Symbolsism And Theme

A symbol in this book could be the beehive, it has the same concept of the Boartwright residence and the sisters serve the purpose of the bees. In a beehive you only get what you put in and that is what the bees do is work on their beehive to try and produce honey in the hive to creat a stable place for them to live. The Boatwright house is the same with the sisters and everything they do for there community from work and their reputation to fighting racisim and battling for womans rights.

A theme in this story would have to be "love and need for a mother". The whole book Lily's main goal is to get that love and campassion she never received from T.Ray. Some readers say that Rosaleen took on the role of her mother but I think if anything she had taken on the role of her sister. Lily is more drawn into the idea of having a mother because she can not remember the last time she had one. She just wants someone to love her and care for her and thats when August explains to her that Mother Mary is everyones mother and she should accept the love from her if she wants that feeling back.

The Boatwright Sisters.

August Boatwright: the eldest of the Boatwright sisters. August is a nurturing beekeeper, she is a deep thinker, highly spiritual and leads most of the Daughters Of Mary Ceremonies. She is a well-respected businesswoman in the community although she still has to deal with the racism and prejudices faced by all African Americans in the South during that time period.
June Boatwright: the sister of May Boatwright and August Boatwright. She is a school teacher and talented musician who is bitter about life and refuses to marry after being left at the altar many years before. She goes to local hospitals and nursing homes where people are dying and will play her cello privately for them as a way to send their souls to heaven.
May Boatwright: the sister of August and June Boatwright. She had a twin sister, April, who died when she was younger, she is abnormally sensitive and caring, and has somewhat of a childlike nature about her. Whenever she is upset she sings "Oh Suzanna" and also built a "wailing wall" in the backyard where her sisters send her when she starts getting too upset. She is highly sensitive to pain of others and the world in general, carries the weight of the world in her soul. After she finds out that Zach had been sent to jail, she tells everyone she's going to the wailing wall, when she really went to the river and drowned herself out of grief.

Realization

As I read on with this book I have started to realize this book isn not just abuot the issue of Lily trying to find traces of her mothers life and be happy. It is also about the issue of racisim as the setting of this book is 1964 in South Carolina, so there is no question that this story is going to have multiple acts of racism occur. I first began to see the racisim happen when Rosaleen is attack by the 3 white men and put in prison, then throughout the book more and more hints of racism are layed out in the book as we meet the Boatwright sisters.

Rosaleen and Lily arive at their destination.

Rosaleen and Lily make a successful escape from the authorites and luckily hitch a ride to their destintation, just 3 miles outside of Tiburn. After a short period of time Lily and Rosaleen soon get in an argument about what the plan was(or lack of one). Lily then shouts at Rosaleen how she is dumb and she deserved to be in prison then ran off. Hours go by, as Lily is alone in remorse about her fight with Rosaleen, only looking for her to apoligize and ask for forgiveness. She finds Rosaleen naked in a creek and then joins her only friend in a midnight swim. The adventure begins with confrontation, hopefully it is not forshadowing the structure of this trip.

The true story...

Just before Lily decides to run away she gets in a heated fight with her father, in this fight T.Ray reveals that Lilys mother left Lily and did not want anything do to with her. That day she was shot she just came back for her clothes. This mentally ruined Lily as she denies it and creates the idea T.Ray is just making this up to put Lily down.
""You listen to me, the truth is your sorry mama ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd come back to get her things, thats all, you can hate me all you want but shes the one that left you."T.Ray.pg 41

Lily soon leaves her house and leaves a letter saying " Dear T.Ray, don't bother looking for me.Lily, ps. People who tell lies like you should rot in hell" pg42

