payment page
The Secret Life of Bees is a bildungsroman, or coming of age novel, and accordingly the plot follows Lily’s emotional and spiritual growth. Lily is on a quest to learn more about her mother, Deborah, with the tacit belief that discovering the truth about her mother will lead her to a place where she is loved. Over the course of the novel, she discovers that she already has everything she needs to love herself and accept the love of others. At the beginning of the novel, Lily believes she is unlovable. This belief is bolstered not only by T. Ray’s abuse, but also because Lily thinks not having a mother to guide her through womanhood means she will not properly grow up. For example, not having a mother shuts her out of charm school, a rite of passage in the American South. However, by the end of the novel, Lily discovers she already has the values necessary for a strong character and doesn’t need superficial manners to become a woman.
The incident that incites the novel’s plot occurs when Lily decides to run away from home and rescue Rosaleen from jail. Just before she leaves, Lily’s father cruelly tells her that Deborah abandoned her. Lily decides to leave for Tiburon in part to find proof of her mother’s love, thereby proving to herself that she is loveable. Even in this moment of self-doubt, Lily demonstrates that she already has deeper values than the town of Sylvan by rescuing Rosaleen. In accordance with her upbringing, she knows she should stay with her father and allow the law to take its course with Rosaleen. However, Lily loves Rosaleen and can’t bear to think of her being killed. While the reader can see Lily’s strength of character and courage, Lily is only capable of seeing the illegality of her actions, even though they were righteous. This lack of insight leads to her hiding her identity from the Boatwright sisters when she and Rosaleen make it to the pink house.
While at the Boatwright house, Lily begins to reject the shallow dictates of white society and embrace the deeper community spirit of the Boatwrights and the Daughters of Mary. In learning these new values, Lily reevaluates what qualities make a person worthy of love. She sees the unconditional love August and June have for May despite how much care she needs from them. She develops a sweet first love for Zach, whom society says she shouldn’t find attractive at all. She learns to send love to the bees who are easily frightened and may sting her. Even after being stung for the first time, Lily continues to help with beekeeping, proving love can forgive. After May’s suicide, she learns that love is stronger than people’s choices. Both Zach and August feel guilty that their actions could have triggered May’s death, but they realize that May made her own choice. Despite grieving May’s loss, the family isn’t angry with her, but instead they focus on tending to her as lovingly in death as they did in life. From all these events, Lily begins to understand that people are complicated, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t loveable.
At the climax of the novel, Lily and August talk about Lily’s mother, and Lily finally tells the truth about who she is. When August reveals that Deborah did abandon Lily temporarily, Lily at first takes this as proof that she isn’t loved. That night, Lily sleeps in the honey house alongside the Our Lady of Chains statue. Like the statue, Lily has been chained away from her people by the dictates of the broader white society that judged her for not having a mother and made her believe that she is unlovable. With her new false proof, she feels even more isolated. Wrestling with her anger, Lily breaks jars of honey, which she further believes will turn everyone against her. Instead, Rosaleen tends to Lily’s wounds and helps her clean the statue. This moment signifies that Lily is already deeply loved, and her mistakes cannot change that. The rest of the Mary Day celebration further proves that Lily belongs in this extraordinary community.
Although Lily takes time to process her emotions, she ultimately comes to accept the truth of Deborah’s abandonment because she realizes she does not need her biological mother to be loved. She accepts Rosaleen, the Boatwright sisters, and the Daughters of Mary as her mother figures and judges herself by her own values. Lily’s proof of her worth means that by the time T. Ray comes to collect her, she is able to face him and not lose faith in her understanding that she is loved. Not even the possibility that she may have shot Deborah truly shakes her because of the love she has for herself and her community.
