbing the peace. Since she is black, she was arrested even though she was the one who was beaten. In the 1960’s, this proves that blacks were treated differently then whites.
Shawna D
#4. Jim Crow laws separate blacks and whites. Back after the civil war down south segregation was occurring, also known as Jim Crow Laws. The laws separated blacks and white from going to the same school, drinking at the same water fountains, and even riding the same bus.
Today it is still occurring in some places, “It’s funny how you forget the rules. She was not supposed to be inside here. Every time a rumor got going about a group of Negroes coming to worship with us on Sunday morning, the deacons stood locked-arms across the church steps to turn them away. We loved them in the Lord, Brother Gerald said, but they had their own places(Kidd 30).” This quote explains that blacks still aren’t totally accepted into the places whites are. Like Brother Gerald says, blacks had their own places. That says something about segregation.
Now most people today just think of segregation like it’s something from back then. But still people see blacks and whites as different people. The United States is a big melting pot. A melting pot is a mix of all different cultures and races. Blacks are the same as whites, we all share the same equalities and I believe that blacks should have no less or more respect than whites.
Chris D
#5
On page 12 in The Secret Life of Bees Rosaleen stands up to T. Ray. In the story T. Ray runs inside and wants to cook Lily’s chick that she cared for very much. Throughout the novel Lily has very little power over T. Ray so she had no choice but to hand over the chick. Fortunately, Rosaleen stands up for Lily and tells T. Ray, “You ain’t touching that chick” (Kidd 12). This meant a lot to Lily because it was the first time since her mom died that anyone backed her up. Right after this incident, T. Ray marched away and “His boots whispered uncle all the way down the hall.” This was an excellent way to state that T. Ray gave up. If person is in a fight and screams “uncle” they are basically saying that they give up. Likewise, in the novel T. Ray gave up on the argument with Rosaleen and realized he wasn’t getting the chick from Lily.
Kevin B
#6
“I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest.” This is a simile because it uses the word like and compares the shinning wings and bits chrome. The quote shows you that she is thinking of bees.
“Like me selling peaches.” This is a simile because she is explaining how her mom had woven sweet-grass baskets and sold them on the roadside. She then relates to her selling peaches.
Chapter 2: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B
#1. I think T-Ray is racist because he bailed Lily out of jail instead of Rosaleen, and how T-Ray says “He’s the meanest nigger-hater in Sylvan. I wouldn’t be surprised if he down right killed her. You’re lucky I got you out!”(Kidd, 37-38) it shows how T-Ray has no respect for Rosaleen and he is definitely racist. He called her a “nigger” and he doesn’t like her at all. I think there are degrees of racism because there are some racist people that will beat black people because they just hate the fact that they live on this earth, and there are some people that will make racist jokes. There are also types of people that just discriminate against them, but they don’t really do anything about it. I think T-Ray is a mix between the last type of racism and the first. I definitely don’t think any degree of racism is OK, because they are people, just like us, just a different color of skin.
Nick C
#2
The metaphor “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” means that it is time for her to go and get out of this house. It is saying that the house is the jar and she is the bees. It is saying that the jar is open meaning that it is safe to the house without T-ray stopping her. The light is green for her to leave and escape her life to start a new one.
Kevin B
#3
I do believe that lily is ready to hear the truth about leaving T-Ray and how she died. “The truth is, your mother ran off and left you.” This tells you that the mother left lily and didn’t decide to come back. Wishful thinking has helped lily go through life because if she didn’t believe that her mother died on accident then she would not like roasaleen as much as she does.
Chris D
#5
Throughout this chapter, tensions have been rising between Rosaleen and Lily. This started because she felt that Rosaleen acted stupid at the town. We know Lily feels this way because she “felt mad at Rosaleen too. Why couldn’t she just apologize?” (Kidd 46). Furthermore, when Lily runs away and takes Rosaleen with her, Rosaleen feels that Lily only broke her out of jail for her own personal benefit. Due to this Rosaleen starts criticizing Lily and starts insulting her. Lily eventually looses it and starts yelling, “You find your own way from now on” (Kidd 54) I feel that Lily is justified to act this way because Lily could have left without breaking Rosaleen out of jail but she did it anyway. I feel that Rosaleen should have been a little more appreciative of this instead of criticizing Lily.
Shawna D
#6. Interactions with a mother are always the same. The kid always thinks he/she is right and always has the opposite decision then the mother. The mom always responds with a “I’m the
mom so I’m right” or “You listen to me.” Let’s see how Rosaleen and Lily act together.
Lily thinks to herself, “I wanted those men to die in hell begging for ice water, but I felt mad at Rosaleen, too. Why couldn’t you just apologize? Then maybe Franklin Posey would let you off with just a beating. All she’d done was guarantee they’d come back(Kidd 46).” This quote describes how lily is actually mad at Rosaleen for putting up s fight with the policemen instead of just saying sorry and negotiating. Every child will think of something the mother did wrong.
“There’s nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you’ve hung it so careful. I laid my head against Rosaleen’s arm. I wanted her to pat life back into place, but her hands lay still on her lap(Kidd 50).” This shows how Lily has a emotion for Rosaleen that she loves Rosaleen like a mother. In the end children and mothers always make up and forgive each other. Rosaleen I guess is still kind of frustrated but lily love Rosaleen and thinks that Rosaleen can make everything better.
Chapter 3/4: The Secret Life of Bees.
