“People give pain, are callous and insensitive, empty and cruel… but place heals the hurt, soothes the outrage, fills the terrible vacuum that these human beings make.” This quote from Eudora Welty sums up the themes of responsibility and forgiveness in Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees (Kidd, 8). Lily, a fourteen year old girl racked with guilt over the accidental death of her mother and her role in that event shape her life in extraordinary ways. However, it takes a removal from her home and a new place for her to find the ability to take responsibility for herself as well as find forgiveness (Kidd, 8). As one reads the novel, one hopes that in the end it will be revealed that Lily did not really have anything to do with her mother’s accidental death. This does not turn out to be the case. This is why Lily struggles throughout the novel with the ability to take responsibility for her actions as well as find the ability to forgive herself and others for the past sorrows in her life (Kidd, 8).
Bees are an important symbol in the novel because they have represented death and rebirth for hundreds of years (Literature to Life, 13). Lily faces many circumstances in her life when she struggles to find rebirth. Similarly, honey was thought to be a sacred substance that had the power to heal all kinds of hurts (Literature to Life, 14). These two motifs appear over and over again throughout the novel and come to represent both responsibility and forgiveness. Bees are an essential component of the novel because Lily is faced repeatedly with the knowledge that she had a hand in killing her mother. However, the other characters, through their own ability to forgive, accept Lily as their own which acts as the honey to this wound and eventually allows Lily some measure of peace with her past.
Lily forms important and lasting relationships with several African American women: Rosaleen and the calendar sisters. These relationships educate Lily more than any other relationship she had ever had and provide her with the courage and conviction to search for the forgiveness that comes with responsibility. Simply being with one another takes on the role of honey on a wound and when these people are absent it creates a whole Lily’s life (Harken, 2). For example, when Rosaleen is arrested Lily feels her absence quite strongly and suffers a great deal of sadness even while she helps Rosaleen escape (Harken, 2). Further, Rosaleen has become someone that Lily can count on in the absence of her biological mother and when Rosaleen is arrested Lily struggles with the feeling of extraordinary loss once again (Harken, 2). At the same time, Lily must work through her feelings of guilt and remorse in order to truly accept Rosaleen as the mother figure that is lacking in her life. This is a very difficult thing for Lily. Even though she loves Rosaleen very much she is challenged with stereotypes about black women and must overcome these in order to truly allow Rosaleen the responsibility of being her “mother.”
It is often the case that healing cannot begin until one is absent from the situation that is causing the hurt. This is the case in this novel. Lily does not begin to look within herself until she reaches the pink house and the women she finds there (Day, 1). As Lily begins to surround herself with bees and learns the secret art of beekeeping she simultaneously begins to immerse herself in her past and how she feels about the events that have shaped her life (Day, 1). As Lily forms close and meaningful relationships with the sisters, particularly August, she begins to learn that the absence of her mother, while heartbreaking, does not mean that she must suffer from guilt and remorse for the rest of her life (Day, 1). Instead, as she learns to experience the joys of a “mother daughter” relationship she realizes that she can forgive herself enough to accept August as a mother figure in her life (Day, 1). At the same time, Lily is also able to begin the process of accepting responsibility for her role in the accidental death of her mother and also begin to realize that she cannot be held ultimately responsible for the event (Day, 1).
Lily also feels the absence of a family quite strongly (Day, 1). These feelings of loss begin to fade as Lily realizes that the three sisters and Rosaleen are her family and the pink house is her home. In the beginning of the novel, Lily struggles with her somewhat negative opinions about black women and would have never considered a group of black women as a surrogate family. However, the pink house is just the place where Lily discovered the family she had been looking for all along (Day, 1). Despite the fact that Lily lived with her father she never felt attached to him because of his abusive behavior and the way that he constantly blamed her for her mother’s death. Consequently, Lily had never experienced a place of acceptance where she could analyze her feelings about responsibility and forgiveness and begin to heal from a life full of hurts. The pink house was just the refuge that allowed her to explore these feelings (Day, 1).
In addition to forgiving herself, Lily longs for the others in her life to forgive her for accidentally taking her mother’s life. Her father in particular holds her mother’s death against her because she was the one who picked up the gun which accidentally fired. Even though Lily was only four years old when it happened she spent the next ten years living under the remorse of her actions as well as the disdain of her father. Her mother may have been dead for ten years but Lily could not stop searching for her anyway (Powell, 1). Lily logically knows that she will never truly find her biological mother but she continues searching for the relationship with a mother that she so yearned for. Her love for Rosaleen motivated Lily to help her escape authorities after she was arrested and this love ultimately led her to the discovery of the mother she had been missing for so long. Throughout her journey, Lily learns more about her mother than she ever wanted to know (Powell, 1). She learns that her mother once left her and her father and this causes a great deal of additional sadness for Lily. However, the three African American beekeeping sisters, especially August, teach Lily that a life of forgiveness and responsibility is so much more rewarding than a life of bitter resentment and anger (Powell, 1).
The title is very descriptive of the journey Lily takes to take responsibility and find forgiveness. Bees live a secret life that humans know very little about. Their hives are places of constant activity and production. Lily also lives with many secrets in her life – the primary one centering on the events of the afternoon that her mother died. Lily struggled with self esteem issues while living with her abusive father and when she escapes she begins the journey that ultimately leads to her ability to accept and love herself as others do (Azhikakath, 1). Despite the fact that Lily attended church with her father she never truly learned how to forgive because no one had ever forgiven her (Azhikakath, 1). When Lily met the three African American sisters they accepted and welcomed her despite the burdens and secrets of her past. Over time, this forgiveness that was extended towards Lily allowed her to forgive herself (Azhikakath, 1).
Ultimately, this novel is a journey of forgiveness. Lily carries the burden of her mother’s death on her shoulders and this responsibility almost breaks her. As she learns to live without her father she also begins to realize where the true responsibility for her life’s sorrow lay. At the same time, she is also able to begin the process of forgiveness. Lily learns about forgiveness through the unconditional acceptance of the new mother figures in her life and is later able to find forgiveness of her own. The Secret Life of Bees utilizes the symbol of the bee to show how positive and productive relationships lead to soul searching and acceptance of one’s past. At the same time, Lily’s time spent with the bees allows her to confront her own secrets and learn to deal with them and move forward towards a rich and fulfilling life full of those who love her and who she loves. This realization in the end was only possible through Lily’s determination to find answers, a mother and ultimately, forgiveness.
Azhikakath, Dee Dee. “Book Review.” The People of the United Methodist Church. 2009. 7
June 2009 <http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=1572>.
Day, Paula. “The Secret Life of Bees Review.” Copperfield Review. 2001. 7 June 2009
<http://www.copperfieldreview.com/reviews/secret_life_of_bees.htm>.
Harken, Amy Lignitz. Unveiling the Secret Life of Bees. Atlanta, GA: Chalice Press, 2005.
Kidd, Sue Monk. “An Interview with Sue Monk Kidd.” Home Reading Guides. 2001. 7 June
2009 <http://booksellers.penguin.com/static/html/teachersnight/classroom/readingguides/secretlifebeesrg.pdf>.
Literature to Life. “Teacher’s Guide for “The Secret Life of Bees.” 2008. 7 June 2009
<http://www.tillescenter.org/pdf/studyguide_bees.pdf>.
Powell, Marian. “The Secret Life of Bees Review.” BookLoons Reviews. 2003. 7 June 2009
<http://www.bookloons.com/cgi-bin/Review.ASP?bookid=2274>.
