Book Report Due Oct 3

The Secret Life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd

Main Events

The first important event that happens in chapters 9-11 is when The Boatwright sisters, Rosaleen and Lily is having a really hot day and a water war is initiated. During this event Lily leaves all of her sense and hoses June with water. They end up wrestling in the water over which of them that will have the sprinkler and in the end June hugs Lily. This is important due to the fact that Junes sort of dislike towards Lily now releases and they start a new way of connection.

"... June stepped over them, too, ant hen, to my shock, she hugged me. June Boatwright hugged me while our clothes made sweet, squishy sounds up and down our bodies." – Page 170

Next important event is when Zach is thrown into jail, for doing nothing than keeping silence when a friend of his throws a coke bottle on a white man, and the family's situation gets out of balance.

"I saw Jackson bite down, causing a tiny ripple across his jaw. I saw him raises his R.C. Cola bottle over his head. And throw it." – Page 178

Here, the first step of difficulties begins that will give ammunition to the next main event that happens in the book; May kills herself.

This event turns the family’s life upside down and gives away for a change that will result in several actions. May, who takes on pain that is not hers, feels that life's all problems and difficulties are too much for her and decides to end the pain. She kills herself by putting a rock on her chest while lying with her back in the river. On her note that she leaves behind to her sisters she writes that this is not the end, the opposite, this is the time for them to live. She couldn't live in this world but her sisters can, and they will. 

Due to this the unintended consequence is that June says yes when Neil propose, something she earlier said no to.

"Dear August and June,

I'm sorry to leave you like this. I hate you being sad, but think how happy I'll be with April, Mama, Papa and Big Mama. Picture us up there together, and that will help some. I'm tired of carrying around the weight of the world. I'm just going to lay it down now. It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up.

Love May." – Page 210

Questions about the book

1. Why did June dislike Lily when she got there?

2. What was the problem with Zach getting in jail without doing anything?

3.If May hadn't answers the telephone and found out that Zach was in jail and if the suicide didn't happen, what might the ending been?

Words
Please see page Vocabulary (red words highlighted), at the right in the page archive.

Book report #3 Due Sept 26

The Secret life of Bees

Neil (surname unknown) is, according to Lily, the tallest Negro man she has ever seen. He is a follower to June and a good friend to the Boatwright sisters.

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

“I found the tallest Negro man I’d ever seen working on the truck...” Page 102

“He wore blue jeans and an undershirt with grease smears on it, along with horn-rimmed glasses. He looked like a very studious mechanic.” Page – 104

June Boatwright is the middle sister in among the Boatwright’s sisters. She has very short hair and she seldom smiles. She is cautious and suspicious and very back drawn. She is musical talented and she works at funerals, playing music.

Her hair is cut short and she is unmarried. She is very serious and has her principles.

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

“..Her hair cut so short it resembled a little gray, curlicue swim cap pulled tight over her scalp.” – Page 68

“Her face stared at us, suspicious and stern.” – Page 68

Best part

“– you know, some things don’t matter that much, Lily. Like the color of s house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart – now, that matters.”

This is a fantastic part in the book. It shows so much love and sacrifice a person will do for another person’s happiness. Here August dislikes the color that May wanted for the house but because May really liked that color and makes her happy, August set aside her feelings about the color and put May's well being in front of some stupid non-important thing as the color of their house. Is that not love or what?

The Theme of the book

I think that the scheme in the book is search. lily's search for her history,background and identity.
Lily is on her own way trying to find out everything about her mother, how she was and what kind of person she was. She is at the same time trying to find her identity and her own place in life. When you are so young that Lily is, you do not know yourself and your place in life. And with your mother gone you have plenty of questions and loose strings that you want to attach.

"We're going to Highway Forty and thumb a ride to Tiburon". - Page

With this sentence we can see that Lily, that really do not know where she is going decides to go to the one place that has some kind of connection to her mother.
She then later, when she notice the label on the honey jars in a local market, finds out that these labels are the same labels as the one that her mother have written Tiburon on and which she carries around. At that point she decides that she has to go to where the honey is produced and ends up at the hand of three sisters, that, probably, in some way have some connection to her mother.

