Secret Life of Bees

The first time I read this book was 2 years ago I remember looking at the title and thinking this sounds different. Once I started it I absolutely loved and realized quickly why it was required in our class. Well it happened yet again and the book grew on me even more. This time I really took in the meaning of the text and found so many phrases that I love.

It's funny but reading it again I was able to notice Lily's determination, which I think is one of the main themes throughout the book, throughout the whole book. Of course you feel bad that a young girl has to experience so much pain but it's not as though she dwells on it. Yes, T. Ray is mean and she goes on about the bad he does but it's not that she is constantly putting him down. More or less she just wants to get away from him and find out about her mother. For being young she definitely has a good head on her. It's great that she doesn't want to settle with how her life would be if she stayed on the farm with her father. As I just wrote father it reminded me that when Lily would say T. Ray it always felt to me like Lily was his is possession not his daughter, who he felt he could control. The thought of not calling him dad was a big clue of their lacking of a relationship. It broke my heart when Lily asked T. Ray what her favorite color was and he could not even answer. Because in that moment you feel her hope that he might know this answer and when he never answered her heart shattered truly realizing he never loved her. Here she had tried through the years hoping that maybe he just wasn't one to show it but he truly only cared about himself. After she wrote the "letter" to him it was a sense of relieft that she was able to finally let you feelings out and see just what a horrible person and father T. Ray really was. "He's not the Daddy type, He yells all the time....At everything in the world." (238)

Being a female I found that this book was inspirational and shows the unique bond between women. Lily missd out on having a mother who would nurture and love her but once she found the Sisters she felt feelings she had never felt before. I love the message that your true family does not have to be the only people that can love you. In some instances we need to open our hearts up to others and this is what Lily did. Although she never imagined she would find such home with love in a sense she stumbled onto it. This reminded me of Lovely Bones in the sense that it was as if it had all been planned out without even realizing. The fact that August was Deborah's caregiver, and Lily kept pictures of her mother and black Mary and this is what kept both mother and daughter thriving in life is chilling-in a good way! August was their savor and showed them the affection they were lacking and was simply the shoulder to cry on when they needed it most. These 3 women will forever be tied together which is a pretty unique relationship to have.

Lines from the text...

it seemed all of a sudden like my mother was there, up against my body, like she was bits and pieces of insulation modled against my skin, helping me absorb all his meanness (24)

I reached for the limb of a small cedar and held tight, as though everything I had was about to slip from my hands. (195)

Up until then I'd thought that white people and colored people getting along was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan. (209)


If I was a Negro girl- We can't think of changing our skin, change the world-that's how we gotta think. (216)

I guess I have forgiven us both, although sometimes in the night my dreams will take me back to the sadness, and I hve to wak up and forgive us again. (301)

My heart never stops talking (301)

And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street. They are the moons shining over me. ( 302)