Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about.- August
Honey making, bees, and bee keeping are central to the novel.
Your Required Response Instructions: (use textual evidence)
- In what ways are the characters like the bees mentioned in the quote above?
Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about. The characters in the story are like bees if you think about it. They all have a secret life or a secret that no one knows about. When people think of bees, honey comes to their mind. Bees make honey and it’s a long process. Bees have this whole daily routine that no one really knows about. They are hard workers and have a specific system they do to make honey. The characters in the novel are like the bees because they all have a secret life. No one knows about their lives unless they have been in their shoes. As we say, “Don’t judge someone until you have walked in their shoes.” For example, one character Lily Owens stays at the Boatwright’s house with Rosaleen. The sisters know nothing about Lily or Rosaleen besides the lies that Lily tells them, they were nice enough to accept them. Lily lies to the sisters telling them that they are visiting her aunt. “It’s your secret,” Rosaleen said. “You do what you want with it.” This was taken from page 79; this is the scene where Lily does not want Rosaleen to tell the Boatwright sisters why she is really there. I feel that everyone has a secret life. We go through obstacles everyday in our lives. No one knows how we feel inside or the pain we feel. Bees have their ways of dealing with things like stinging someone. And the characters all have different ways to cope with their emotions. For example, May has the Wailing Wall which she goes to express her feelings. Bees and humans are alike and both have some type of secret that they are hiding.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." The two characters that fit best with this quote are Rosaleen and Lily. When August stated this, not only was she referring to the bees, but Lily and Rosaleen as well, since they had seemed to be hiding quite a lot. Although Lily and Rosaleen may seem one way to Zach (who doesn't suspect much of them) they are actually another way in reality. This whole novel is about secrets and the struggle to uncover them before it's too late. There is no doubt that these two characters are hiding secrets, but they're hiding them to uncover a whole other part of their life that was like a secret to them. I think it's an interesting coincidence that Lily and Rosaleen are with the Boatwrights and share so many similarities to the bees and their lives. Not only the keeping secrets part, but they share the same philosophy and beliefs as bees do. The quotes that begin every chapter (that pertain to bees) make such great connections to the characters in general, especially Lily. Each time I finish a chapter I find more similarities between Lily and the bees, usually because August will make a reference. Not only are Rosaleen and Lily like the bees in this quote, but Deborah is as well. To Lily, Deborah held so many secrets that were important to Lily. Lily knew absolutley nothing about her mother with the exception of a few minor details and a photo. Deborah did not directly keep secrets from her daughter, but when she died, she took all that information with her so Lily was left with nothing but a confused soul. I think each character can relate to the bees in one way or another as long as you search deep enough.
ReplyDeleteBees live a secret life. August Boatwright was certainly correct when she said that. We don’t know anything about the lives of bees. This applies to the characters in the Secret Life of Bees. First, May. May is dealing with pain so overwhelming inside of her that it is hard for her to differentiate her pain from other people’s pain. We don’t feel what May is feeling. That is May’s secret life. June has also dealt with pain. She was engaged to be married, and her former fiancée never showed up for the wedding. June is afraid to love someone again, because she is afraid that he or she might leave her. This is why she doesn’t want to marry Neil and why she is afraid to get close to Rosaleen and Lily. That is June’s secret life. August seems strong and tough on the outside, but she is probably feeling pain for May, sadness for April, and wants to help June, Rosaleen, and Lily. All while trying to keep the bees! T. Ray lives in clandestine pain. He feels pain about his wife, Deborah, and releases all of his anger on Lily. Lily has the most secret life of them all. Shaped around her warped four-year-old memories, Lily lives under the impression that she was the one who killed Deborah, and is desperate to know the truth. Bees live secret lives, but humans can live them too.
ReplyDeleteThe characters have deep and dark personal secrets and problems in their life no one can figure out or know about. Like lily. Nobody knows that she has a terrible father, except for Rosaleen. When lily and rosaleen ran away from home, the calendar sisters didn't know that they ran away
ReplyDeletelily is just like the bees because no one really knew her feelings until she let them out with august. she never told anything to T ray because he was mean and he wouldn't care. so lilys life has been a secret just like the bees
ReplyDeleteThe characters of this novel are like bees because they all have secret lives that they havent explained to each other. Rosaleen has barely talked about her previous life, lily is upset about her life because she feels she killed her own mother, which we know is not true. The Boatwrights have not said much to them but rosaleen and lily are staying in their house so im sure that they have picked up on a few things. What i am saying is that not just in the novel but in real life people keep secrets about their lives all the time. I dont see a problem in it because it is their own buisness what they want other people to know about them.