Chris D
Ch 4 #2
On page 72 in The Secret Life of Bees Lily has a decision to make. Lily and Rosaleen arrive the house of August Boatwright and make up a lie to convince August and her sisters to let her and Rosaleen stay with them. Lily tells August, “We ran away from home and don’t have any place to go” (Kidd 72). Lily decided that it would be better to lie than straight up tell August that she is only there to find out about her mother because she knew that August would just tell her to leave. By lying and telling August she has no place to go, August begins to feel sympathy towards Lily and Rosaleen and lets them stay. This is what Lily was hoping for because now she can look around and find the connection between August and her mother without flat out telling August. Furthermore, she hopes that in the future she can gain August’s trust and she will tell her about her mom. However there is a negative impact from this lie. This cost is nothing that can be paid off or fixed. This cost is the pain of guilt. Lily feels extremely bad about lying to August. Guilt bothers Lily and she tries to avoid it but she had no choice in this given situation.
Shawna D
#5- Chapter 4
Back then in the South many whites were controlling and blacks were counted as nothing. There were basically whites overpowering and surrounding blacks.
This was happening to Lily but in the opposite way, “Staying in a colored house with colored women, eating off of their dishes, lying on their sheets-it was not something I was against, but I was brand-new to it, and my skin had never felt so white to me(Kidd 78).” This quote explains a big part of Lily’s life. She is finally realizing that she is not different from any colored person. This is so unreal to Lily because usually there’s a black mixed in a bunch of whites but her it is the opposite.
Lily’s thoughts are roaming, “I though they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think of was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this. That’s what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me(Kidd 78).” Lily does think that she has more qualities then blacks. She realizes that she is a little racist and a little judgmental. But she also thinks about how August is so talented and smart, unlike anything she had seen before. This shows how everyone can be equal and everyone should have the same rights.
Nick C
#6- Chapter 3
Rosaleen has not lost faith in the Civil Rights Act. Rosaleen asks lily where they are going to stay and get food. Lily replies saying that they will find a motel or rent a room for a night. Then Rosaleen says to Lily, “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, nobody’s letting her stay if she’s colored” (Kidd 60). Rosaleen is saying that even if the person has a high ranking, they will still not be allowed in if he/she is colored. That’s when Lily asks, “Well, what was the point of the Civil Rights Act?” (Kidd 60). Lily is confused as to why the President passed the act if no one in the country is going to abide by it. “Doesn’t that mean people have to let you stay in their motels and eat in their restaurants if you want to?” (Kidd 60). Then Rosaleen says “That’s what it means, but you gonna have to drag people kicking and screaming to do it” (Kidd 60). What Rosaleen means is that you have to bust people and annoy them to do what you want and to help a colored person. Rosaleen has not lost faith in the Civil Rights Act because she is saying that you will have to drag people and convince them to do something for a black person.
Katie B
#1-Chapter 4
Some differences and similarities between Rosaleen and August are:
Differences:Rosaleen
1.Rosaleen has no manners.
2. Rosaleen is a big fat woman
3.Rosaleen doesn’t care what happens.
4.Rosaleen thinks she’s the boss of everyone
5.Rosaleen is really tough
6. Rosaleen chews snuff
Differences: August
1. August has manners
2.August is a sweet,pleasant lady
3.August is skinnier than Rosaleen
4.August cooperates well with her sisters, May and June, and her helper, Zack
5.August is very cultured
6. August does not chew snuff like Rosaleen
Similarities: Rosaleen and August
1.Both are very caring
2.Both are very hard-working
3.Both are African American women
4.They both are a "mother figure". Rosaleen to Lily, and August to her two younger sisters.
Kevin B
Chapter 4 #4
Roasaleen does not correct Lily’s lies because Roasaleen doesn’t want to embarrass her in front of her friends. “August shook her head. Roasaleen shook hers, too, but for a different reason (Kidd 73).” This quote shows that Roasaleen was not going to correct her lies, but instead shook her head.
Chapter 5: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B
#4: In the quote at the beginning of the chapter, it points out that bees live in the darkness. This is true for Lily because she is the only white girl living in a house with a bunch of black women, so she is feeling discriminated against especially by June, and she can feel what the blacks normally feel. You can tell that Lily feels discriminated against when June says “But she’s white, August.”(Kidd, 87). Also, when Lily describes her anger by saying “I wanted to march up there, flip a couple tables over, and say, Excuse me, June Boatwrite, but you don’t even know me!”(Kidd, 87)
Chris D
#2
On page 95 Lily is told that May feels other people’s pain and this made her wonder “would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?” (Kidd 95). Lily thought about telling her about T. Ray’s mound of grits, the death of her mother, and all the other things that bothered her to share the pain with May. Ever since April died, May feels the pain of the rest of the world. Now that Lily knows this she is considering taking advantage of May just to relieve some of her own pain and problems. Lily “wanted to know to know what happened when two people felt it” (Kidd 95). I feel that this is an extremely selfish thing to do because May has enough problems that upset her and she doesn’t need to deal with Lily’s as well.
Shawna D
#3
Ever since Lily and Rosaleen got to the house, June has always had this feeling that Lily shouldn’t be there and she was bad news. June is catching onto Lily’s lies.
June get suspicious, “You know she’s lying, said June. I know, August told her. But they’re in some kind of trouble and need a place to stay. Who’s gonna take them in if we don’t- a white girl and a Negro women? Nobody around here (Kidd 86).” June knows Lily is lying. August is kid of catching on also but August has a feeling that Lily is supposed to be here, like it was destined to happen. August knows that if Lily and Rosaleen don’t stay, they will be caught by the cops, beaten again, or even killed. No one will take them in.
June is questioning, “What if her father really didn’t die in the so-called tractor accident (Kidd 87)?” This explains the suspiciousness of June and how she doesn’t in fact believe Lily. June wants lily out but August won’t let her.
June has negative thoughts about Lily, “But she’s white, August (Kidd 87).” June thinks that just because lily is white she shouldn’t be in the house. August, May, June, and Rosaleen are all black. I think June feels that whites are evil and mean but Lily is sweet she isn’t like some other whites. Lily doesn’t beat up blacks or call them names but June thinks lily is like that.
