Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

For the past month I have been engaging in a literature circle where my group and I have been reading and analyzing the book The Secret Life of Bees. The author Sue Monk Kidd conveyed the message that family is not defined by blood. In the beginning of the book Lily thought that she can only find a mother and daughter bond from her biological mother. She was extremely persistent and her one goal was to learn more about her mother and find out what life would have been like if her mother was still alive. She constantly feels her mother's absence and feels as though no one besides her real mother can fill this whole. As the story progresses we see Lily’s ideas change as she realizes that motherhood is much more than a biological relationship. She opens her heart to the people who love her and accepts them as her own mother-figures. Lily’s views
‘Goodbye,’ I said, and there was a tiny spring of sadness pushing up from my heart.” Lily is aware that all of her memories are in that house and her town, but she takes the risk of never returning again to help the people she loves. This is a true act of heroism taking risks for the people who mean the most to you. In The Secret Life of Bees women are made to think that they are inferior to men and that men hold all the power. Lily’s father T-Ray treated women very unequally and often said that women had less opportunities and were not able to do all the things that men can do. Growing up her whole life with only T-Ray and no mother-figure has left Lily to believe that women really are inferior and not as capable as men. After meeting the daughters of Mary Lily started to no longer underestimate the power of women as she saw the example of Mary, who was a women that was able to do remarkable things. She also learns the power of women by meeting the boatwright sisters who are all remarkably strong. All the women in The Secret Life of Bees are inner heros in their own way and they all show the true