ReplyDeleteThe quote very much relates to the characters, but it mostly relates on Lily. Lily has been lying this whole time to the Boatwright sisters. She told them that her parents both died, and that she has no other place to stay Lily does have a seceret life that the sisters dont know about, and it is just like the quote, none of the sisters Know about the seceret life.
ReplyDeleteEach caracter in the novel has their own secrets. Starting off with the most obvious is Lily. Her secret is that she ran away from her abusive father and that she lied about who she really is. Next, is Rosaleen. She is running from the law and is a fugitive. No one but Lily knows. Third, is June. Her secret is that she got stood up at the alter and that's why she refuses to marry Neil. May has one of the biggest secrets. she had a twin sister named April that killed herself at fifteen years old. I don't think August has a major secrt like her sisters, Lily and Rosaleen. But I guess you could say that her secret is that she obsessed with bees and honey.
ReplyDeleteLike bees. Lily also has a secret life nobody knows about. Just like bees, Lily keeps secrets from people. Like August, June, and May. None of them really know why Lily is staying at their home. They have no idea that her mother died and that she broke Rosaleen out of jail, and that Lily only came to their house because of the black picture of Mary from her mother. Bees obviously keep big secrets, and so does Lily.
ReplyDeleteAlthough The Secret Life of Bees sounds like a strange title for a book about a girl and the women she lives with, it's actually "spot on" for the story. In the book August states, Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about. That’s very true for bees, but also true for Rosaleen and Lily. August, June, and May, the Calendar Sisters don’t know the real life story of Rosaleen and Lily. They have a secret life that was unknown to people. Bees also roam around from place to place looking for flowers to create honey to bring back to the queen bee and all of the worker bees. Rosaleen and Lily also roam around from town to town looking for people to take care of them and information about Lily’s mother. That is like when the bees are looking for honey. Rosaleen and Lily are like the bees in many ways.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about"
ReplyDeleteThis quote is related to Lily and Rosaleen. The sisters know nothing about Lily or Rosaleen besides the lies Lily has told them. They don't know them at all and they don't know the secret. They don't know why Lily is really there, they don't know about T.Ray and the fights they have gotten into or the way he punishes Lily. They don't know why Rosaleen has the cuts and bruises that she has. Rosaleen and Lily live a secret life that no one knows about..yet.
Bees have little secret lives that humans have no idea about. They live in their bee hives all day and humans have no idea what they are doing. Lily is exactly like a little bee in her own secret world. She has many secrets like lying about Rosaleen and her name. "Rosaleen...Smith, and Lily...Williams," Lily lied andthen launched in.
ReplyDeleteLily also lied about her family and how everyone died. "See, my mother died when I was little, and then my father died in a tractor accident last month on our farm in Spartanberg County. I don't have any other kin around here, so they were going to send me to a home." Lily lied a second time. So Lily's life is exactly like one of those bees in a secret little bee hive. She has big secrets in a small life.
Lily kind of has a secret life that the Boatwright Sisters don't know about. At first when Lily and Rosaleen meet the Calendar Sisters, theres a lot about their life that Lily and Rosaleen don't know about either.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about" -August Boatwright
ReplyDeleteIn context of the Secret life of Bees (quite an apt title), August says this in reference to the bees in her bee hives and how we know so little about what goes on there, but it also has a double meaning. I believe that it also refers to Lily's secret life of truth, which is shrouded over by her world of lies. What lily doesn't know is that August already sees through this shroud of lies, as is shown in the early days of her staying with the Boatwrights, when August told Lily the story of beatrix the nun. You see, Lily suspected this herself; in the story of Beatrix the nun, beatrix runs away from her convent but feels without a home and returns some time later, to discover the Virgin mary standing in for her. This isn't saying that the Virgin Mary is standing in for Lily, but that Lily doesn't belong away from her home and shuld return.
That is August's secret life that Lily doesn't know about. And May, too, has a secret life that not many know about. We don't know what happens when May goes to the wailing wall other than that she puts her sorrows in the wall, and we don't know why May is so connected to her dead sister, April.
Many other characters have their lives shrouded in mystery, too. Like Lily's mother, Deborah, for instance. But let's not get too far into that or I'll have to spoil the story for you all.
The characters are a lot like the bees mentioned in this quote. The two characters that relate to this quote the most are Lily and Rosaleen. Lily hides her story from August, June, and May. She says that her father died in a tractor accident and her aunt lives close to Tiburon. The truth really is that Lily strongly dislikes her father, and her mother is dead. She hides the secrets in her life from everyone at the Boatwrights house except Rosaleen. Rosaleen also does not tell the Boatwrights about her life. She has not told them that she escaped from jail. She didnt tell them that she was in jail in the first place! Both Lily and Rosaleen have many secrets that they are keeping to themselves.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about," August said. Lily, Deborah and May are like the bees mentioned. Lily lives a secret life that the Boatwright sisters don't know anything about. Deborah's life is a secret to Lily. Lily doesn't know anything about it. Everybody knows what upsets May, but they don’t really understand what it feels like. It’s a secret that May unfortunately has to keep to her herself.