Nick C
#5-When Lily says, “Since Mr. Johnson signed that law, it was like somebody had ripped the seams right out of American Life” (Kidd 88), she means that everyone is acting different since the President passed the Civil Rights Act. When the President passed the Act, all of the colored people start acting like they are the best. It is like the whites and black traded places. In the house, the whites are being mistreated and the blacks are acting like they have all the power. Now Lily is feeling what Blacks felt before the act was passed. Lily is debating whether to stay in the house now.
Kevin B
#1
Lily realizes, after she over hears the conversation between June and August, that she is the odd ball. She is the odd ball because she is white and all of them are black. “Not that I was white but that it seemed like June might not want me here because of my skin color (87).” This tells you that she does not want some one of the other race with her. Lily does not have the right to be offended because of all the stuff that the white race put the black race through. If she does feel offended then she should leave the group.
Chapter 6: The Secret Life of Bees:
Nick C
#1: The number one question asked in South Carolina is, “Where you from?” That is the most common question in South Carolina because people want to know if they have some kind of connection. When he asked, Lily was thinking, “IT was rare, though, for Negroes to ask white people where they’re from, because there was nothing much to be gained from it, as their stories weren’t that likely to link up” (Kidd 105). The most common question in our school would probably be “What’s up?” It is “What’s up?” because it is the most common term when two people pass each other in the hall way. It is also always in a conversation and is being asked 24/7.
Katie B
#4: Some reasons why the Daughters of Mary are meeting instead of attending the conventional church are because they wanted everyone to come to them. Also, they might have wanted more privacy, and they didn’t want to go into the church because they are holding a voting session. Lily thought it was very strange that they weren’t going to a church because she said “On Sunday, I thought they would go to church, but no, they held a special service in the pink house, and people came to them.”(Kidd, 106)
Shawna DeGrange
#2. The verses august reads in the bible attribute to African American people because they relate to blacks versus white. Lets see what this verse consists of.
One of the verses in the bible was, “And Mary said… Behold, from the henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things….He hath scattered the proud….He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exhaled them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away (Kidd 107).” This is very detailed and very important. This verse is saying how all generations shall worship Mary and great things will happen. Its also saying how the mighty or whites will be taken down to a low degree. He filled the hungry or blacks with good food and he emptied the rich or whites of all the money. This shows how whites are so much higher ranking then blacks and how all things will be taken away from whites and given to blacks. Blacks are treated so disrespectfully and deserve to be given back what was taken away from them.
Chris Dolan
#5
When Lily is walking up to touch Mary’s vanishing heart, June stops the music disallowing her to touch the heart. Lily felt like an outcast and thought, “I am not one of you” (Kidd 111). This greatly upsets Lily and now she understands what it feels like to be an outsider. All her life she has seen blacks be a minority and now the tables have turned. However, June is obviously doing this on purpose and it is wrong of her to do that. If I were Lily I would have lost control and went outside to have some time for myself. When I cooled down, I would also straight up ask her what I did wrong and why she was holding a grudge on me. Hopefully by doing this peace would not be completely destroyed and June will finally tell me what the problem was causing her to eventually accept me. At the end of the day, Lily and June don’t need to be close friends but June’s attitude toward Lily needs to change.
Kevin B
#3
The Queen in this chapter is most likely to be August because she holds a group called the Daughters of Mary. This is a group of all blacks and instead of going to church they would go to this. Lily was telling us that “on Sunday I thought they would go to church, but no, they held a special service in the pink house, and people came to them. It was called the Daughters of Mary, which August had organized (Kidd 106).” This shows that August has organized this group for all of them, Queenie, Violet, Lunelle, Mabelee, and Cressie. These members show up to her house every Sunday at the same time 10:00.
Chapter 7: The Secret Life of Bees:
Nick C
#4- Lily cries because she is falling for Zach. Lily said, “I’d thought the whole thing was about my lost future, the one Mrs. Henry encouraged me to believe in by plying me with books and summer reading lists and big talk about scholarships to Columbia college, but sitting there close to Zach, I knew I was crying because he had that one-side dimple I loved, because every time I looked at him I got a hot, funny feeling that circulated from my waist to my kneecaps, because I’d been going along being my normal girl self and the next thing I knew I’d passed through a membrane into a place of desperation. I was crying, I realized, for Zach” (Kidd 128). What Lily is trying to say is that she was crying over her lost future and over Zach. She had lost her future because she left home and broke Rosaleen out of jail. She was crying over Zach because she liked him, but knew they could not be together because he is black and she is white and it would just be bad if they were. When a black and a white are together in this time period there are racial comments being said about both people in the relationship. They will be hated and torn apart eventually. So they cannot be together.
Katie B
#5: When Lily says “I can tell you this much: the world is a great big log thrown on the fires of love.” (Kidd, 133) she means that Lily and Zack can’t be together so the flame burning is their love that can’t be together. You can tell that they like each other because Lily always thinks about him, and Zack said “My boys beat me up for looking at white girls like you.”(Kidd,126)
Shawna D
#2. Lily, now that she has ran away, does not have much of a future because she has no where to go, “I don’t think I have much of a future now, being and orphan (Kidd 120).” This quote explains how now that lily has run away she has no future because right now she has so education, no family, and no home. Lily was planning on being a writer and a teacher but now she can’t do that because she left her home her dad can not give her an education and she can’t give herself an education.
Chris D
#3
Zack gets upset when Lily suggests he could be a professional player because Zack he is tired of the stereotypes against blacks. Zach gets annoyed be Lily suggesting this and angrily shouts, “Why is it sports is the only thing white people see us being successful at?” (Kidd 120). Zach has a passion for being a lawyer but he is tired of everybody telling him that the only thing he would be good at is professional ball just because he’s black. He wants to be looked at as a person, just like everyone else, instead of a black. Furthermore, as soon as people see him, he doesn’t want to be instantly associated with sports without people even getting to know him. In addition, he encourages Lily to “Imagine what’s never been” (Kidd 121). This is said while Lily is trying to tell Zack that it would difficult for him to be a lawyer because there has never been a black lawyer before. In conclusion, Zack wants Lily to judge people on who they are, opposed to what they are.
