The Secret Life of Bees

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**The Secret Life of Bees**
Author	Sue Monk Kidd
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Penguin Books
Released	January 2003
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	336 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0142001740

The Secret Life of Bees is a 2002 novel by author Sue Monk Kidd that has received much critical acclaim.

1 Plot summary
2 Characters in "The Secret Life of Bees"
3 Influences
4 Awards and nominations

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lily Owens, the protagonist and narrator of the story, runs away from home with her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, and has a vague memory of accidentally shooting her mother at the age of four. Rosaleen has been arrested for assault, disturbing the peace, and theft. On her way to register to vote, Rosaleen steals two church fans and pours snuff juice on the shoes of three of the most racist people in town after being verbally assaulted with racial slurs. After being beaten with a flashlight by one of the racists and being beaten again in her cell, Rosaleen is sent to the hospital where Lily breaks her out of jail. Together, they hitchhike to Tiburon, South Carolina on the hunch that Lily's mother, who had written the city name on the back of a photo of the Black Madonna, had once lived there.

After arriving in Tiburon, Lily spots the Black Madonna on a jar of honey in a store. Lily goes to the beekeeper's pink house and is taken in by the Boatwright sisters: April, June, and August. They supply Rosaleen and Lily with housing, and Lily becomes an apprentice beekeeper under the guidance of August, the head of the household.

Zachary Taylor, a high school student who works at the apiary to pay for college and become a lawyer, is arrested after refusing to reveal which of his friends threw a bottle at a white man protesting a white Hollywood movie star who is bringing a Negro woman with him to a theatrical premiere. When May, one of the sisters, hears of this, she commits suicide by drowning herself, with a rock on her to hold her down.

[edit] Characters in "The Secret Life of Bees"

Terrence Ray Owens ("T. Ray"): A peach farmer and the neglectful, abusive father of Lily Owens, who turned bitter after the loss of his wife, Deborah.
Deborah Owens: Mother of Lily. She deserted her husband and daughter, and was killed in an accident with a gun when Lily was very little.
Rosaleen Daise: A caring, persistent worker on T. Ray's peach farm who serves as a stand-in mother for Lily.
Lily Melissa Owens: The 14-year old main character and narrator of the story, who escapes with Rosaleen from the town of Sylvan to live in Tiburon with a trio of beekeeping sisters.
August Boatwright: An industrious, loving ex-schoolteacher and ex-housekeeper, and the head of the beekeeping household (the queen bee).
June Boatwright: A player of the cello who once was a worker in a funeral home. She resents Lily at the beginning of the story.
May Boatwright: The third Boatwright sister, who, according to the characters, developed a disorder where she could not separate other people's grief from her own around the time her twin sister, April, committed suicide.
April Boatwright: May's twin sister who committed suicide.
Zachary Taylor: A hard-working high school student who works on the Boatwrights' apiary in order to pay his way through college. He dreams of becoming a great Negro lawyer. He is arrested after not telling which of his friends threw a bottle at a white man. Lily falls in love with him after a few weeks of working with him in Tiburon.
Neil: Has asked June to marry him several times to no avail, but ends up marrying June.

Daughters of Mary: The women that come to service all the time at the Boatwrights' house to pray in the presence of the Black Madonna.

[edit] Influences

As a child, Kidd, like Lily, also had a nanny who habitually chewed snuff. Although the author wasn't forced to kneel on grits as punishment, both she and Lily share the same disaffection for them.