ReplyDeleteLily has been lying to the Boatwright sisters ever since she met them. Lily once thinks to herself, “…I hated lying to August when she was so good to me”. Once, when August and June were talking privately, Lily overheard them and it became clear that August knew that Lily was lying, but that August didn’t know the whole story to Lily’s life. Lily doesn’t know anything about her mother, Deborah. All she has left of her mother is: a pair of her white gloves, a photograph of Deborah wrapped in wax paper and a wooden picture of the black Mary that says “Tiburon, S.C.” on the back. Lily wants badly to tell August about her mother and see if she knows anything, but she’s too afraid. She keeps putting it off. May gets upset over almost everything. Even food that gets burned. Ever since her twin sister, April, died, it’s like the world has become May’s twin sister. She feels everything that goes on in the world. The bad things, especially. Nobody truly understands the pain that May goes through. It’s her secret.
“Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about”. It’s not just true for bees, though. It’s true for people, too.
Lily is like the bees described in the quote because she keeps her real life a secret from the Boatwrights. No one (except Rosaleen) know her real story. Her real life. Rosaleen is like the bees described because we don't know really anything abot her life in the past or present. She has a secret life of her own. The Boatwrights also have secrets not yet revealed. We don't know how they came to the pink house or how they grew up.
ReplyDeleteThe Quote "Bees have a secret life we don`t know anything about" is related to the charecters from the novel because they too have secrets. When Lilly first met the Boatwright sisters,she made up lies about her life. She toled them that her parents had died and she changed her last name. Rosalleen refused to tell the sisters truthful information and hid the fact that she is a fugitive. Lily and Rosalleen hid their identiy from the sisters in attempt to keep the police and T-Ray away.
ReplyDelete“Bees have secret lives that we don’t know about.” Says August. Some of the characters have very secret lives that they don’t tell people about too. Lilly is a great example of a teenage girl with a secret life. August and June know that Lilly is keeping a secret form them but they are not sure what it is. Lilly is keeping a secret from the Boatwright sisters that turned her whole world upside down. Her secret is that she is not running away from a foster home, but she is running away form her father and the town that held her dreadful memories. She has not told August and the sisters that she is there to find things out about her mother, all she has told them is that she needed a place to stay before she gets to her Aunts house in Virginia. The girls need her Aunt to send them bus money so that they can get to Virginia. Lilly is keeping the secret that her mother died when she was young and that she was the reason that she died. She has not told them that her father is still alive and didn’t die in a tractor accident. They also don’t know that her father is very mean and abusive to Lily so she wanted to leave him. The Boatwright sisters are not aware that Roasleen was arrested for getting in a fight with white men and that she is running away from the hospital and jail and she never paid her bail. “Just what was August trying to say? That Mary would stand in for me back home in Sylvan so that T-Ray wouldn’t notice I was gone? That was too outlandish even for catholics. I think that she was telling me, I know you’ve run away- everybody gets the urge to do that sometime- but sooner or later you’ll want to go home. Just ask Mary for help.” Lillys secret is starting to eat away at her and she knows that she should tell Agust the truth because she has been so good to her. Lilly is afraid she tells her the truth they will make them go home or will call the police and have them taken back to Sylvan. She does not want to go back and face the punishments of the police an especially the terrible T-Ray. Lilly’s secret is not just a secret but it is part of her life and her.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." Oh, how Lily must have felt when she heard this. Did the past events race through head in a stampede? Both Lily and Rosaleen have huge secrets that the Boatwright sisters know nothing about. Rosaleen, the fugitive. Lily, who is convinced the sisters knew her mother and that's why she's really here. Poor Lily must be afraid that one slip of the tongue will have her "dream world" crashing down.
ReplyDeleteThen there is May, who nobody can really relate to. How does it feel to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, day after day? Nobody really knows what goes on in her head, or how the thoughts process. If one of them were to borrow her mind for a minute, would they be able to handle the weight?
"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." August Boatwright said this quote in Chapter 5. This quote can relate to some characters. One example is Lily. Back in Sylvan, she has a father and a life. In Tiburon, she claims her father died in a trailer accident and her mother is dead (which is true.) Not only is this a secret, but Lily doesn't tell the truth, eventhough August can see right through her lie. The "Calendar Sisters" have secrets too. June was jilted; left at the alter. May was is the way she is because of April, her twin sister who committed suicide. August doesn't have a secret so far. Humans, and even bees can have secrets and scerts lives.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life that we don't know anything about" is a quote that pertains to many different characters in the novel. One character is Lily. No one really knows the truth about her, and what she really thinks about and where she comes from. They makes lies to everyone, like that she was Rose Campbell's grand daughter and that she was just stopping at the Boatwrights but shes on her way to her aunts in Virginia. August has indirectly questioned her background at multiple points in the book, but Lily has not yet been prepared to answer.