Kevin B
#6
Lily’s attitude has changed towards black people because she says that people “at [her] school made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself had laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in. Now I wished that I could pen a letter to my school to be read at opening assembly that would tell them how wrong we had all been. You should see Zachary Taylor, I’d say (Kidd 116).” This quote tells you that lily has gathered more feelings for black people, and can now see that blacks are just as normal as whites.
Chapter 8-9: The Secret Life of Bees
Katie B:
#7-Chapter 8
The Beehive and the Pink house have their similarities and differences. They are similar because the beehive and the pink house are both very busy. Also, they both house the leader of the “clan” of people, or bees. They are different because in a beehive, all of the bees are the same. They all have similar jobs, and they all look alike. However, in the pink house, they don’t all look alike, they have different personalities, and they all do different things.
Shawna D
#1-Chapter 9
August and Lily are tending the bees when Lily asks if she could be a beekeeper one day and August responds, “Actually, you can be bad at something, Lily, but if you love doing it, that will be enough (Kidd 167).” This quote explains how if you have enough passion for something then you can do it. Even if your horrible at a sport and you love it you can still play. It doesn’t matter about how good you are in something, all that counts is that you have compassion and love for the thing. Say you were bad at doing nails, if you l9ove it enough then you can do it, you can work hard towards the thing.
Chris D
#1 - Chapter 8
In this world there are many different types of love, yet in the English language there is only one word for love. Meanwhile, “there are thirty- two names for love in one of the Eskimo languages” to express the different kids of love (Kidd 140). For example, there is a difference between loving a chip and loving a person. Emotional there is a huge difference between the two types of love yet we use the same word. In addition, August says, “I love May, but it was still hard to choose Caribbean Pink” (Kidd 147). This illustrates the type of love that August has towards her sisters. It is extremely difference than her love towards something like a coke.
Kevin B
Ch 8 #5
This quote is a metaphor to her life because as the sticker is becoming unglued it relates to her life because she is becoming more and more unstuck to her farther T-Ray. Even though she is becoming farther away from her farther she is also getting to the point where she realizes that her lies are getting to be noticeable. She finds out that she has to start to tell the truth instead of telling lies. August tells Lily that she “can talk to [her]. You know that, don’t you? (Kidd 122).” This quote says that August knows that she is lying to her but want to make feel at home and that she talk to August when ever she feels.
Nick C
Chapter 9 #5
The meaning of Lily’s dream is pretty much saying that she misses her mom and wants her back in her life. Since she is imagining her mom being around, she is always in deep thought thinking about what her mom would be doing now and how she would be caring for her. She is constantly thinking what life would be about today if her mom was still here. She is sad at what she has done and wishes her mom was still with her everyday at that very moment.
Chapter 10: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#3: When Lily says that it “would be selfish to pour this into her cup.” (p 201) It means that she didn’t want to tell August about the truth with her name and her mother, because August was already grieving Mays death, and Lily knew that August would be much more upset and mad if she knew the truth. Also, Lily didn’t want august to be overwhelmed with emotions, over the truth, and May’s death, so she just decided it would be a better idea not to tell her just yet, but I think she definitely will tell August when she accepts May’s death and moves on. You can also tell that Lily feels bad for August when she says, “When I peered up at her, though, she was brushing tears off her face, looking for a handkerchief in her pocket, I knew it would be selfish…” (Kidd 201) because she feels really bad for August because of the loss of her sister and she was really upset, so it definitely wouldn’t have been a good time to tell August the truth.
Chris D
#4
After May commits suicide Lily feels the urge to just come out and tell August the truth about whom she is and why she is there. She considers telling August, “I’m not Lily Williams, I’m Lily Owens, and it was my mother who stayed here” (Kidd 201). Although this may clear up all the lies Lily had been telling, now was not the time to alert August of this because August is going through a hard enough time with her sister gone. When Lily realizes this, she decides to not tell August because it “would be selfish to pour this into her cup” (Kidd 201). In other words, August has enough problems to deal with and she doesn’t need one more just to make Lily feel better. Due to this, Lily decides to keep the truth about her and her mother to her self, at least for now.
Shawna D
#1
August knew something was up with May. She knew this time May was worse than the other times. “Ill go with you, said August. May spoke over her shoulder. No, please, August, just me. Just me, said may, turning to face us. Just me (Kidd 188).” This quote is showing how May really just wants to be alone. She needs time to think and usually May would let August help her but this time, no. August starts to think something’s up.
She tries to take her mind off of it but, “May had been gone for a whole five minutes when August got up and began to pace. She walked out to the porch and back and then started out toward the wall. After twenty minutes she said, that’s it. Let’s go get her (Kidd 189).” This shows the feeling in August how she is worried even after so little time. August has an eerie feeling about May and May’s feelings about Zach’s encounter. Earlier in the book August mentions to not tell May about Zach’s encounter because May loves Zach and she cares about him and would be devastated if she found out. August knew something was wrong because May was out there longer then usually and August was suspicious when May had to go out to the wall by herself, at night, and in the dark.
Nick C
Ch 10 #2
The Wailing Wall did not sustain May through Zach’s incarceration because she was really close with Zach. She also could not handle everything that was happening between the sad story of Lily’s mother and all the bad news in the world. Since May had an illness and got really upset every time something bad happened. She could not handle it. May had a twin sister named April. April had killed herself and ever since May had a problem dealing with other peoples’ problems. When Lily was talking about her mom, May could not handle it anymore and decided she needed to end her life like April did. If May lived today, she probably would have been put in a mental institution to get help and cope with all the sadness in the world. She would also have been given some kind of anti-depressant to deal with her illness and to help her survive everyday life with out a huge mental breakdown.
