The Secret Life of Bees (Presley Gregory)

Title of Book: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

# of Pages 302

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ 

 Why This Book has Value:

The Secret Life of Bees is a heartwarming story about a girl named Lily. Lily’s entire life has been shaped around the very faint memory of the day her mother died. Her father T. Ray picked out an African American woman from his peach farm to act as her stand-in mother. After Rosaleen insults three of the biggest racists in town she and Lily head out of town. What Rosaleen didn’t know was that Lily was on the search to find answers about her mother in a nearby town. Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three African American beekeeping sisters and are introduced into the captivating world of honey. This is an amazing book on forgiveness and female power.

Setting: 

The beginning of this book takes place in Sylvan, South Carolina. As Lily said, “T.Ray and I lived just outside of Sylvan, South Carolina, population 3,100.” (Kidd 8). Once Rosaleen and Lily take off on their journey they end up in Tiburon, South Carolina. This book takes place in the time period of 1964. “All people ever talked about after church were the negros and whether they’d get their civil rights.” (Kidd 20-21). In the period of 1964, African Americans were granted the right to vote through the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Author:  

Sue Monk Kidd is from Sylvester, Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University with a nursing degree. In her 20s she was influenced by the writings of Thomas Merton to find her inner self. So in her 30s, she started taking writing classes at Emory University. Her first published piece was a personal essay from her writing class published by Guideposts. This gave her a job as a contributing editor at Guidepost. She has gone on to write many more great pieces and is still writing today.

Subject Matter:

 This book has a serious topic matter. Racism. It is the main conflict in this book. 

“Well, look what we got coming here,” he called out. “Where’re you going, nigger? Firecrackers made a spattering sound in the distance. “Keep walking,” I whispered. “Don’t pay any attention.” But Rosaleen, who had less sense than I’d dreamed, said in this tone like she was explaining something real hard to a kindergarten student, “I’m going to register my name so I can vote, that’s what.” 

Rosaleen going to vote causes fury in the men and leads to a brawl. The three men against Rosaleen. Rosaleen is later taken to jail where the officer lets the men in her cell to continue beating her. This is all because she wanted to vote.

Theme:

There are a ton of different themes throughout the book. The one I decided to choose to focus on was Forgiveness. “Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We’re all so human. Your mother made a terrible mistake, but she tried to fix it.” August had said. (Kidd ch.12).

Lily has had to learn to forgive throughout this book, “Drifting off to sleep, I thought about her. How nobody is perfect. How you just have to close your eyes and breathe out and let the puzzle of the human heart be what it is.” (Kidd ch.14). The author is trying to convey that we need to forgive to heal.