ReplyDeleteThe characters in the book are very much like the bees mentioned in the quote. Lily has a secret life that none of the Calender sisters know about. They don't know that her father is still alive and is really on a quest to find her mother. June has a secret life too. We don't know her life before she was jilted. She could have been happy and not always so mad al the time
ReplyDeleteThe bees in this quote are very similar to Lily. "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." No one knows about the secret lives of bees, people do not know what happens inside a bee hive. Lily's "bee hive" is her real life. The only one who knows about her life in the hive is her fellow worker bee, Rosaleen. Rosaleen lives with the same lies that Lily does everyday. Both Rosaleen and Lily live secret lives that no one else can look into, like a bee's hive. Lily and Rosaleen ran away from the hive all the way to tiburon to join a new hive with May, August and June.
ReplyDeleteTo many of us, bees are just aggravating little bugs that come out in the summer and like to sting us. However, they really have a job they need to do. The inner workings of a hive of bees is very complex. August explained pt Lily all of the many components of honey making. That's much like Lily and Rosaleen's staying at the Boatwright sister's home is. Lily made up numerous lies as to why they where traveling. The whole point, though, was to find out about her her mother. That is Lily's hidden agenda. Lily and the bees have much in common in that sense.
ReplyDeleteThe characters are simliar to the quote "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about"in many ways. For example Lily is a girl who ran away from home and busted a negro woman out of jail. The calander girls defenitly know something is going on, but who knew it would be that bad. Roseleen is a fugative who has gotten out of jail. these are really the only two secrets within the house hold. Also this is how the charecters are related to the quote "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about".
ReplyDeleteThe characters of the book, The Secret Life of Bees, are like the bees mentioned in the quote, “Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about.” Lily has a secret life that she refuses to tell the Boatwrights. She claims to be waiting for the right time, but meanwhile she just fills the Boatwrights with lies. On page 105, Lily says she's from Spartanburg County, even though she isn't. She doesn't want the Boatwrights to figure out her true identity. Rosaleen is also helping keep Lily's identity a secret by lying as well. At this point, none of the Boatwrights know anything about the real past of Lily and why she ran away, even though it has been two weeks! Also, Deborah had a secret life. Lily knew almost nothing about her past since T. Ray kept her past a secret. Many characters in the novel have secret lives that they choose not to share. Will this help them in the end?
ReplyDeleteLily has built herself a nest of lies to sleep in and protect her from abandonment. The sisters do not know why she ran away or what has transpired in her life. Her life is a secret that is waiting to be found out. Another secret is the fact that May's twin sister died. Not many people know that. They don't know that they used to share everything, but when April died the world became May's twin sister. June and Niel's relationship and why June is so scared is a secret. Niel doesn't know that June was jilted on her wedding day.
ReplyDelete“Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.” –August
ReplyDeleteLily and Rosaleen are the most like the bees mentioned in this quote. They both have an extremely secretive life. They have lied to the entire county of Tiburon about their lives. Lily gave herself and Rosaleen fake identities. Lily has told everyone that she’s an orphan and her father died in an accident when Lily was younger. Lily also said that she is in Tiburon on her way to visit her aunt that she doesn’t know the last name of so she can’t find her. Rosaleen and Lily also gave themselves fake last names. Rosaleen is hiding the fact that she’s a fugitive who Lily helped sneak out of jail. Bees have secret lives in their hives. No one knows what they do in there. One of the only ways we can figure out what they are doing is listening. From doing this, something August explains to Lily is that when it is very hot, all the bees go into their hives and flap their wings. This is the bees form of air conditioning. One other thing we know what bees do in their hives is produce honey, but this is obvious.
The characters are related to the bees because when it says, "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about," this relates to Zach and how he gets put in jail. We don't know what he did yet. Another character is Lily. She fooled T-Ray whenever she uses her alias and how T-Ray doesn't know where to look for her unless he goes to every house in Tiburon to search for her.
ReplyDelete"Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." This quote is shown throughout this novel. Lily and Rosaleen are the ideal example in this book. They have a mission to accomplish by living at the Boatwright's. It is for Lily to find out everything she can about her mother. However, August, June, and May know nothing of this. They are completely left in the dark. The other person that somewhat lives a secret life, if you really think about it, is May. May lives her own life that nobody knows about inside of her mind. She lives through things that other people have no idea about. She takes all the bad things in the world, and puts them all on her shoulders. "Bees have a secret life we don't know anything about." And so do people.
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