Kevin B
Ch 10 #5
The rituals in this chapter are about how when someone dies they then cover the bee hives with black cloth. The rituals help people cope because they realize that death is the new begging of life and not the end, new life will be made and it will be one huge cycle. As Lily asked August if “putting black cloths over the hives will help May get to heaven (Kidd 206).” August then replies with, “goodness no (Kidd 206).” She said that it does no good for May but for the people still living on earth. It reminds them that “life gives way to death, and then death turns around and gives way into life (Kidd 206).”
Chapter 11: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#2: The quote at the beginning of the chapter relates to the chapter because all of the women and bees are working so hard just to produce one thing, and have only one result. The women’s purpose is to celebrate Mary’s day, and they worked so hard to make it a good day, and they even stopped making honey, and just made cakes. Also, the bees and the women are working really hard just to make honey, and there is only one final result, which is honey. They work so hard just to get one thing out of it.
Kevin B
Ch. 11 #5
When Lily wants to go back into the honey house Rosaleen said that she was frustrated that Lily wanted to move back. “Rosaleen put her hands on her waist. Good lord, all that fuss you made about me moving out and leaving you, now here you are wanting to leave me" (Kidd 218). Rosaleen didn’t really care that she wanted to move out but was just annoyed about the fact that she just moved into the pink house. When I was younger I would always want to be with my mom and at about 13 I wanted to just be away and thought she was so lame. I now see that my mom is still a huge part in my life even though I think I am old enough. "Actually, she didn't care one bit that I wanted to move out" (Kidd 218).
Shawnaa D
#1 After Zach was put into jail his emotions stirred up and changed his ways. His feelings had changed to anger. Lilly does not like this and explains, “There was a place inside him now that hadn’t been there before. Heated, charged, angry. Coming into his presence was like stepping up to a gas heater, to a row of blue fire burning in the dark, wet curve of his eyes (Kidd 216).” This quote shows the change of emotions inside of Zach. He is still the same on the outside but deep inside he has a buildup of anger that he can’t cool down. Ever since those rude whites put him in jail for no reason he was angry at the world and what is has become. The world is unfair and especially a disgrace towards blacks.
Lily talks to Zach about his anger, “Sometime. Lily, I’m so angry I wanna kill something (Kidd 230).” Zach says this to Lily in his own words. Lily says how she doesn’t want Zach to turn in to those mean kids that go around fooling around because they have nothing better to do. Zach has changed is anger and it increased greatly.
Chris D
#3 When Lily talks to Zack for the first time since he got out of a jail, she starts to say “If I were a negro girl” but immediately gets cut off by Zack (Kidd 216). Zack responds with “We can’t think of changing our skin, change the world – that’s how we gotta think” (Kidd 216). He tells her this to let her know that it’s not about the color of the skin; it’s about the other people’s opinion on the color of their skin. Lily was unaware of this up until now because she always felt that she and Zack couldn’t be together because he was black and she was white. Likewise, a few years ago Barack Obama ran for president of the United States. However, there was no other black president before him. Instead of just giving up and wishing he could change his skin, he decides to pursue his dream of becoming president. This is a good example of a real person that decided to change the world opposed to changing his skin.
Nick C
#6
Zach’s goals for his future connect to Lily’s saying, “Sometimes I would be hooked on that chain along with them.” Because he feels that he should go and play pro ball instead of a lawyer because all of his friends and coaches and family want him to. He wants to go to school to be a lawyer because he wants to make a difference in the world and be very successful. He feels that he should listen to the chain of people telling him to go pro instead of following his life long dream to become a lawyer.
Chapter 12: The Secret Life of Bees
Shawna D
#4 All of Lily’s life she had this image of her mom, Deborah that she couldn’t get out of her head. Lily thought her mom abandoned her she thought Deborah was a bad mother but yet loved Lily. Lily wanted forgiveness from her mother.
“After she’d been here three months and was feeling a little better, she started talking about how much she missed you. Finally she went back to Sylvan to get you (Kidd 253-254).” This shows how when lily said “I’d wish she’d rot” she was wrong and I think Lily felt bad after finding out her mother came back to get her. Lily realized that her image of her mom was wrong. Her mom did not abandon her, she just had to leave for a little to get better. Lily now finds out her mother did in fact love her and care for her and Lily loved her mother too.
Katie B:
#3: The quote, “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 she spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor…. Her true role is less than of a queen than mother of the hive, a title often according 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) can relate to Lily’s anguish because when lily’s mom was pregnant with lily, she was unhappy and she wasn’t doing much and she didn’t really have the ability to care for her young by herself, and that’s the only reason why Deborah stayed with T-Ray. Then she realized that she couldn’t be with T-Ray any longer because she just didn’t love him, so she left Lily with T-Ray. When Lily found that out, she felt really angry and betrayed by her mom, and she felt like she was lied to and she didn’t love her. Lily thought that her moms love was just all a lie. That’s how the quote can relate to Lily’s anguish in this chapter. You can tell Lily was really angry at her mom because she said, “Unwanted. I was an unwanted baby” (Kidd 249).
Nick C
#5
Deborah and T.Ray were bad parents and good parents. T.Ray was the bad parent because he had no respect for Lily and treated her like crap. Lily lived 14 years of life miserable and not able to do anything that she really wanted to do. She also had to live her life knowing that she shot and killed her mother. T.Ray was deeply in love with Deborah, but Deborah did not love T.Ray. Deborah only married T.Ray because she was pregnant with Lily. Deborah’s love for Lily was not affected by her personal issues. Deborah loved Lily very much and took great care of her. T.Ray has a bad temper and let his personal issues interfere with his treatment towards Lily. He physically abuses Lily and has short temper when it comes to caring for her. Lily is always second in his life behind the peach farm. T.Ray is always grumpy and is not a very good parent.
