What do you think will happen to Lily?

Now that we're half way through the book, make some predictions about how you think the book will wind up.

Chapter 4 Class Discussion

“Why doesn’t Lily want to tell her story right away?” Lily and Rosaleen is currently living at the bee farm with the Calendar Sisters. “What motivates Lily to do what she does in the story thus far?” We have learned that Rosaleen is Lily’s caretaker, but why does Lily get so upset with Rosaleen for doing things such as belching, or any other unmannered action? In retrospect, who acts more of like a mother to whom?


Please develop the aforementioned questions into at least one detailed paragraph.

Chapter 3 Class Discussion

For chapter 3, we would like to revolve our discussion about as to whether Lily was a good person or a bad person? Was Lilly stealing the snuff for Rosaleen a good thing to do or not and did it has a purpose? What makes a person good or bad? Are there different degrees of stealing? (Remember the fans in the church from chapter 2)

Please develop the aforementioned questions into at least one detailed paragraph.

Chapter 3 Summary

Class, here is a brief summary for this chapter:

Lily and Rosaleen fell asleep alongside a tree in a field on their way to find the honey. They have slept half the morning away and still not fully awake. Roseleen was snoring and drooling, while Lily was awake thinking about her mother and the picture she had of the black Virgin Mary. Lily finally awoke Rosaleen and they started to get a move on with their day. Lily was thinking that it would be easy to find a place to stay or to eat but Rosaleen turned that down telling Lily that she’s with a black lady and people don’t take kindly to blacks. Even after the Civil Rights Act. Lily found food for them at a local general store and stole a can of snuff. She saw the honey on the wall and asked about it. She found out where the honey farm was located and how to get there. Then they bought a newspaper to see if they were in it for being lost or runaways.

Symbols for Chapters 1 & 2

A symbol is a sign, word, phrase, image, or other object that stands for or represents something else. There are symbols displayed in Chapters 1 & 2.

Please post one symbol from either chapter 1 or 2. Remember the example given in class!

Themes for Chapters 1 & 2

There are quite a few different themes that can be used for Chapters one and two. One theme could be that the loss of a mother never leaves you, that there's always a gap there. This is shown by Lily always feeling like she's missing something and how the quest for learning more about her mother never ends.

Another possible theme for chapters one and two is that the main unifying force in a household is the mother. This is shown through Lily and how she craves to have a mother or a figure that is "motherlike". Its also shown through how she never really connects with T. Ray and keeps distant from him.

What other themes are displayed in Chapters one and two? Post one theme explaing why you choose this theme and how it relates to the story.

Chapter 2 Summary

The Beggining of Chapter 2 started off with Mr. Avery Gaston driving Lily and Rosaleen to jail because Rosaleen spit on three white mens shoes. As they were driving, the three men started driving really close to the car and honking their horns and yelling at Lily and Rosaleen to try and scare them. They finally drove off and Mr. Gaston pulled of into an empty parking lot where the three men were waiting for them. Mr. Gaston guided Rosaleen out of the car and handcuffed her hands behind her back. The three men told her she better apologize, but she refused so the men proceeded to beat her face with a flashlight. After Rosaleen fell to the ground Mr. Gaston then stopped the men and he said, "Now's not the time." He then took Rosaleen and Lily to jail. Then T.Ray came to pick Lily up from the jail, but did not get Rosaleen. T.Ray was furious and told Lily that Rosaleen was stupid for spitting on those mens shoes and that they would probably kill her. She began to fear even more for Rosaleen and at the same time was furious at the fact that T.Ray left Rosaleen in jail. Lily finally snapped when T.Ray told her to wait in her room for her punishment. She said to him, "You don't scare me." After she said that he tried to hit her, but she turned her head and he missed. They argued back and forth and T.Ray told her that her mother never cared about her and when she was packing that day of the accident, she was plannng on leaving Lily alone with T.Ray. Lily was upset for awhile, but she finally came to the conclusion that T.Ray made that up because he wanted to punish her. Lily then had what she called, "a religous experience" and she said she heard a voice say,"Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open." She then realized she needed to get away from T.Ray and get Rosaleen out of jail. So she packed up her stuff, with no plan of what she was going to do. The only thing she left was a brief note for T.Ray, which he was not happy to discover. As she was walking, brother Gerald offered to give her ride to the jail. But when she got there, Mr. Gaston said that Rosaleen had an accident. She fell and she was hospitalized. Lily knew what really happened and started yelling at him. When she got to the hospital, she snuck into Rosaleen's room in which she was not allowed in. Lily asked her what happened and she said that those three men had come back to get an apology from her, but still she refused. Lily convinced Rosaleen that they had to leave or those men would surely kill her. After that, Lily, being the good lier she is, snuck Rosaleen out of jail, they then started their trip to Tiburon. Lily wanted to head to Tiburon because that was what was written on the back of her mother's picture. They then hitched a ride to three miles outside of Tiburon with a black man who kindly gave then them cantalopes after he dropped them off. They found a peaceful spot by a creek to spend the night. There they ate their cantalope and talked about their plans, or should I say Lily's plans. The chapter ended with Lily and Rosaleen swimming in the creek. Lily was imagining the smell of cold cream and thoughts of her mother.

