Summary: The Secret Life Of Bees

Novel Notes

1.Essential Information- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Fiction Civil Rights Movement2002
2.Authorial Information- August 12, 1948-present Graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.S in nursing in 1970United States2014 Oprah Book Club Selection, The Invention of Wings2010 Homecoming Award, Oklahoma Center for Poets and writers, Oklahoma State University at Tulsa2006 South Carolina “The Order of the Palmetto” Award, the state‘s highest civilian honor, bestowed by the governor2005 Winner, Quill Award in general fiction, The Mermaid Chair2004 Winner, Book of the year in paperback, The Secret of Bees2003 Winner, SEBA Book of the year, The Secret Life of Bees2003 Finalist, Book of the year for fiction, The Secret ofBees2002
August lives in a pink house in Tiburon, South Carolina, with her two sisters, May and June. Together, May, June, and August are known as “the calendar sisters.” August has chosen not to marry because she does not want to give up the autonomy of her independent womanhood. August works as a beekeeper and honey/beeswax manufacturer on a 28-acre farm she inherited from her grandfather. By selling honey, she supports herself and sisters, as well as Lily and Rosaleen, once they come to stay at her house. August is a warm and loving lady, skinnier than Rosaleen but still larger-than-life to Lily. As a young woman, August attended school and worked as a teacher, then she became a housekeeper in the home of Deborah, Lily’s mother, when Deborah was a child
T. Ray, her father, is abusive and does not believe her story about the bees. Her nanny and housekeeper, Rosaleen, believes Lily but also thinks Lily is foolish for trying to collect the bees in a jar. Lily recalls her very last memory of her mother, Deborah, who died when Lily was a small child. Lily thinks that she played a horrible part in Deborah’s death. Lily accompanies Rosaleen into town, where Rosaleen intends to register to vote. Instead, a group of racists harass Rosaleen, who winds up getting arrested for affronting them. T. Ray picks up Lily at the prison and tells her that the men who accosted Rosaleen will most likely kill her. This news understandably frightens Lily,particularly as Rosaleen is the only person in her life who truly loves Lily. Lily notices that the bees have escaped from the jar she put them in, which leads her to have an epiphany: she needs to run away.Lily finds Rosaleen at the hospital, where Rosaleen has been taken after being beaten up by the arresting police officers. Together, Lily and Rosaleen hitchhike toward a town (Tiburon, S.C.) that Lily has found written on the back of a picture of a black Mary that once belonged to her mother. In Tiburon, Lily learns that the black Mary picture comes from the label of a honey maker in town. Searching for this honey maker, she comes across the bright pink house of August Boatwright and her sisters. August