They then hitched a ride to three miles outside of Tiburon with a black man who kindly gave then them cantalopes after he dropped them off. Please feel free to join in on our discussions! The chapter ended with Lily and Rosaleen swimming in the creek. Monday, March 8, 2010. Kidd’s symbolism becomes more obvious. After successfully sneaking Rosaleen out of police custody, she decides they will go to Tiburon, SC, because that location was written on the back of a picture that had belonged to her mother. When they got there, they found their combatants from the gas station waiting for them. Zach's arrest has other repercussions as well. Lily's understanding of the adult world is heightened when she realizes that both her father and Rosaleen are right to be fearful about the dangerous black and white divide. Rosaleen ends up charged with a number of things, and she and Lily get hauled off to jail. Lily is forced against her will into T-Ray's vehicle, which results in a confrontation between Lily and T-Ray. After Rosaleen fell to the ground Mr. Gaston then stopped the men and he said, "Now's not the time." We find epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter in the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Lily then had what she called, "a religous experience" and she said she heard a voice say,"Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open." The ultra-empathetic May is so upset to hear about the situation that she commits suicide. She suffers mightily from an unhappy home life; her mother died when she was four, and her father, T. Ray, is neglectful on his best days and abusive on his worst. Our narrator, Lily Melissa Owens, spends most of the book describing events that took place the summer she turned 14. It takes her a while to get over the shock of this revelation. The Secret Life of Bees Summary. Lily asked her what happened and she said that those three men had come back to get an apology from her, but still she refused. Then T.Ray came to pick Lily up from the jail, but did not get Rosaleen. With that and a few additional details, Lily basically brings us up to speed with her life so far. It's a very unique picture, an image of a black Madonna. Lily's decision to leave a loveless home is fueled by her resolution to help Rosaleen escape certain death. She is still in high school when the novel closes, and she claims to have found a good home with Rosaleen, the Boatwright sisters, and the other surrogate mothers that the Daughters of Mary (and the woman they worship) represent for her. Lily leaves the sanctity of her hometown and defies her father in the search for the truth, with Rosaleen by her side. (Zach is released soon after May's death.). It received critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller.It won the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (Paperback), and was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.. This Study Guide consists of approximately 60 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - After she said that he tried to hit her, but she turned her head and he missed. Study Guide Navigation; About The Secret Life of Bees; The Secret Life of Bees Summary; Character List; Glossary; Themes; Summary And Analysis. When the story begins, she's a lonely and unpopular teenager living in Sylvan, South Carolina (it's fictional—put your map away). The Secret Life of Bees Introduction + Context. Both pairs feel uncertainty during their journey, but an overwhelming sense of freedom makes them believe in themselves and each other. Lily and Rosaleen go straight to August's house (where August's sisters May and June live as well) and end up scoring an invitation to stay. She and August convince him to just leave her there, with August promising to take care of her. So she packed up her stuff, with no plan of what she was going to do. Bees are powerful symbols in The Secret Life of Bees (Kidd), in addition to being part of the plot structure. She barely remembers the incident, but it's clear she feels a lot of guilt about it. She began to fear even more for Rosaleen and at the same time was furious at the fact that T.Ray left Rosaleen in jail. The three men told her she better apologize, but she refused so the men proceeded to beat her face with a flashlight. Lily finally snapped when T.Ray told her to wait in her room for her punishment. As they were driving, the three men started driving really close to the car and honking their horns and yelling at Lily and Rosaleen to try and scare them. GradeSaver, 30 November 2008 Web. On her birthday, Lily decides she's going to accompany Rosaleen into town. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. They argued back and forth and T.Ray told her that her mother never cared about her and when she was packing that day of the accident, she was plannng on leaving Lily alone with T.Ray. Two major threads of the story come together in this chapter. Summary The chapter opens with a quotation describing how a bee colony "swarms," or leaves its old home and finds a suitable new home. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Lily has a good relationship with Rosaleen, the woman charged with taking care of her, but she nonetheless yearns for her mother. The Secret Life of Bees study guide contains a biography of Sue Monk Kidd, literature essays, 100 quiz questions, major themes, characters, a glossary, and a full summary and analysis. When she got to the hospital, she snuck into Rosaleen's room in which she was not allowed in. But when she got there, Mr. Gaston said that Rosaleen had an accident. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. When she gets to Tiburon, it doesn't take her long to figure out the Madonna's origins; in the general store where she stops to grab lunch, she finds honey jars with that picture all over them. The Secret Life of Bees is a book by author Sue Monk Kidd.Set in 1964, it is a coming-of-age story about loss and betrayal. Chapter 2 We pick up with Lily's tale with Avery Gaston (aka "Shoe") driving Rosaleen and Lily to the police station. Lily knew what really happened and started yelling at him. The epigraph for this chapter, again from a book about bees, explains that when a swarm of bees leaves an old hive, a few “scout bees” look for a new colony, and eventually the entire hive settles. With a little further sleuthing, she quickly locates the address of the beekeeper who produced the honey, August Boatwright. As time goes on, Lily gets into a good groove with the sisters and learns more about their rituals and traditions, including their Catholicism-infused (but not entirely Catholic—at least, in the traditional sense) worship of the Virgin Mary as part of a group called the Daughters of Mary. This blog is intended only for educational purposes and non-pertinent content will be deleated. And of course, she misses her mom, too. Lily wanted to head to Tiburon because that was what was written on the back of her mother's picture. A summary of Part X (Section9) in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. The three white men Rosaleen insulted follow her and Lily to the police station, where one of the men assaults Rosaleen and demands an apology from her. Avery Gaston, the Sylvan chief of police, drives Rosaleen and Lily to jail, while Franklin Possey, one of the men from the Esso station, waits at the prison for his opportunity to beat an apology out of Rosaleen, as Avery turns a blind eye. She said to him, "You don't scare me." Then, T. Ray tracks her down and shows up in Tiburon, threatening to take Lily home. There they ate their cantalope and talked about their plans, or should I say Lily's plans. Lily befriends August's assistant, Zach, and the two soon develop lots of lovey dovey feelings for each other. We quickly learn that Lily accidentally played a role in her mother's death; she got in the middle of a fight between her parents, picking up and accidentally firing a gun that had dropped to the floor in the commotion. The book was later adapted into a film directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.