This past week, I have been at musical theater camp vocal directing my second show this summer. Our show we performed was called “Once On This Island.” I could not believe how the themes of both the show I was working on and this book related. In the musical, an orphan girl named Timoune is sent on a journey by the gods of earth, water, love and death. She prays and ends up finding her true love on the other side of the island. She falls in love with Daniel, a wealthy boy she nurses back to heath, but is cast out because there can never be love between a peasant girl and the wealthy boy. She believes in the power of love, and ends up dying to break the class barriers and because of her, the gates separating the classes come down and everyone lives in harmony. I think the themes which parallel each other in both the show and the book include those of racial tension, of a young girl seeing beyond color, searching for love, and finding answers along her journey. Both Timoune and Lily pray to a god for help, search for where they belong in the world, and are looking to find acceptance. Although each was presented in a completely different context, I think it shows how universal and powerful some of the themes in this book are.
When I first started reading The Secret Life of Bees, I noticed how descriptive and detailed Lily’s observations were about everything from nature to people. Whether describing the sweat on Rosaleen during the long walk to South Carolina, how the cool river feels cascading around her body, the vivid colors of the Daughter’s hats, and more. I think in today’s society, both children and adults alike are so hooked on television and electronics that they don’t seem to notice the beauty and details of the world around them. Everyone sees the big picture, but rarely to people stop and appreciate the little things in life anymore. Lily learns so much by watching, from looking at the details, that it made me stop and look around at nature and my surroundings a bit more this week. I watched the bird outside my window, I looked at the trees outside the music building, and watched the clouds and the moon one evening with friends. It took a child in a book to remind myself and some friends how much we need to stop and open our eyes every now and then.
One of my favorite quotes from the story was when August says, "Did you know there are thirty-two names for love in one of the Eskimo languages?...Isn't it a shame we don't have more ways to say it?" (Kidd 140). I thought this was so powerful, and shows the power of love. As a teacher, I see kids all the time who do not have the motherly figure they need, and how the kids will tell me that their parents don’t love them. I think T.Ray. cannot accept that Lily took his love away from him, and therefore doesn’t feel the need to love her anymore. However, in a twisted way, he loves her enough to come back at the end, and loves her enough to stop the fight when he hears her call him “Daddy.” He also loves her enough to let her stay with August. I hoped for Lily’s sake that he would finally say he loved her sometime in the book, but he never did. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I had a parent who did not love me, but I think sometimes we forget to tell people just how much they are loved. Love has many powers, and if the love is true, it can conquer all. It seemed as though eventually everyone found love and some form of peace in the book, proving this idea to be true.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The idea of the sisterhood reminded me so much of my sorority sisters in college, and the “rituals” and bond of sisterhood that they all shared. I actually ended up calling two of my sorority sisters that I had not heard from in a while, just to reconnect because of the scenes in this book with the sisterhood and support they provided. It was amazing how easy it was to talk to them again, as if we never left off. It just shows that women are amazing creatures, and how the reader can apply so many of the themes in the book to their own life.
Monk Kidd, Sue. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin, 2005.
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3 comments:
I thought the same thing about T-Ray's "love" for Lily; how she ruined it when she killed her mother and that as much as he intentionally tries to hurt her and hate her, in the end, he is her "daddy" and he loves her and this forces him to look for her and to make the trip to get her and in the end make the decision to leave her behind.
I agree that Lily is very detailed in her discriptions of her surroundings. She is very observant and I think she learns quite a bit about the people around her from just watching what they do. I also beleive that her drive to know her mother was what drove her to find August and eventually find the Love she so desparately needs. We see this so much today in the schools - students with one parent who tries to do right by them but is overwhelmed and that student misses out on the love and lessons the absent parent can teach. She finally found this with August and her circle of friends. I think T. Ray loved her he just could not get past the accident of losing the love of his life. And took it out on Lily - but ultimately gave that love by giving her to August.
I think that the racial issues tackled here can also relate to just about any young person's life as they are growing up and experiencing different cultures and issues. In today's world there are so many prejudices that young people have to learn to deal with on a daily basis, not just prejudice.
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