Chris D
#6
A common mother-like characteristic is being able to show compassion by giving love. Up until this chapter Lily is unable to show that trait and love herself. Lily blames herself for the death of both her mom and May. Due to this Lily is unable to find the mother within herself and keeps thinking “You are unlovable, Lily Owens. Who could love you” (Kidd 242). As this chapter progresses August convinces Lily that she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and that she really is lovable. She does this by listing all the people that love her; such as Rosaleen, May, Zack, the daughters of Mary, and most importantly she, August Boatright, loves her. After hearing this Lily is finally able to find the mother within her and show the mother- like love towards herself. This is an important step for Lily in growing up and becoming the mother she dreamed her mother was.
Chapter 13: The Secret Life of Bees:
Katie B:
#2: In this chapter, I think Lily is wrong for thinking that you can’t talk yourself out of anger. I have done it many times, and all you have to do is think of the positive things in the situation, and just calm yourself down. When Lily says, “Either you are angry or you’re not.” I think that she was just so caught up in the moment and she was having a tantrum. She was just thinking of all of the negative things with her mom and she was so convinced that her mom just left her because she didn’t want to take care of her. She also means that you can only be really angry or not mad at all. You can’t just be a little bit mad. Again, I just think lily was having a temper tantrum and over reacting and not being reasonable at all. I think Lily’s anger does justify why she was smashing August’s honey jars because she just needed something to let out all of her anger and she thought that throwing the honey jars against the wall would relieve the anger deep inside her. You can tell that Lily just wanted to do it to relieve anger because she said, “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child. I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it. I wanted to throw something all the way to heaven and knock God clean off his throne.”(Kidd 259)
Nick C
#3
The events in the chapter move Lily toward peace with her mother because when she reveals her anger and that she is so mad she feels relieved that she got it all out. Lily was angry and threw honey jars and a bucket at the wall because she was mad about her mother leaving her. She kind of feels more relaxed and better about herself. Her tantrums tell a story of how she feels about her mother and what her mother has done to her. Her revealing this information lifts a huge weight off of her shoulders and lowers the anger towards Deborah. She feels better because she let it all out and let her mom know how she feels.
Chris D
When Lily finds out that her mother left she becomes extremely angry and depressed because all her hope for having the mother she dreamed of was gone. All this time Lily thought her mother was going to bring her with her when she was a child and she now finds out that her mother came to the Boatwrights’ house without her. This is too much information for Lily to take causing her to violently throw jars of honey against the walls of the honey house. The only thought that is going through her head is “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child” (Kidd 259). Lily is in shock that this is true all her life she never imaged that possible. Furthermore, when T. Ray told her that her mother left her she refused to believe that because she was positive that he was lying. This is the main reason why everything was so hard on her.
Shawna D
#1 The quote at the beginning of the chapter explains lily’s suffering how, “A worker bee is just over a centimeter long and weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself (Kidd 257).” The quote applies to Lily because Lily is just a kid she’s not a responsible adult that has fully matured. She can’t take on things that an adult normally does. She’s small but very mighty. She carries the weight of her life on her back which is heavier then her. Lily’s life is full of anger, hate, love, joy, and many other emotions. She has to deal with her mother’s life and what her mothers story is, she has to deal with Rosaleen and how they might get caught for running away, and she has to deal with T-Ray basically wanting to kill her because of how angry she is. Now remember lily is only a teen and she has all these problems. How hard do you think it would be if you had these problems? So lily is carrying all this weight on her shoulders and still pushing through.
This shows how angry lily exactly is, “I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it. I wanted to throw something all the way up to heaven and knock God clean off his throne (Kidd 259)” Lily is upset about her mom and her whole story about leaving Lily and all that. She was so angry she just wanted to let it all out. Since lily is religious you can tell how angry she is because saying she wanted to knock God off her throne is big. God is the Father of all and Lily wanted to take him out.
Kevin B
Ch. 13 Quote
In this chapter Lily had a temper tantrum and was throwing honey around and breaking jars left and right. After she threw all the honey around she the realized that she had to face reality and clean all of it up. As she said here that she “worked with heaviness inside, with my spirit emptied out” (Kidd 265). This quote tells you that Lily knew she had to face the music and start to clean up the honey house. Lily then worked very diligently to clean the house up and got it all done.
Chapter 14: The Secret Life of Bee's
Shawna D
#1 Lily is starting to get her mother inside of her and, “Next I gathered up the mouse bones that I’d kept in my back pockets, realizing I didn’t need to carry them around anymore. But I knew I couldn’t throw them away either, so I tied them together with a red hair ribbon and set them on the shelf by the fan. I stared at them a minute, wondering how a person got attached to mouse bones. I decided sometimes you just need to nurse something, that’s all (Kidd 284-285).” Lily is finally finding the mother inside of her. She is feeling better by nurturing something and taking care of something like a mother would do. Lily is carrying around the mouse bones to make her feel better and feel content, relaxed. This does make sense to me because sometimes you just need something to love and care for. You need something to make you feel happy.
Nick C
Chapter 14 #4
The quote at the beginning of the chapter is explaining how a bee hive cannot live without a queen bee. Once the Queen bee dies the hive mourns and has no idea what to do and cannot survive without it. It kind of relates to Lily because she found out that Deborah was going to leave her. In Lily’s case, Deborah is the Queen bee and Lily is her worker bee. When Lily finds out that Deborah was going to leave her, she broke down and was so sad for so long. She was coping with her problem by just sitting around and doing nothing all day.
