The Secret Life of Bees: Movie Trailor

Structure

Structure- mode of building, construction, or organization; arrangement of parts, elements, or constituents.

Exposition- The exposition is the section of a novel in which the main characters and main conflict are introduced. The exposition of this novel occurs in Chapter One where Lily leads a miserable life with her father, T. Ray. Her life became miserable when her mother, Deborah, mysteriously died. Lily blames herself for Deborah’s death, although she is not sure if she can believe T. Ray’s accusation that it was her fault.

Rising action- Rising action is the action that will lead to the climax (or the major turning point in the plot). In this novel the rising action is everything that happens before Lily confronts T. Ray.

Climax- The climax of a plot is the major turning point that allows the person to resolve the conflict. The climax of The Secret Life of Bees occurs in Chapter Fourteen when Lily confronts T. Ray in the pink house. Lily is having difficulty deciding what kind of woman she wants to be without the direction of a mother. Lily is wandering senselessly like a bee without a queen. When Lily confronts T. Ray she makes the decision not to live with him any longer. This decision is different than the one she made when she ran away because it is a permanent decision. Lily realizes that T. Ray is a destructive person and that she cannot live subjected to his close-minded and cruel ways.

Outcome- The outcome of the novel occurs in the final chapter where Lily replaces her “queen” and starts over. Throughout the novel, Lily has been in search of herself as much as she has been in search of her mother. Learning the truth about her mother, both that Deborah left her and that she was responsible for Deborah’s death, allows Lily to begin the process of forgiving them both. In forgiving, Lily is set free to start fresh, because she freed herself from T. Ray. Lily gives herself the opportunity for a bright future and finally learns what it is like to be part of a loving family. Lily, who has been lost without a queen, finds a series of new queens in the new women in her life.

-Edina Klutsey

Metaphor

Metaphor- A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God."


The hive and bees were the metaphor of life. Bees represent people working together in a society, which is represented by the hive. The hive is controlled over by the queen, or mother-figure. Lily then learns that the queen bee can be replaced. August shows Lily how the bees become confused when the queen bee dies; however, if she replaces her with a new queen bee soon enough, they will be ok. Like the worker bees, Lily has been confused and saddened by the death of her mother. Through the intervention of the women in this novel--particularly Rosaleen and August--Lily is saved.


-Edina Klutsey

Motif

Motif- A recurring subject, theme, idea, etc.


The bees were Lily's unspoken guide throughout the novel. In the beginning, they came to her room sending a message that she needed to leave T.Ray and head out on her own. Lily then follows the path of the honey label to Tiburon, South Carolina, where she finds out the truth about her mother. In Tibourn, she lives in the honey house,(with August, May, June, and Rosaleen) where bees are just her occupation, they guide her, accompany her, and make her move forward for every important situation that happened in the novel. The bees and their products play a role when she realized she has falling in love with Zack(she licked honey off his finger), and to realizing she loves August (when she lets the bees rest on her body) She also finds the "secret life of bees" similar to her own life. Everything they did for her; caring for her mother, their ability to keep going in work, and their ability to survive inspired Lily. Their confidence on an all female community resembles her own confidence, and the bees' helped Lily understand the power of the human community,. So, the bees are the motif of this novel.

-Edina Klutsey

Characterization

Characterization- A breif discription of each important character.

• Lily: A 14 year old who blames herself for her mothers death. She lived with her father, but called him T-Ray instead of 'daddy,' since he wasnt close to her. Lily is the narraratoe of the story, and we see through her eyes. Through Lily, we learn about the racism, love, and community within the worlds of Tiburon and Sylvan, South Carolina; through her, we learn about strong women, such as August Boatwright and Rosaleen, and the importance of developing female-centric communities.
• Rosaleen: The house keeper of Lily and R-Ray. She would always be there to listen to what Lily told her. Rosaleen is the woman Lily came to for her problems, advice and for her love. Rosaleen considered Lily as a daughter, as Lily considered her a mother. Throughout the novel, they experience things together that creates such a strong bond between them.
• T-Ray: Llily's father. At one point T-Ray was a loving man, who cared deeply for Deborah-Lily's mother. Since Deborah's death, he always mentally and emotionally abuses Lily and makes her feel like she was completely responsible for her mother's death. He had told Lily that Deborah had abandoned them, and that was the whole reason that Lily ran away from home.