 P. 101 P.94 P.79

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

Book report #1 Due Sept 12

Book Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Lily Owens is a brave and determine young girl with an open mind. She only lives with her father since her mother past away which can be due to the fact that she does not dress in the latest fashion for young girls. She doesn’t cut her hair regularly and she doesn’t take care of her hair since she doesn’t have the tools for it. The “only” woman in her life is Rosaleen, a colored woman that is under employment of Lily’s father T.Ray- Rosaleen who, along with her duties, also acts like Lily’s caregiver since she's been with Lily for almost all of her life.
Lily is a black-haired, chinless little girl that, and possibly because of the absence of a mother, can’t fit in among other girls in the same age as her.

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

“You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair. My hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions...” – Page 3

“My hair was black like my mother’s but basically a nest of cowlicks, and it worried me that I didn’t have much of a chin. I kept thinking I’d grow one the same time my breast came in, but it didn’t work out that way. I had nice eyes, though, what you would call Sophia Loren eyes…” – Page 9

“In a matter of seconds I knew exactly what I had to do – leave. I had to get away from T.Ray, who was probably on his way back this minute to do Lord-knows-what to me. Not to mention I had to get Rosaleen out of jail.” – Page 41

Rosaleen Daise is an ageless woman that works for Lily’s father T.Ray. She is described in the book as a big and colored woman with a bit of an attitude. Rosaleen is despite her boldness a caring and loving person who doesn’t want any fights but cannot, with the situation she is in, let injustice and inequality go pass.

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

“She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin.” – Page 2

“We walked along the ledge of the highway, Rosaleen moving in the pace of a bank-vault door…” – Page 28

“– Where did you get that fan, nigger? – Stole it from the church, She said. Just like that” – Page 32

Mr. Avery Gaston is a policeman that is not suited for his job. He is an unfair and conservative racist who “sees between his fingers” when the situation needs it. Mr. Gaston is also called Shoe and is described in the book as a person with small ears.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Mr. Gaston’s appearance

“The one thing about him was the smallness of his ears, the ears of a child, ears like little dried apricots.” – page 34

“His smile appeared in the rearview mirror. – I can’t say what men riled up like that will do.”
– Page 35

Main events in the book

I think that the main events in these chapters happens during a short period of time and the first is when Rosalee pours snuff juice on three of the town’s worst racists. This triggers Lilly’s and Rosaleen’s escape from not only their home but also from the law. Here you see the difference between people and how much hate there is in the world; something that neither Lily nor Rosaleen wants to be part of.
Next event is when Lily and her father go through a fight about whether Lily’s mother loved Lily (and/or both of them) or not and about the day Lily’s mother died. This certain event is the main reason why Lily decides to run away from the life she has. The importance in this is to understand that Lily, though not having a physical relationship to her mother still wants to believe that her mother is still with her even though she does not longer live. During this dispute T.Ray says a couple of things about Lily’s mother that affects Lily and almost sets her life upwards down.
That dispute also makes us move on to the third event that is, in some ways, connected to the dispute; the event when Lily jailbreaks Rosaleen from the hospital. This do not only show how determine Lily is as a person but also that Lily understand that she needs to start a new life and get away from her old life, forever.

Future thoughts

The next thing that will happen in this book is that someday the past will catch them running and it will probably not be that kind. Of course, T.Ray, though he does not really care, will search for Lily. Probably because he feels a need of it rather then that he wants and to not become embarrassed in the city he’s living in. Eventually the three racists that has been “assaulted” and the police will search for them as well, to for the first men; get their “justice” and for the later; keep everything in order by the law and for himself.
They will also during their escape have to pretend that they are somebody else and lie to everybody around them. They will also feel afraid of being caught and have the feeling of looking over the shoulder all the time. It is going to interesting to see how this evolves..

Best part from the book

The best part so far in the book is when Lily realizes that she has to make a change in her life and do something about her life situation. In this particular episode she realize that she has to find a new way, her own way and to do something different about her non-fascinating life. She realizes that she can't live together with T.Ray and that she has to get away from everything about him and the life they're living.

“I took a breath to steady myself.
You could say I’d never had a true religious moment, the kind where you know yourself spoken to by a voice that seems other than yourself, spoken to so genuinely you see the words shining on trees and clouds. But I had such a moment right then, standing in my own ordinary room.
I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open.”