The Secret Life of Bees by Isabella Mincer

Character List

24imincer — 2024-05-23 14:54:22 UTC

Leaders During This Time

24imincer — 2024-05-23 14:54:57 UTC

Harry S. Truman was president at the beginning of this decade (1945-1953), and Dwight D. Eisenhower was president for the remainder. The Truman Doctrine was passed in 1947, making the goal of the U. S. government to "prevent the spread of communism".

Voting Rights Act

24imincer — 2024-05-23 14:55:25 UTC

Civil Rights Movement

24imincer — 2024-05-23 14:55:44 UTC

Set in the American South in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act and intensifying racial unrest, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees is a powerful story of coming-of-age, of the ability of love to transform our lives, and the often unacknowledged longing for the universal feminine divine.

T. Ray

24anani — 2024-05-29 15:15:48 UTC

T. Ray is Lily's father, a bitter and cruel man who takes out his anger on Lily, the source of his anger being Deborah's abandonment. Lily learns from August that T. Ray once loved Lily's mother very much, but that there social backgrounds and personalities don't match much.

Bee Hive

24laaronson — 2024-06-03 14:33:37 UTC

Hive dwellings. Beehives are used in the book as a metaphor for the community August has built in the pink house. In beehives, bees live, work, and make honey. The queen bee is in charge of everything, just like in August's community, and female bees govern the beehive.

Lily Owens

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:45:11 UTC

Lily Owens, the main character who was born on the Fourth of July in 1950. Lily is really smart and loves school and she wants to be a professor or a writer. Lily has said that she accidentally shot her mother Deborah, on December 3, 1954. Lily now lives with her dad, T. Ray on a peach farm in rural South Carolina..

Rosaleen Daise

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:47:17 UTC

After his wife is dead, T. Ray brings this black housekeeper/nanny out of the fields to look after his daughter. Rosaleen exhibits incredible bravery and energy, sometimes at great personal cost—like when she spits on the white males who harass her when she's trying to register to vote. Rosaleen is also a friend to Lily as they grow super close.

Deborah Fontanel Owens

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:50:05 UTC

Deborah was the mother of Lily. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and is buried there. After her mother passed away, she relocated to South Carolina to be close to August, the family's previous housekeeper.

June Boatwright

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:50:32 UTC

Co-owner of the Boatwright farm and sister to August,May, and April. Because June resents August's engagement in the white world as Lily's mother's servant, she initially finds it difficult to like Lily. June plays the cello for the dying patients at the nearby hospital as a volunteer in her free time.

August Boatwright

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:51:19 UTC

She has a prosperous business and resides in her own house with her two sisters. August used to be Lily's mother's housekeeper, but she also went to college and got a job as a high school teacher. She also made the decision to forgo marriage since it would reduce her degree of independence.

May Boatwright

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:51:35 UTC

May was one of two twins, and long before Lily arrived at the Boatright home, her twin sister April took her own life. May experiences depression as well, which is why her sisters June and August watch over her.

April Boatwright

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:51:51 UTC

May's late twin sister was named April. Her eyes were opened to the inequities in the world at the age of eleven after a confrontation with a prejudiced merchant, and she found it difficult to accept. She then experienced sadness and, tragically, killed herself at the age of fifteen.

Neil

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:52:51 UTC

A tall man who is in love with June Boatwright. Neil lives somewhere else, but he helps out on the farm. He is one of the few mature guys in the book that is honest and gentle, and he is kind to Lily.

Zach Taylor

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:53:21 UTC

Zach Taylor acts as Lily's antithesis. He has had numerous advantages growing up, having been born and reared in Tiburon and always having the affection and support of the Boatwright sisters. In addition to being attractive, intellectual, diligent, and skilled in sports, he has received recognition and compensation for these qualities.

Discussion Questions

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:59:33 UTC

Question 1: T.Ray is known as a cruel father to Lily. For example, he told Lily Deborah left because of her. T.Ray has always punished Lily and was never really there as a true father figure. Do we think T.Ray will be a true father and try to get Lily back after she ran away?

Question 2: T.Ray is a abusive father to lily. He has done and said some terrible things to her. Why does Lily still talk to T.Ray if he will continue to be abusive?

Polls/Surveys

24imincer — 2024-06-03 14:59:43 UTC

Discussion Questions

24mkleschinsky — 2024-06-04 14:23:07 UTC

Question 3: Lily's mother left when she was 4 years old then came back home and Lily shot her by accident. Now Lily wants to find out stuff about her mother because she really doesn't know her. Do you believe that Lily will find something important from August about her mother?

Question 4: Lily Owens is the main character and she is known to be caring and sensitive. She lives with her father, T. Ray after her mother, Deborah Owens passed away when Lily was 4 and Lily accidentally shot her mother. Lily has a friends named Rosaleen Daise that stays with her and helped Lily. T. Ray started getting abusive to Lily, so she ran away with Rosaleen to South Carolina. They went to this girl named August Boatwright who Lily saw on a honey jar. Lily and Rosaleen found out that August had two other sisters. Lily and Rosaleen stayed with the Boatwright sisters and she still iks. Do you think Lily and Rosaleen will ever leave the Boatwright sisters house or are the comfortable living there?