The Secret Life of Bees Pages 1-42

Summary:

The book I am reading is called The Secret Life of Bees by: Sue Monk Kidd. It is about Lily a young girl whose life started of in the most horrible disaster you could ever think of. She remembers when she was just four years old the horrific memory of her mother and father fighting and all of a sudden her mom dying from the accidental gun shot that Lily caused. It was the saddest thing, imagine killing your own mother? She had to live with this pain for the rest of her whole life.

Lily could not get over the fact that her mother died because of her. It was strange how every night in her room bees would swarm and fly around her bedroom. When she asked Rosaleen who was her “stand in mother” what it symbolized, she said “Bees swarm before death”. So very night after, Lily would lie in her bed and think about who would be the next person to die in her life. She wished that it would be her because she thought that she had nothing to live for. She believed that her father might not even care if something might have happened to her and she died. Lily felt that the best part of her dying would be that she would be able to spend some time with the mother that she was never able to bond with. Being with her mother Deborah would allow for her to say sorry for what she has done and telling her about how hard life was with her father whom she called T.Ray because she thought the word” father” didn’t fit him well.

            Her father was very cruel and had a lot of hatred toward her. She didn’t really know why, but he seemed to ignore her presentence even when she was talking to him. He also had some of the cruelest punishments, like making her get on her knees and kneel on top of grits. It was one of the punishments he gave her for doing the wrong thing.

            Rosaleen, Lily’s “stand in mother” was the only person that Lily felt really cared about her. That thought was proven to her when Rosaleen stood up to Lily’s father about letting Lily keep the chick that she had brought for her. This really meant a lot to Lily because the most difficult thing she thought could happen was standing up to T.Ray.

Quote:

“People who think dying is the worst things don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).

Reaction:

 Lily’s life was very hard. Hard would not even be a good word to describe all of the hardships she had to face in her very young life. Her mother dying was just one of the things that contributed to the whole problem. This quote demonstrates the frustration she has with her life and how dying might not be so bad with all that she has to face.