- Isabela Janashvilli

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing- a breif discription of what could happen afterwards.

The novel opens with Lily watching bees fly around her bedroom. These bees foreshadow Lily's interaction with the Boatwright sisters at August's bee farm. From the beginning, you can tell that bees are going to play a major role in the book. To Lily bees serve as unspoken guides throughout the novel. Lily follows the trail of the honey label to Tiburon—and to the truth about her mother. Bees suggest rebirth, exploration, sexual maturation, and personal growth. They guide Lily, accompany her, and drive her forward into self-discovery.

- Isabela Janashvilli

Irony

Irony-the use of words to convey a meaning that is opposite of its literal meaning.

• In the book, Lily runs away from her father and stops at the place her mother had stayed when she herself had run away from T-Ray. Lily ended up staying with August Boatwright, an African-American beekeeper. The ironic part I find about that situation is that they both ended up at the same place. Lily didnt even know her mom stayed there until she saw June using a special method for eliminating roaches that her mother had also used. The Secret Life of Bees uses irony something happens that wasn't expected to the reader.
• Lily blames herself for her mom's death, even though she had no intention of doing what she did. After losing her mom, she creates a strong bond with Rosaleen, and considers her a mom figure. Lily never knew that she can have another mother figure in her life, but after meeting August she also meets 2 other women who are also like mother figures to her. So, she lost a mother and gained 4 surrogate mothers.

- Isabela Janashvilli

Themes

The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates the irrationality of racism by portraying black and white characters with dignity and intelligence, and also demonstrating how Lily struggles with her own racism. Lily is not racist in the way that the group of men that harass Rosaleen are. Although she does show some prejudice and stereotypes at the start of the novel. She assumes that all African Americans are like Rosaleen, an uneducated laborer. Lily imagines that all African Americans are the same. When Lily meets, intelligent, educated August Boatwright, she must change her assumptions and overcome her prejudice. At first, Lily feels shocked that a black person could be as smart as August. Lily learns to realize the truth about the cruelty and irrationality of racism. She also learns that individuals can have different traits and characteristics regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. Later in the book, Lily begins to develop strong feelings for Zach. Once again, Lily has to face her own prejudice. Zach is a nice, handsome African American young man. As a child in Sylvan, Lily was raised to believe that a black man could not be handsome. When she realizes that this is not the case with Zach, she becomes more open minded and aware of the untrue things she was raised to believe. Although Lily and Zach realise that because of the racist South at that time, they could never be together. Lily again discovers the irrationality of racism, and the harmful and hurtful effects of it.

-Maggie Todaro

Symbols

In the book, beehives are almost identical to August's pink house. Bees live, work and produce honey in beeheives. Just like in a bee community, in August's home, females dominate, and the queen bee rules over everyone and everything. August tells Lily that the queen bee is the mother of every single bee in it's hive. She also says the same thing about the Virgin Mary. According to August, Mary is the mother of all women. This is who the Daughters of Mary represent. Bees have developed many different ways to protect their home. Similarly, August and her community have certain routines including prayer, celebration and mourning. The beehive has a symbolic function in the novel because as Lily learns about August's community and is welcomed to it. She also learns about the mechanics of the beehive. By the end of the book, Lily has become a great, intelligent beekeeper.

-Maggie Todaro

Point of View

The Secret Life of Bees is written in a first person limited point of view. The narrarator of the story is Lily. We have access to her thoughts, but not to the thoughts of other characters. By seeing the story through her eyes, readers are able to feel her pain and anguish from being abandoned by her mother and understand her hate and resentment towards her father. That is something we wouldn't be able to understand if the story was told in another perspective. We also witness her growth and development as she matures. In the beginning of the book, she was pessimistic and dwelled upon all the sorrow she faced in her life. By the end, she changes her mentality and sees the good things happening.