Civil Rights

The 1960's was a revolutionary time for African Americans in the United States, finally beginning to gain rights and status amoung the American population. Rosaleen, an African American worker on a Peach Farm in South Carolina, is chosen to fill in as Lily's mother. Proud of her freedom Rosaleen heads to town with Lily to excercise her rights and vote. While in town three men trouble her looking for a rise, because she is Black. Rosaleen standing up for herself takes ahold of her spit bottle and pours it across the top of the three mens' shoes. In a primitive white society this action is highly unexcepted. The police are called and Rosaleen and Lily are taken to jail.

What actual changes were taking place for African-Americans during this time period that may help us understand Rosaleen's actions even more fully? Was Rosaleen justified in her actions? Is it justifiable to hurt/harm another peroson?

Chapter 1 Summary

Lily is the fourteen year-old narrator of the book, and she lives on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father T. Ray. One night, a swarm of bees appears in Lily's bedroom, but when she brings T. Ray back to see them, they are gone. T. Ray makes gestures like she's crazy, and he threatens to make her kneel on grits if she wakes him up again.In this chapter, Lily also talks about her memory of her mother's death.

Lily was there when her mother and T. Ray were having a violent argument, and she has a vague memory of watching her mom grab a gun from the closet, drop it on the floor, and then go off as Lily picked it up. It's the only memory of her mother that she has. All Lily has to remember her mother by is an old photograph, a pair of white cotton gloves, and a small wooden picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus. On the back was written "Tiburon, SC".

One day, T. Ray comes to tell her what happened to her mother. He says that she was cleaning out a closet, and Lily says that she remembers the gun. T. Ray gets very upset and demands to know everything Lily knows, and she says that all she remembers is picking up the gun off the floor. T. Ray then confirms that Lily accidently killed her own mother.At one point, Lily falls asleep in the orchard with the artifacts from her mother. T. Ray finds her, thinks that she has been fooling around with a boy, and makes her kneel on grits for an hour as punishment.

Rosaleen is another main character. She is a black worker in the orchard that T. Ray chooses to become Lily's caretaker. She watches President Johnson sign the Civil Rights Act and decides to go into town to register to vote. Lily goes along, and they eventually meet three racist men from town who give Rosaleen a hard time. In an act of defiance or stupidity, Rosaleen pours tobacco juice over their shoes. She gets arrested and she and Lily get taken to jail. -

Let's Start Our Journey!

Welcome to our weblog/reader's guide for The Secret Life of Bees. Over the next few weeks, we will be adding our reactions, responses, research and more to this site. We're also hoping to have the author join us in the process. (Sue Monk Kidd, if you're reading this, we'd love to have you along!)
If you are a member of our class and you need help with posting or other uses of this site, please meet with Mr. Barrington or Ms. Jackson immediately. If you're not a member, why not come back and watch the evolution of our work?

Let's start building! -