Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, the passage on page 79 in chapter 4, the morning after Lily and Rosaleen arrive at the calendar sister’s house, is a passage that has great impasses on the mood and atmosphere. To do that, the passage uses multiple imagery to describe the area and the things surrounding it, like how the author describes the May’s wailing wall, little forest, or the river, “ Stepping over the wall,….. Had discovered the Lost Diamond City” p. g 80. The use of these words makes the reader visually see and have some kind of feel of what the wall looks like in real life and what the river feels like.
That helps in putting and showing these on stage in great and precise detail. Another thing that should be on stage is bright light (sun) which is a symbol and motif in this passage. This bright light symbolizes a new way of life, purity, tranquility, a calm and peaceful atmosphere which the passage has many traces of that help set the mood and atmosphere. The use of features that appeal to the senses, like for instance the mention of birds and sounds of running water to set a mood of calmness and tranquility, also helps to set the mood and atmosphere.
The use of similes, like “I could make….. , the tops of them postage stamps of white shine” p. g 79, helps in turning this passage from a piece of written work to a piece of preformed art. I chose this specific passage because it is a point of change from the rest of the novel and it uses many different features to help describe and set the mood and atmosphere. If I were to dramatize this passage on stage, I would use a proscenium stage because it would be the most suitable space to display all of the details of the setting that are described in the passage.
It is important to place emphasis on the setting, it is essential when setting the mood and atmosphere. I would start by the set design, making the stage the appropriate setting of the passage. First, the backdrop of the stage would resemble a dense forest at the bottom and the top would be many clouds with a spotlight pointed right in the middle of the clouds. That could be done by drawing trees all along the bottom of the backdrop and clouds on the very top of the backdrop, so that it can be like a little forest “the woods”.
On down stage left, a trail would be leading out of the left wings of the stage, grass (colored paper) and little trees (“pinewoods, bushes”)(cardboard) lining the trail on the right and some grass and plants on the left. “I walked along toward it along a path that led from the honey house into the woods” p. g 79, The path will curve around the down stage and in down stage center beside the path will be a bird bath and tons of feeders. The path will end on center stage where May’s wailing wall will begin.
After the wall, there will be a small river that wouldn’t be shown, but heard. In order to get to the river, there will be many thick trees and bushes on upstage right where the actors would exit “The growth turned thick, and sticker bushes snagged my legs,”. It is very important to portray all of this in great detail to show the tranquil, relaxing, cheerful, serene place that the protagonist is walking through. It is to show the huge contrast between what the protagonist was used to and how her life will be like, hopefully forever.
It is a perfect example of: After rain theres a rainbow, after a storm theres calm. In dramatizing a passage, lighting and sound play a big part in making up the mood and atmosphere. In this specific passage in chapter 4, the mood is very happy, serene, cheerful and bright, peaceful. Therefore, the lighting should be bright, though not very flashy, and colorful (earth colors), that would really bring out soft atmosphere that the passage is set in. The bright light is an extremely important motif in the passage and should be very apparent on stage “The light poured down in shafts”.
There should be a bright spotlight always pointed in the middle of the clouds on the backdrop “Th sun glowed behind a bank of clouds” “Light spilled through a crack in a red-rimmed cloud”. The lights that are pointing on the trees should have a green ting to them with small white lights pointing on the top of the tree, that is to represent bee hives “I could make out about fourteen beehives tucked under the trees in the distance, the tops of them postage stamps of white shine”.
The sound effects should be very amplified in this performance, this is because the mood and atmosphere is not complete on stage without the use of sound. There should be sounds of birds chirping and humming, that is to show the tranquility of the place, the fact that after the rain, the birds are coming out to sing and play. It’s early in the morning “The next morning I woke early and walked outside” and the sounds of chirping birds are supposed to bring the free and peaceful atmosphere of nature filled mornings. The sound effects should also should also contain he sound of running water to represent the presence of a little river. That is there to put the performance in a calming and peaceful mood and to show the audience that the place is surrounded by nature. There should also be sounds of things being squished and that is to shown that the bottom of the river is mushy “The bottom turned mushy, squishing up through my toes”. Sounds of animals and bugs to set the setting of the performance, “There was no telling what other invisible creatures I was out here socializing with – snakes, frogs, fish, a whole river of bitting bugs”.
All that would help put the mood and atmosphere together immensely, if the passage were to be dramatized. The mood and atmosphere have an immensely important role in dramatizing a passage. In the specific passage that I chose in the secret life of bees, the mood and atmosphere were set by many literary features and that helped to visualize it all on stage. If all of the setting, lighting, and sound effects were to be put on stage, the audience would really get a feel of the mood and atmosphere that the author is trying to portray in the passage.
The mood and atmosphere are one of tranquility, purity, calmness, peacefulness, sereneness, a sort a change and new beginning, cheerful, radiant, and relaxing. The protagonist doesn’t seen to want to leave this atmosphere because of how beautiful it is “I wanted it to always be like this – ……. Just the rain-cleaned woods and the rising light”. The mood and atmosphere play an important role in bringing the whole passage together and without them the passage wouldn’t be able to have the emotions needed make a great performance.
