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Emily PetersonPeriod
5-31-11Mrs. Schraw
Themes in The Secret Life of Bees
Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Edmund Burke, a
successful orator and philosopher, explains the importance of
reflecting on what we read.
When we reflect, we think deeply and make connections from
novels to our own lives.
Authors encourage us to make connections by using literary
elements in their novels.
They may use symbols, imagery, foreshadowing, or themes. Themes
are general lessons
about life, and many are found in The Secret Life of Bees. The
three most significant
themes in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd are secret
lives, motherhood, and
racism.
Sue Monk Kidd leaves us several messages in her novel. She talks
about the
secret lives of both bees and humans. Bees live intricate lives,
and humans usually do not
realize how complicated a beehive is. Each bee has his or her
own job, and the main goal
is to keep the queen bee happy. Like bees, people lead
complicated lives and are not
always what they seem on the surface. August explains this to
Lily with the following
quotation. Most people dont have any idea about all the
complicated life going on
inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we dont know anything
about. (148) In this
statement, August refers to many parallels between bees and
humans. Every bee in the
hive has an occupation, as Lily also has a job working for the
Boatwrights. Bees have a
mother to care for them, and Lily craves a mother to be there
for her. Motherhood is
another prominent theme. Lily is looking for information about
her mother from the very
beginning. Her mother, Deborah, dies when Lily is only four
years old, so Lily has to
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grow up motherless. Rosaleen acts as a mother figure for her;
however, she is not as
comforting or soft as Lily imagines her real mother to be.
Later, August provides support
and listens to Lily when she wants to talk. She gives Lily
wisdom about beekeeping and
tells her a woman can be successful, despite the discrimination
against females. In
addition to secret lives and motherhood, racism is a powerful
theme. During the 1960s,
African Americans are not treated fairly. Rosaleen gets sent to
jail for spitting on a white
mans shoes. Zach, the boy with whom Lily falls in love, wants to
be a lawyer, but his
skin color may affect his opportunities. The following quotation
shows how August feels
about skin color and racism. You know, some things dont matter
that much, Lily. Like
the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of
life? But lifting a persons
heart now thatmatters. (147) August explains how outside
appearance should not
matter, but the inside qualities are important. At the
beginning, Lily struggles with her
own racism. She thinks all African Americans are like Rosaleen,
uneducated laborers or
housekeepers. She also does not believe black people can be
attractive. It surprises Lily
when she meets August, who is intelligent and sensitive, and
Zach, who is charming and
handsome. She overcomes her racism and realizes there are more
qualities to people than
appearances. Sue Monk Kidd effectively leaves us messages about
secret lives,
motherhood, and racism.
Secret lives, motherhood, and racism are the three most
significant themes in Sue
Monk Kidds novel, The Secret Life of Bees. Themes are messages
which give readers
general lessons about life. In addition to themes, authors use
literary elements such as
symbols, imagery, and foreshadowing. The use of these elements
encourages us to make