-Maggie Todaro

Tone

The tones of the story are intimate and serious. There are many intimate relationships that are displayed through the entire story. The relationships Lily holds with different characters are very close and special. She has different bonds with each character she interacts with. Relationships with Rosaleen, August, Zachary, June, and May are the most important relationships in the story. Without these characters, Lily would have never known love or how to love. She would have never overcome her fears or figured out who she was. Each of these characters helped aid Lily to understand her past and to understand what kind of person she was.

The serious part of the story is carried through every experience Lily endures. She uses her memories and experiences to help her figure out what she wanted and to figure out the difference between reality and what others wanted her to belive. Lily’s past of having accidentally killed her mother, not receiving love from her father, not completely understanding why her mother left her and what happened the night she died, the death of May, the arrest of Zach, and the racial issues going on during this time period also help carry the tone of seriousness in the story. All of these problems Lily faces are related to her past and bring her on the complicated journey to find out who she really is and become her own person.

- Sophia Chronopoulos

Conflict

The major conflict in the story is about Lily running away from home to learn about her past and find out about who her mother is. She goes to great lengths to discover the truth about her mother’s death and about who she was. The journey to find her mother brings Lily to find herself as well. She discovers herself, she discovered people who loved her, and people who would take care of her. All the questions that Lily has bring her to Tiburon, South Carolina. This is where she finds a home, a family, and learns the truth about her mother and her past. Lily was faced with the obstacles of her father telling her that her mother didn’t love her, the racism going on that forced Lily to help Rosaleen escape prison, her own thoughts, the beliefs of the time period that separated blacks and whites, her fears of the possibility that her mother didn’t love her and abandoned her, that she torchers herself over having accidentally killed her mother, and also that she was a female at this time. Lily wanted to explore and be something more than the typical woman. She had hopes and dreams to be a writer and go to college. Women were expected to behave in a certain way which made her fight harder for what she wanted. Police were another obstacle that stood in her way. She had to be careful to not be found by police and be taken back to her father. Lily confronted the conflict of wanting to know her mother by traveling to South Carolina where her mother had been, and risking everything she had to reach her goal. She faced her fears and fought against what everyone said to understand her past.

- Sophia Chronopoulos

Dialogue

Dialogue is an important part of The Secret Life of Bees. It is used to explain time period, setting, struggles, relationships, and themes through out the book. The time period of this book takes place during the civil rights movement, while blacks were fighting for rights and equality. A quote that supports this is:

“I've just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that's all. You've got to hear of these things before you can imagine them.”-Lily
“Bullshit. You gotta imagine what's never been.” - Zach

This quote shows the change going on. People had never heard of blacks being successful, having manners, or being able to carry out a real job. Rosaleen is the reason why Lily believed black people had no manners. Meeting August completely changed her opinion about this. Lily was shocked to see that a black person could be polite, or have manners. Also, when Lily meets Zachary and develops a crush on him, she is shocked because people believed blacks werent attractive. Meeting Zachary with his features and August’s polite behavior, she realizes all the horrible things people said and thought about blacks were lies. She realizes her own prejudices and changes the way she thought about blacks. That was the point of creating equality between blacks and whites. Lily was proof that people can change if they try.

Dialogue is also used in the book to explain the different relationships that characters in the book have. The relationship between Rosaleen and Lily are described in dialogue and in thought. When Rosaleen stands up to Lily’s father or goes along with Lily’s plans, their bond is shown. Rosaleen is the first person who has ever loved Lily. Lily looks to her for support. Rosaleen besically raised Lily and is the only person who has tried to care for her. Other relationships explained in dialogue is the one between Lily and Zachary. Zachary has dealt with being a black man in the south. He put up with racism but never let his race stand in the way of what he wanted. He didn’t let it stand in the way of his dream to become a lawyer or his relationship with Lily. By working at the Boatwright’s house as a beekeeper, Lily got to know Zachary which let their relationship grow into love.

- Sophia Chronopoulos