Book Reading #2 Due Sept 19

The Secret life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd

August Boatwright is the eldest of the Boatwright sisters. She is humble and generous and she is acting like the big sister she is and taking care of her younger sisters.

August is tall, has ginger eyes and she looks younger than she is except for her wrinkled face and her flour dusty hair.

Quotations from the book that let us know about August’s appearance

“She was almond-buttery with sweat and sun, her face corrugated with a thousand caramel wrinkles and her hair looking flour dusted, but the rest of her seemed decades younger.” – Pages 71-72

“She put down her glass. I had never seen eyes that color, eyes the purest shade of ginger.” – Page 74

May Boatwright is the youngest of the Boatwright sisters. She is not altogether normal and acts differently from everybody else. Though she is not like everybody else, she has a good intentions and a good heart. Due to earlier life event, May act differently from the rest and takes in all the bad things that is happening and gets affected. She is carrying around heavy feelings that are not hers.
May is in the book described as simple minded but at the same time intelligent in some areas.
May wears her hair in braids and

Quotations from the book that let us know about May’s appearance

“– I’m May Boatwright, she said. – I’m August’s sister, too. She smiled at us, one of those odd grins that let you know she was not an altogether normal person.” – Page 69

“May was simpleminded. I don’t mean retarded, because she was naïve and unassuming, a grown-up and a child at the same time, plus she was a touch crazy.” – Pages 84-85

Zachary Lincoln Taylor is a handsome young man with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Zach is a well-mannered, thoughtful and a loving kind of person. He is very handsome and his skin shoots of mystery.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Zach’s appearance

“He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hair like most of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn’t help staring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome.” – Page 116

“The dark, dark look of it. The mystery of his skin.” – Page 125

“..Zach showed up with the prettiest notebook – Green with rosebuds on the cover. He met me coming out of the pink house. – This is for you, he said. – So you can get a head start on writing” – Page 135’

Main Events

Event 1

“I walked toward black Mary with my hand lifted. But just as I was about to reach her, June stopped playing. She stopped right in the middle of the song, and I was left in the silence with my hand stretched out.
Drawing it back, I looked around me, and it was like seeing everything through a train’s thick window. A blur passed before me. A moving wave of color. I am not one of you, I thought.” – Page 111

It is during this event that Lily really feels the color of her skin. She feels like an outsider and like a person that shouldn’t be there and interact with these people.
She haven’t really experienced that before due to that she is white and now when she experienced it, she feels sad about it.

Event 2

 “That’s fine with me, –I said, a little annoyed. 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.”

“– Bullshit. You gotta imagine them”

“I closed my eyes. – All right then, I’m imaging a Negro lawyer. You are a Negro Perry Mason. People are coming to you from all over the state, wrong-accused people, and you get at the witness stand.”

“– Yeah, he said,–I bust their ass with the truth. When he laughed, his tongue was grass green from Kool-Aid.” I started calling him Zach the ass-busting lawyer. – Oh, look who’s here, Zach the ass busting lawyer, I’d say.” – Page 121

This is the time when Lily and Zach connect. They interact with each other from this point and forward and it is now they feel comfortable together and a new time of discovery begins.

Best part from the book

The best part from the book and these chapters is when Lily cries and realize that the things she is doing is not sustainable, they are not going to last forever. She needs to catch up with the real life and realize that the truth must be told and the consequences of that action must be made.

“That night, when the darkness was weighed down with singing crickets and Rosaleen was snoring right along with them, I had myself a good cry. I couldn’t even say why. Just everything, I guess. Because I hated lying to August when she was so good to me. Because Rosaleen was probably right about dream worlds. Because I was pretty sure the Virgin Mary was not back there on the peach farm standing in for me the way she’d stood in for Beatrix.” – Page 123

I also liked the part in the book when Zack gives Lily a notebook to write in. It was really thoughtful of him to think about her and give her something she was interested in. From the earlier event when they connected, they have now a deep interaction with each other.

“..Zach showed up with the prettiest notebook – Green with rosebuds on the cover. He met me coming out of the pink house. – This is for you, he said. – So you can get a head start on writing.”

“That was when I knew I would never find a better friend than Zachary Taylor.” – Page 135