Chris D
#11 At the end of the novel when T. Ray arrives at August’s pink house a lot of drama takes place. For example, T. Ray sees Lily as Deborah as refuses to let her leave again. By trying to prove his point he slaps Lily in the face and aggressively yells at her. Once all that is settled and T. Ray realizes that he is talking Lily, he calms down. When Lily and her father finally have a normal conversation, Lily builds up the confidence to ask “The day my mother died.” “Did I do it?” (Kidd 299). For the first time in the novel a sensitive side of T. Ray comes out when he says “I could tell you I did it. That’s what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it to herself, but both ways I’d be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you” (Kidd 299). When reading this I was shocked to hear the compassionate way T. Ray said it. I expected him to straight up say “yes you killed your mother.” However, that wasn’t the case. T. Ray tried to make it easy on Lily telling that he would rather just have her believe that she was innocent, but he also wouldn’t want to lie. I feel that this was the most father-like action that T. Ray did throughout the story.
Kevin B
Ch. 14 #7
T Ray became mean because Deborah left him. As it says here T Ray yells, “You never should have left me” (Kidd 295). T Ray really got taken back by the whole situation because if Deborah didn’t leave T Ray, he would have had a better relationship with Lily. Lily was saying that T Ray really showed his emotions for the first time. If T Ray didn’t become so dirty and gross Deborah would not have left him.
Shawna D
Relationship- Lily and Zach
In the book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, there are many heated, emotional relationships between many characters. Some of the relationships are Lily and Zack, Lily and Rosaleen, Lily and August, Lily and June, Lily and T-Ray, Lily and Deborah. These relationships are very connected. There are various ways these characters are connected. I am going to explain to you about Lily and Zach’s relationship.
Lily is the main character of the book. Her mom is Deborah who dies supposedly from Lily accidentally shooting her. Zach is a colored boy who Lily meets in Tiburon, South Carolina, the place she ran away to. Zach attends school in Tiburon and Lily is being housed by August and her sisters who own a honey business. Zach works on the bee farm. This is how Lily and Zach meet.
Lily starts to observe Zach and realizes he’s different than any other colored boy, “There was nothing white about Zachary Lincoln Taylor. Even the whites of his eyes weren’t exactly white. He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hair like most of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn’t help starring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome (Kidd 116).” This is when Lily first meets Zach and she is observing him. She see’s him and is already characterizing him. She thinks is a very good looking colored guy. She was surprised about him being so handsome.
Lily couldn’t take that, “He wrapped one arm around me and pulled me across the seat to him. I’d thought the whole thing was about my lost future, the one Mrs. Henry encouraged me to believe in by plying me with books and summer reading lists and big talk about scholarships to Columbia College, but sitting there close to Zach, I knew I was crying because he had that one-sided dimple I loved, because every time I looked at him I got a hot, funny feeling that circulated from my waist to my kneecaps, because I’d been going along being my normal girl self and the next thing I knew I’d passed through a membrane into a place of desperation. I was crying I realized, for Zach (Kidd 128).” This quote is showing Lily’s growing feelings for Zach. She likes him a lot but she knows she can’t be with him because he is black and she is white. She is crying for Zach because she just wants to be with him when she is not allowed. At thins point in the book it is the most feelings Lily has had for Zach so far.
Last but not least Zach changes. Something inside of him is growing, “There was a place inside him now that hadn’t been there before. Heated, charged, angry. Coming into his presence was like stepping up to a gas heater, to a row of blue fire burning in the dark, wet curve of his eyes (Kidd 216).” Zach has this feeling of hate inside of him. He was so furious about getting put in jail for no reason. He is trying to keep his hatred away from lily but its hard and Lily notices this. Their relationship is getting weaker.
Lily and Zach’s relationship is very strong. The first time Lily saw Zach she knew that she was attracted to him. But Lily also was very upset because blacks weren’t even allowed to like whites they could barely look at them. They had a relationship of love. They were basically boyfriend and girlfriend. They did their work together and spent time together after work hours. In the book their relationship grew very strong but subsided a little after Zach being put into jail. Finally, by the end of the story Lily and Zach were close and very good friends.
Chris D
Character - T. Ray
Throughout the novel many characters go through drastic changes. One of these characters is surprisingly T. Ray. In the beginning of the story T. Ray’s “only kindness was for snout, his bird dog” (Kidd 3). This most upsetting part about this is that he had a fourteen year old daughter, Lily. After Lily’s mother died she felt abandoned and alone because she had no one close to talk to when she experienced social and physical problems. Whenever Lily made a mistake she was punished by being force to kneel down onto “a mound of grits the size of an anthill” (Kidd 24). This was an excessive and excruciating punishment for Lily to go through and most parents would never even dream of doing something such as this.
When August and Lily finally get the chance to discuss the true story of Lily’s mother, Deborah, Lily discovered that T. Ray wasn’t always and cruel and mean as he was to her. Surprising August tells her that he was actually really caring and compassionate. This shocks Lily to hear that the man she grew up with that was always negative and unsupportive was actually a nice guy. August tells Lily of how Deborah and Terrance Ray started out perfect and he “treated her like a princess” (Kidd 248). However this love grew off and T. Ray progressively started to care less and less about Deborah. This is when the problems in their relationship started to occur and it carried all the way the death of Deborah Fontanel.
However, towards the end of the novel something drastic occurs in the personality of T. Ray. After a big argument with Lily in which he mistakes her for his dead wife Deborah, T. Ray starts to play a father-like role for the first time in the novel. T. Ray finally sees Lily happy at the Boatwright’s house and decides that it’s best for him to leave her there. Right as he is pulling out Lily stops him and asks him the truth about who really killed her mother. T. Ray sympathetically responds, “I could tell you I did it. That’s what you wanna hear. I could tell you she did it herself, but both ways I’d be lying. It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you” (Kidd 299). The old T. Ray that Lily knew growing up would have never said something as caring as this. Instead he would have just yelled at her and tried to make her feel bad for killing her mother. The new T. Ray did the opposite. He told her the truth in the most comforting way he could to try to make it less painful on Lily.
