How does Sue Monk Kidd use female empowerment to help Lily overcome her prejudices?
Sue Monk Kidd is an author known for writing fictional stories that are empowering for a young female audience. She was inspired to write her influential novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by her years of growing up during the 1960s in the South and listening to the honeybees in the walls of her home; she based much of the setting on her own experiences. Through Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, one can see the compelling journey of Lily Owens on her quest to uncover the truth about race, family, and love with the support of the powerful female role models provided by the Boatwright sisters. In this novel, the Boatwright sisters – August, June, and May – help Lily to alleviate her strong prejudices against other races and religions. Lily is finally able to see past the heavy curtain of racism that was present in South Carolina in the 1960’s, which even her father supports. By the end of the novel, she is able to accept people for who they are, and not alienate others based on the colour of their skin. Near the beginning of the novel, Lily feels that she does not receive love, acceptance, or respect from anyone while living on the peach farm with T-Ray, who tells her, “‘The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back to get her things, that’s all…she’s the one who left you’” (Kidd 39). Rosaleen is the only person that cares for Lily in the beginning of the novel and accompanies Lily on her search for the truth about her mother; meanwhile, Lily finds a fulfilling black community, and they are able to support her and guide her in areas where her father has failed to do so. The Daughters of Mary, along with August, also allow Lily to obtain love from a family that is not her own, and show her how a family can uplift a person in a supportive and positive way. Lily is able to flourish as a young woman and grow in ways many would envy. The author of The Secret Life of Bees uses female empowerment as a powerful tool to help Lily overcome her own prejudices about race, about family, and about love.
August’s family uses female empowerment to break down Lily’s attitudes toward race and colour, specifically black people. The Boatwright sisters provide Lily with a perfect image of how one should be treated regardless of race or religion by making it clear that everyone is to be treated with equality. August proves this by caring for Lily as if she were her own daughter even though she is part of the racial minority in the community. Lily has never felt like she was acknowledged in her school group back home because her father suppressed her, preventing her from living a typical teenage lifestyle. Yet, never had she felt separated because of her skin colour. For the first time, Lily feels displaced in the Boatwright household because she is white,
“This was a great revelation—not that I was white but that it seemed like June might not want me here because of my skin color. I hadn’t known this was possible—to reject people for being white” (87).
She soon realizes that these women do not discriminate against her even though she is white; this is when Lily starts to neglect the prejudices she previously had,
“I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this. That’s what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me” (78).
Here one can see that Lily confirms some of T-Ray’s prejudices but also admits some of her own. Lily is a young white woman who initially exemplifies many of the white community’s prejudices about black people. In the beginning, Lily assumes that black people are lazy, foolish, and dishonest. But during the course of her adventures in Tiburon, South Carolina, she realizes how lazy her own stereotypes are; the wisest, most competent people she meets in the book are African American. As Lily sees it, African Americans are the victims of an endless series of tragedies. In the course of the novel, black characters are arrested without grounds, beaten by the police, and harassed by racist townspeople. One can see that whenever black characters try to fight back against this injustice, they make their lives markedly worse. For example, when Rosaleen stands up to a group of cruel, bullying townspeople, she ends up in the hospital and charged with a crime. Lily wants to protect these people and help in any way she can, therefore proving the love and respect she has found for the coloured community, with the help of August. Zach is another character that helps educate Lily about racism. He dreams of being a lawyer but finds barriers in his way. He is hindered by these barriers and pursues his dreams nonetheless. Lily and Zach grow close and develop feelings for each other; Lily doesn’t understand the consequences that could come from their relationship and Zach warns her of them,
“Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you” (135).
Zach cautions Lily that their relationship can’t happen, and is, in fact, too dangerous for both of them. When Zach is unjustly imprisoned, Lily finds out for herself the horrors of racial prejudices. The Boatwrights, as well as Zach, rise above racial stereotypes and prove to Lily that her prejudices were misleading.
Throughout the novel, August and her sisters teach Lily what ‘family’ really means by showing her how strong women support each other and create a sense of belonging. From the very beginning, Lily longs to be treated like a woman and the sisters allow her to grow and become independent where her father would’ve held her down. The Boatwright sisters become mother figures for Lily; she carries around the burden of killing her own mother at the age of four, thus, lacking a strong mother figure. Lily searches for clues that will hopefully lead her to her mother and hopes to gain knowledge about her that she believes will form her identity. Lily describes her longing for her mother, sparking what will be an overarching theme throughout the novel. Lily suffers tremendous guilt for killing her mother, and at night she dreams of dying, meeting her mother in heaven, and asking for her forgiveness “I opened my mouth. I wanted something. Something, I didn’t know what. Mother, forgive. That’s all I could feel. That old longing spread under me like a great lap, holding me tight.” (Kidd 55). The Daughters of Mary act as surrogate mothers to Lily and take her into their religious family. There, they teach her about sisterhood and the power of a strong female community and allow her to take part in their religious services. They are supportive and provide a strong backbone for Lily “these women create an environment of nurture and safety that frees Lily to examine her fragmented life and begin to achieve self-hood.” (Herbert 1). In the end of the novel, they stand shoulder to shoulder behind her when her father tries to take her away. Lily was able to see the confidence and strength that the daughters possess and in turn, she was able to transform herself by gaining confidence through their example. Also, she learned to trust them and this helped her learn to trust herself. In this novel, a recurring theme is the beehive and worker bees. August and Lily visit a hive where the queen bee has died, resulting in all the other bees becoming confused. This is similar to Lily and how she feels lost without a mother to guide her. When she meets the Boatwright sisters, she is drawn to them and connects with them because they provide a definitive mother figure for her and give her a sense of security.
