The Secret Life of Bees

Infobox Book
name = The Secret Life of Bees


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image_caption = "The Secret Life of Bees" cover
author = Sue Monk Kidd
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country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Penguin Publishing
release_date = January 2003
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 336 pp
isbn = ISBN
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"The Secret Life of Bees" is a historical fiction 2002 bestselling novel by American author Sue Monk Kidd. It has received much critical acclaim and became a "New York Times" bestseller. It was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and has been adapted into a film by Gina Prince-Bythewood that stars Shondrella Avery, Dakota Fanning, Hilarie Burton, Alicia Keys, Tristan Wilds, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah. The film will be released on October 17, 2008." [http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_15288.html Dakota Fanning Interview, PUSH] ", "MoviesOnline.ca".]

ynopsis

Set in South Carolina in 1964, "The Secret Life of Bees" tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life is shaped by her blurred memory of the afternoon of her mother's accidental death. When Lily's black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina, a town that holds the secret to Lily's mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey.

Characters

*Lily Owens: The fourteen-year-old girl who finds herself on the Boatwright bee farm after escaping her torturous life at home. Lily is the protagonist and narrator of the story.
*Terrence Ray Owens ("T. Ray"): A farm owner. He is an abusive widower and the father of Lily Owens.
*Deborah Fontanel Owens: Mother of Lily. She died when Lily was 4 years old.
*Rosaleen Daise: A worker on T. Ray's peach farm, also a "mother figure" for Lily.
*May Boatwright: One of the three sisters who takes in Lily. May suffers constant depressions which leads into a drastic change in the story.
*June Boatwright: The third sister who takes in Lily. Lily is disliked by her for past reasons.
*August Boatwright: A caring beekeeper, she keeps Lily under her wing.
*The Daughters of Mary: A group of women (and one man) led by August who worship the Black Madonna as a holy figure. The members of the Daughters of Mary are: Queenie, Queenie's daughter Violet, Mabelee, Cressie, Lunelle, Sugar-Girl, and Sugar-Girl's husband Otis.
*Zachary Taylor: A 16-year-old teenager. Zachary is August's godson, with whom Lily eventually falls in love. He plays football at the local high school and studies to become a lawyer one day. He works on the honey plant during the summer, and works closely with both August and Lily.

Themes of the Story

Loneliness and the Need to be Needed - In this novel, Lily is lonely at home and feels that she is unloved by her father, T. Ray. However, with the help of August Boatwright, she is able to find that she has many people that love and care for her.

The Search for Identity - Lily is faced with trying to find out who she is because at her home she is not allowed to ask questions about her past. Lily does this in many ways, such as writing down her thoughts in a notebook, and finding her first love, Zachary Taylor. She finds out who she really is when she learns about her mother's past.

Civil Rights & Racism, Religion, Feminism

ymbols

Beehives - as in the story the female rules the communities of beehives, just as the Virgin Mary is symbolized as the mother of every person. Like the bees, August creates certain rituals and prayers in order to protect her home and sisterhood.

The Black Madonna - The Black Mary symbolizes a universal mother figure. The Black Madonna acts as a mother to many including all the members of the Daughters of Mary and to Lily, who gives her something to look up to that will never betray her.

Influences

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

An article by Rita Williams includes the following section of an interview with Sue Monk Kidd:

:""Why write about these black women when you're white?" I asked her. :"Because I grew up surrounded by black women. I feel they are like hidden royalty dwelling among us, and we need to rupture our old assumptions and develop the willingness to see them as they are," she replied. When I asked her to tell me the origin of this story, she grew pensive, closing her dark eyes almost as if she were meditating.:"As a girl, I lived in a country house where at least 50,000 bees hived within the walls of one of our shut-off rooms," she said. "When I went in there, I could hear humming-honey leaking through the wall and puddling on the floor. That image stayed with me for years before I decided to write it. And then when I finally did begin, I was told it might sell as a short story but not as a novel. I sold the short story.... But it wouldn't let me go. Four years later, I had to go back and write the novel."

Awards and nominations

In addition to being a "New York Times" bestseller, "The Secret Life of Bees" was selected by "Good Morning America"'s "Read This!" Book Club. The novel also made the longlist of the 2002 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. The next year it won the Southeastern Book Sellers Association Award for Best Fiction Novel.

Film adaptation

" The Secret Life of Bees" has been adapted into a film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Dakota Fanning portrays the main character and narrator Lily Owens, and Jennifer Hudson portrays Lily's caregiver and only friend, Rosaleen. The Boatwright sisters—August, May and June—will be played by Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys respectively. Hilarie Burton will play Deborah Owens and Paul Bettany will also play T Ray, Lily's abusive father. Tristan Wilds,from HBO's The Wire, will play Zachary Taylor. Production began on January 7, 2008, in Lumberton, North Carolina. [ [http://www.myentertainmentworld.com/mew/film_production_newlisting.html Look under 26 Dec information] ] It will be released on October 17, 2008 in Toronto, Canada.

Notes

External Links

[http://www.7trailers.com/the-secret-life-of-bees The Secret life of bees Trailer]