Kevin B
Themes-Love
One of the themes in this book was love and Lily showed she loved Rosaleen by taking stuff to her, “I’m taking some things to Rosaleen” (Kidd 43). This shows that Lily has feelings for her and does not want her to suffer in jail. Lily left a note that said bye and left the house not even telling her father. Lily said that she herd her dad go out on to the porch and scream Lily, Lily over and over again. This showed how much Lily loved Rosaleen because she left her own father for her. Even though Lily didn’t like her dad that much it didn’t mean that she had to do this for Rosaleen.
Lily had so much love and hope for her mother and since she has been with August and the whole crew she started to love the black Mary picture. She showed that she loved them by putting the picture of her mother and of black Mary in her pocket. As she says here, “Taking a deep breath, I stuffed my mother’s black Mary picture and her photograph into my pocket’ (Kidd 176). This shows how Lily still believed that her mother didn’t hate her but that she loved her. Even though T.Ray kept on telling lily that her mother didn’t like her, Lily kept strong and still believed that wasn’t true. In my thoughts this is true love.
Lily also had love for the Mary statue she didn’t like to see the statue being broken or anything she just wanted it perfect. As Lily says here, “I glanced at poor, shackled Mary. I couldn’t bare seeing her like that” (Kidd 228). Lily loved the statue and wanted the whole May thing to be over so that she could go back to normal.
Nick C
Religion
In the Secret Life of bees, the religion is about African Americans and what they believe in. The African Americans believe in a Black Mary. The name of the statue is Black Madonna. On every Sunday, the Daughters of Mary come over. The Daughters of Mary are friends of the Boatwright sisters. August tells a story every Sunday of how the Slaves gained their freedom. That story was “Back in the time of slaves, when people were beaten down and kept like property, they prayed every day and every night for deliverance. On the islands near Charleston, they would go to the praise house and sing and pray, and every single time someone would ask the Lord to send them rescue. To send them consolation. To send them Freedom” (Kidd 107-108). This is explaining what African Americans used to do when they were slaves. They prayed every day for their freedom and to be respected equally.
They also have another story about a slave named Obadiah. “One day, a slave named Obadiah was loading bricks onto a boat that would sail down the Ashley River, when he saw something washed up on the bank. Coming closer, he saw it was the wooden figure of a woman. Her body was growing out of a block of wood, a black woman with her lifted out and her fist balled up.
Obadiah pulled the figure out of the water, and struggled to set her upright. Then he remembered how they’d asked the Lord to send them rescue. To send them consolation. To send them freedom. Obadiah knew the Lord had sent this figure, but he didn’t know who she was. He knelt down in the marsh mud before her and heard her voice speak plain as day in his heart. She said, ‘It’s alright. I’m here. I’ll be taking care of you now.’
Obadiah tried to pick up the waterlogged woman who God had sent to take care of them, but she was too heavy. So he went and got two more slaves, and between them they carried her to the praise house and set her on the hearth.
“By the time the next Sunday came, everyone had heard about the statue washing up from the river. How it had spoken to Obadiah. The praise house was filled with people spilling out the door and sitting on the window ledges. Obadiah told them he knew the Lord god had sent her. But he didn’t know who she was.”
“The oldest of the slaves was a woman named pearl. She got to her feet and said, ‘This here is the mother of Jesus.’
“Everyone knew the mother of Jesus was named Mary, and that she’d seen suffering of every kind. That she was strong and constant and had a mother’s heart. And here she was, sent to them on the same waters that had brought them here in chains. It seemed to them she knew everything they suffered.”
“The people cried and danced and clapped their hands. They went one at a time and touched their hands to her chest, wanting to grab on to the solace in her heart.
“They did this every Sunday in the praise house, dancing and touching her chest, and eventually they painted a red heart on her breast so the people would have a heart to touch.
“Our Lady filled their hearts with fearlessness and whispered to them plans of escape. The bold ones fled. Finding their way north, and those who didn’t lived with a raised fist in their hearts. And if ever it grew weak, they would only have to touch her heart again.
“She grew so powerful she became known even to the mast. One day he hauled her off on a wagon and chained her in carriage house. But then, without any human help, she escaped during the night and made her way back to the praise house. The master chained her in the barn fifty times, and fifty times she loosed the chains and went home. Finally he gave up and let her stay there.”
“They called her Our Lady of Chains not because she wore them. They call her our Lady of Chains because she broke them” (Kidd 108-110). Now every Sunday the Boatwright Sisters, Rosaleen and Lily, and the Daughters of Mary, said their prayers to the Black Madonna and worshiped her powers. They continue what the slaves have done and pray for freedom and to become citizens.
Katie Bausmith
Relationships:
At the beginning of the book, Lily said how sometimes she would get really mad at Rosaleen, and sometimes almost hate her because she would embarrass her and Lily was so annoyed by the things that she was doing. When Rosaleen spit on the peoples shoes, Lily was really annoyed and embarrassed how Rosaleen was being so manly. Also, after Rosaleen spit on their shoes, she got herself and Lily in trouble, and I’m sure Lily wasn’t very happy about that. However towards the end of the book, Lily realizes how much she loves Rosaleen. Lily even says “ I hugged her around her waist and said “I love you, Rosaleen” which I wasn’t expecting to come out.”
Also, Relationships between Lily and June changed drastically. At the beginning of the book, June definitely did not like Lily. When Lily touched the heart of black Mary, June stopped playing her cello. Also, June would ignore Lily, and say mean things about her, and about how her aunt must be worried about her, implying that June wanted Lily to go back to where she came from. But, near the end of the book, June also realizes how much she likes Lily, and how they are all like sisters, living in one big happy family. June started to love Lily, along with her sisters, August and May. The relationships between lily and other characters weren’t so great, because she was a little which girl in a house full on black women, but towards the end, everyone came to their differences and learned to love eachother.