The Secret Life of Bees
A book review
The Secret Life of Bees book was published on November 8th of 2001, written by a well-known profound writer Sue Monk Kidd the book has inspired a movie with the same title to which focuses on the visual play of the novel. It is a historical fiction book with 14 chapters and 336 pages. 81% of the people have loved the book. Characters of the book include Lily Melissa Owens being the lead, Rasoleen Daise a black baby sitter, T. Ray Owens father of Lily Owens, August Boatwright, May Boatwright, June Boatwright, and Zach Taylor.
The movie of The Secret Life Of Bees
The movie was initially released on October 17th of 2008 it is one hour fifteen minutes long. It’s directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and won the NAACP image award for the outstanding motion picture. 88% of the audience has loved this movie making it a must-watch drama film.
Plot Overview
The story is of the book is set in South Carolina in 1964, informing the life journey of a fourteen-year-old white girl, Lily Owens. At four after her mother’s death she has lost her memory (she doesn’t remember what happened) and the plots change when she goes ahead and tries to look for it.
Summary And Spark Note From Chapter 1 To 14
The Secret Life of Bees book moves around the story of Lily Melissa Owens describing the events of summer when she turned fourteen years old. She lived in sylvan South Carolina when racism was widespread and was living unhappily. Her father T. Ray was an ignorant, aggressive and abusive guy who gave her a hard time after the death of her mother Deborah when she was only four. She doesn’t remember what happened to her mother and how she was killed.
Lily had a great relationship with Rasoleen, a black woman charged with taking care of her. Lily often misses her mother as she has guilt that she doesn’t get either. As she was the one to kill her mother with a gun that falls off by her father after a fight between him and her mother. Her memory has blurred. Her father said she abandoned her and was leaving, which she won’t accept as she feels he is lying.
So she looks for the truth. While searching she found out a picture of her mother with a statue of marrying but with a black face, at the backside of the picture she found out a location of a town. This made her suspicious about the story, and she wanted to know more about it. So Lily traveled to the Town of Tiburon with Rasoleen. But because of a conflict between Rasoleen and a white person at the gas station, Lily and Rasoleen were jailed.
His father bailed Lily out, but Rasoleen wasn’t allowed to leave. So Lily sneaked Rasoleen out and run away to Tiburon with her. She was successful to do so. While traveling there she took a lunch break at a general store where she saw honey jars with the picture of black marry on the labels, this made her suspicious to find out more about her mother. She located the address of the beekeepers who were producing honey.
They go to meet the owner while reaching that village she sees the same marry with black face. Later on, Lily and Rasoleen meet the owner named August Boatwright. She invited them to her home. Lily met sisters of august named May and June they were twins. Lily accepts the invitation unless she feels it was an appropriate time to ask about her mother.
August doesn’t care about Lily’s concern and ordered her to work with her. She put Lily to work with bees and Rasoleen at the house. Lily further on the story had a good hold of the bee hiving work. Lily developed a good relationship with the Boatwright sisters. She falls in love with August’s assistant Zach. They got serious. But as Lily was aware of the dangers Zach would face under the pact of the civil right act, she doesn’t share it openly. So she better felt not to share unless they achieve their goals. She wanted to become a writer and Zach a lawyer.
While a countryside investigation, Zach and his friends were arrested. This made Lily and the sisters sad. Due to which overly empathic May ended up killing herself. Following the death of May, her twin sister June also attempted suicide. Zach was soon released after the death of May.
Lily, after the incident, eventually asks August about her mother Deborah, whom August knew about, so she told her that her mother left her and came to Tiburon. And she was reminded about killing her mother. At first, Lily was shocked and aggressive for a few days, she even destroyed she nearly destroys honey house with her grief but later on August consoled her by telling her that Deborah went back for her.
Meanwhile, T. Ray found about her location and came to pick her back. While he was threatening to take Lily back home, she didn’t want to go, Rasoleen and August Boatwright requested him to leave her under their care. So T. Ray left her with them.
Conclusion
Lily is firmly telling us about her fast and speed life. She still being in high school as the story of the novel takes place, she claims to have a good time with Rasoleen and the Boatwright sisters. The book is great for a thoughtful weekend read.