Reader Response Chart

Setting: 1964 RuRal Community in South Carolina
Unkown Word and Definition: Juvenile-Immature,Childish,Infantile.
This story reminds me of: A movie called Death Sentence, in that movie one brother is killed and the family falls apart and the little brother became neglected.
What happened in this chapter: Lily was introduced and she describes her family and life situation.
An inner conflict: Lily will not forgive herself for what happened with her and her mother.
When did this take place: 1964
Significant Quotation: "When I pulled them out (her mothers gloves), I thought, her very hands were inside here."-Lily
Emotions in this peice: Depression, Remorse,Curiosity,Embarrassed.
Prediction:Lilys going to find out some information about her mother that is going to change her life.
Quotation from Another Character: "Were going to Highway Forty and Thumb a ride to Tiburon South Carolina. At least were gonna try." -Roasleen
Unkown Word And Definition: Ebenezer- Hebrew- Stone of help
Somebody: Lily a depressiong young girl who is just going through puberty
Wanted: To know her mother more because she never did
But: Her mother is passed away, and all she has left is a box of her things
So: She decides to run away to pursue memories of her mother.
A social Possible Social Commentary: Society is very old fashioned and depressing.
My Advice is: Keep on the adventure you have nothing to loose.
A power Conflict: How are Lily and Rosaleen going to get to their destination.

Imagery

“At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.”
That quote makes me feel imagery in this story because of the detail she gives when she talks abou them and the compassion that she has for them at night. With that quote you can see how much Lily cares about the only thing that is consisent in her life. Also, when Lily lets the bees out of the jar, she exclaims the reason she lets the bees out, she wants them to be free. It has only been the first coulpe chapters but I can already forsee some more connections throughout the story with Lily and the bees.

Bringing back unwanted memories

Lily remorses about the memory of her father telling her what happened the day before he died in grade 1.
T.Ray reveals that she had in fact, shot her mother by accident in the middle of a heated fight between her mother and T.Ray. What I found depressing in this part of the book was that after T.Ray tells Lily what happens. He does not offer her any comfort or love at all, he just lets her sit there with a broken heart and a twisted mind.

Lilys place of Nirvana

Nirvana: a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.

Lily describes her place of Nirvana as a place between two orchids of her fathers peach farm that she would go to when her father fell asleep, or was not home. "There was a special place out there in the long tunnel of theres no one knew about, not even Rosaleen." Lily explains as she talks about the location of her special place.

The reason this scene grabbed my attention was because it was the first realistic thing that she spoke with passion for, other than her mother and the memories that she has of her.

"But later I would slip out there, sometimes after T.Ray had gone to bed, just to lie under the trees and be peaceful. It was my plot of earth."

This quote supports my blog because she talks about being peacefull and how this is her "plot of earth" which connects my point to the definition of Nirvana.

Rosaleen.

Rosaleen is the maid of the house that Lily and her father live in. She began working for them when Lily's mother had passed away. She was an African-American woman who "T.Ray" had taken out of the Peach Orchids to help their torn apart family with maintaining the house and helping Lily grow up. "She lived alone in a little house tucked back in the woods, not far from us, and came every day to cook,clean, and be my stand in mother" was the quote by Lily that was used to describe her relationship with Rosaleen.

Early Confrontation and Symbolism

Right from the beginning of the book you see Lily's father that she calls "T.Ray", does not have much interest in Lily. When he does show interest, his input is bitter and negative. When Lily tries to show her father the bees flying around in her room, he threatens her carelessly, as she is racing him to her room. It is clear that Lily's father is still upset about the death of his wife and still holds a grudge towards Lily.

The only symbolisim I've found in this story so far was the box that Lily has full of memories of her mother.  That is the family and love aspect of Lily's life that she does not have anymore. Also, the bees represents the fun and entetainment part of her life as she watches them every night laying in bed. This eventually leads to Lily catching them in a jar to show her father and Rosaleen.

What made my decision

What really helped me to pursue this book was the description of the novel that I found on the internet when searching for this book. The book then became more appealing to me only after reading a couple pages learning the base of the main character Lily. The book starts off with Lily telling her life situation and the depression she deals with on an everyday basis due to lack of family and love. Lily explains within the first 10 pages how her mother was killed and she blames herself for it as does her father, there is a breif description of what happened but it was not very specific. A quote that really grabbed my attention was, "She was all I wanted. And I took her away."
I like this quote because it makes you feel Lilys emotion in that scene.

Secret Life of...

The book I have chosen to do is "The Secret Life of Bees"
It was published in 2002. By author Sue Monk Kid
It is 301 pages and my goal is to read 15-20 pages a night.

late change books

I decided to switch books..just looked up the plot on the secret life of the bees and looks pretty interesting, going to pick it up tonight and start my english adventure of literature!!!