The Secret Life of Bees tells a story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Lily Owens, who undergoes a considerable change in her personality in her search for the truth about her mother. Lily has experienced many hardships since childhood because she lost her mother at the age of four. Willing to uncover the mystery of her mother’s life, Lily started her journey to find the truth about her. On her path, the girl achieved personal fulfillment as she turned from an insecure, withdrawn, and immature individual into a self-confident, open, and forgiving person.
At the novel’s beginning, Lily is represented as a person who lacks confidence, resulting from her difficult circumstances. She lived a motherless life, which is complicated on its own but is further aggravated by the fact that Lily was the cause of this situation. She accidentally killed her mother with a gun when she was four and felt guilty for this. Moreover, her father, whom she called T. Ray because he was “not the Daddy type,” punished her cruelly and did not support her as she grew up (Kidd 238). As a result, she had “no one to ask about training bras, no one to drive her to junior cheerleader tryouts, and no one to whom she can show the ‘rose-petal stain on her panties’” (Arifatin 135). As a result of her sense of abandonment, she was highly insecure, longing for her mother’s love she could never get and being jealous of her peers who received proper attention from their parents. Perhaps, she would continue living her miserable life if her father had not told her that her mother had left her. Having a picture with the sign “Tiburon, S. C.” as her only clue, the girl made her first step toward her personal fulfillment by starting her journey in search of the traces of her mother.
In Tiburon, Lily met several people who contributed to her personal growth and maturation. For example, Zach, a boy with whom she fell in love, helped her build her self-confidence, affirmed to her that “she is lovable,” and restored her dream of becoming a writer (Arifatin 140). He presented her with a notebook with the words, “This is for you…So you can get a head start on your writing” (Kidd 135). Further, from May Boatwright, Lily learned to express her feelings as she established the wailing wall similar to that May used for releasing her burden. Finally, August Boatwright, being a kind, caring, and intelligent woman, led Lily to open herself and reveal her true life story that she had been hiding since her arrival at Tiburon. In her conversation with August, Lily finally released her feelings: “T. Ray…he told me, my mother…’ The tears rushed up, and my words came out in high-pitched sounds I didn’t recognize. ‘He said she left me, that she left both of us and ran away” (Kidd 238). Expressing her grief was important for Lily for two reasons: first, it helped her mature psychologically; second, it allowed her to reach the goal she pursued when she started her journey – revealing the truth about her mother.
Lily achieved her personal fulfillment after she learned this truth. At the beginning of the novel, she did not even accept the thought that her mother could have left her as she cried in response to her father: “My mother loved me!” (Kidd 39). Later, after August told her the story of her mother, it was difficult for Lily to understand her mother’s difficult circumstances: “Unwanted, I thought. I was an unwanted baby” (Kidd 250). She could not forgive her mother for leaving her until she grasped the meaning of the words August said to her after revealing the truth: “Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We’re all so human. Your mother made a terrible mistake, but she tried to fix it” (Kidd 256). This realization was painful for Lily, but it was necessary for her to release her burden and move further. She eventually achieved her personal fulfillment: she learned the truth about her mother, and, along with it, she understood how she should proceed with her life.
The outcome of Lily’s personal fulfillment can be seen in the episode when her father comes to Tiburon to take her home. In response to T. Ray’s command to go home, she responded, “I’m staying here,” and repeated it to show that her intention was firm: “I said I’m not leaving” (Kidd 296). The fact that she found the courage to say it to a person who oppressed her demonstrates that she grew personally and, from then on, was able to make decisions for herself. She realized that she could not prosper if she returned home, and she wanted to believe that her father allowed her to stay with the thought, “You never would’ve flowered with me as you will with them” (Kidd 300). In addition to understanding her wishes, her journey toward the truth led her to forgiveness. As an adult, she looked at the photograph of her smiling mother and thought she forgave herself.
In conclusion, Lily achieved her personal fulfillment by finding the truth about her mother, thus releasing the burden that had weighed upon her since childhood. By meeting some caring people, she gained self-confidence and learned to express her feelings. Although it was difficult for her to accept the truth about her mother, she eventually managed to forgive her and could proceed with her life free from her father’s oppression.
Works Cited
Arifatin, Fais Wahidatul. “Stylistics and Figurative Language in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees: A Stylistics Analysis.” Journey (Journal of English Language and Pedagogy), vol. 2, no. 2, 2019, pp. 131-145.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Penguin Books, 2003.