August’s family teaches Lily, through the power of a loving, female community, about what love really is. For most of the novel, August presents to Lily the idea of undying, hidden love that exists everywhere in the world. According to August, in order to feel the completeness stolen from her when her mother died, Lily must believe that she is loved by the Black Mary. August encourages her to put her faith and trust in Mary and to guide her as a mother’s love would. Also, since her role in her mother’s death, Lily has struggled with confidence issues because she was isolated during her upbringing
“Despite Lily’s overwhelming need for love and affirmation in the years following her mother’s death, T. Ray is an emotionally absent father but consistently verbally abusive in all of their interactions,”
And her father lacked the ability to help Lily develop her self-esteem (Herbert 13). The Black Mary was able to help Lily flourish as a young woman, in more ways than her father could’ve. As Lily hunts for facts about her mother, she makes an even greater discovery. She learns from example how to be a strong and self-reliant young woman. August and her sisters teach Lily about the importance of self-worth and love. They show her that love doesn’t always come from a significant other, instead, it should come from within one’s self and they show her that she can find it within their female community. By the end of the novel, Lily has discovered herself worth because of the support and love from The Daughters of Mary
“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional.” (278).
They teach Lily the importance of independence and are perfect examples of this. August is a successful entrepreneur and has never relied on someone else to be happy. The fact that June doesn’t want to marry Neil is also a revelation to Lily that women wouldn’t want to marry and be on their own. The Boatwright sisters give Lily the structure she needs she love herself and also discover what love really means to a person.
The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates to us the power that love has to heal something that has been torn apart. It also embodies the helplessness that Lily feels in the beginning of the novel and her growth and maturation throughout the novel. The Boatwright sisters help her cope with the adversity she has experienced before arriving in Tiburon by being an alternate family figure for her. Kathleen Carico states that Lily is a “lonely young girl who looks for answers to her deepest questions about life and who is lucky enough to find them in a dangerous and turbulent era in the home of a beekeeper.” (Carico 25), but by the end of the novel, we see a young woman emerge that many are envious of. Lily also combats racial prejudices when she meets August Boatwright, who proves to be a courageous and loving woman, as well as Zach whom she loves. This novel reveals the horror that was present before and during the signing of the Civil Rights Act for African American people. Sue Monk Kidd demonstrates to the reader how people can be greatly affected by racial discrimintation, and we are carried through the obstacles that one deals with through the eyes of Lily Owens. Tiburon, South Carolina holds the secrets for Lily on her quest to find out about her mother. Although up to this point Lily has never had a mother figure in her life, she is given the opportunity to take part in an almost mother-daughter type bond between herself and the three Boatwright sisters, who are the epitome of what a strong mother should be. These amazing women give Lily a chance to think for herself and make her own decisions. Lily finds comfort not only in August and her sisters but in Rosaleen as well; “Lily perceives Rosaleen as a protector—someone who is willing to create a safer environment—something Lily needs desperately for her emotional growth.” (Herbert 14). August’s sisters, June and May, although not as important, play a role in helping Lily discover important aspects of her identity. Lily learns that sometimes it is okay to cry or relieve the anger that has built up inside you from June and May who are both emotional characters. When Lily destroys the honey house, no one is upset because they want her to feel comfortable and to express herself, even if she’s angry. One can see the similarities in content and themes between the publications of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Both novels present the theme of racial discrimination in the South through the eyes of the thirteen and fourteen-year-old narrators. Lily Owens, as well as Huckleberry Finn, have had to deal with the loss of their mother at a young age; and run away from their abusive fathers for a safer environment. Lily and Huck are each largely influenced by the intelligence of a black character close to them and both enter a world foreign to them but provides them with an insight they never had before. Lily is introduced to the bee-keeping world and learns about love and patience, as well as independence. Huck learns the injustices of the slave system and the absurdity of senseless violence. Similarly, they both learn about the uselessness of racial discrimination. Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees is a coming of age story where Lily learns to face prejudices about love, about family, and about race, transcending through a female community.