Bees

Author's Note: With this essay my goal was to analyze the text for am advanced novel. The novel that I used was The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. Throughout the essay I show the symbolic references in the book.

While Lily was a small child, her mother passed away and her father, T. Ray, grew sour. The sourness spread over his soul, and he started to believe that it was okay for him to release his anger by abusing his daughter. When Lily turned fourteen, she was tired of the constant malice her father fed her with, so she took her courage and left with the nanny and housekeeper, Rosaleene, to search for her mother, who Lily believed still existed somewhere. With a few items to help them through their journey, they hitchhike to a city, Tiburon, S.C., written on the back of a photo that her mother kept with her belongings. Winding up at a pink beekeeping house, owned by black women, Lily learns how to keep bees and grow in love for others. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the symbolism and messages throughout the story are tremendous, portraying the meaning of the bees in the story, the beehive, and racism.

The leadership of bees in this story is displayed through the entire novel. Dawning at the beginning of the book, Lily's room is crowded with bees, as it consistently is at nighttime, and whisper to her how she should leave T. Ray's house on her own. Farther into the novel, she follows a label on a honey company to Turban where she is then lead to a beekeeping house. As the women that own the house welcome her in, they make a pact to teach her how to keep bees. Every decision Lily makes in the novel has to relate to bees in one way or another. Even the title helps support the symbolic reference to bees, The Secret Life of Bees. This would mean the "secret" guidance, or job, of bees outlining the novel.

As bees direct us over to our next symbolic source, we come to the reasoning behind the beehive. Gather the common knowledge about beehives. It upholds a community of bees that all eat, breathe, and work in the same air; there is ultimately one queen bee. Similar to the atmosphere of the beehive is the running of the pink house owned by August, the queen bee. This home is contains August and her sisters as well as Lily and Roseleene that were lovingly welcomed in. Additionally, the work that everyone contributes benefits everyone in the household, or beehive. Without the business, they would all suffer financially. Without the love, the unification would collapse.

Rounding out the beehive with the people that work for it, is noticing the racism woven in the storyline. Way back in the foundation of the novel, while Lily accompanies Rosaleene to cast her vote, a fight broke out between Rosaleene and white men, showing the hatred for colored people. Afterward, when Lily and Rosaleene arrive to their destination, they notice the owners of the home are colored women. Lily is a bit perplexed at how these women can be just as intelligent and loving as any other white woman. A further example of how racism was characterized through this novel is when Lily meets and falls in love with a colored boy, Zach. The numerous occurrences of race in this novel show that the author wanted to get across to the reader that race is no object and people shouldn't be judged on whatever skin tone they have.

Pulling together the loose ends, there are endless ways for symbolism to be shown in the beautiful novel, The Secret Life of Bees. From the navigation of bees and their hives, to the future of racism back in the 1960's time period, Sue Monk Kidd pieced together a marvelous novel that many will love in upcoming generations with countless symbolic references and meanings that are read between the lines.