Secret Life of Bees (Film)

Sections/characters minimized in film
In the film one important part I thought should've been included was when Lily called T. Ray and she had the conversation with him. I thought that the conversation she has with him leads to Lily fully realizing that T. Ray didn't really care about her. Another part that wasn't exactly minimized but just completely changed was in the book Zack gets sent to jail because he wouldn't tell the white man what his friend had said. In the movie Zack goes to jail because he brought Lily to the Black section in the movie theatre which isn't allowed because she is White. I liked the film version of that part better because it wasn't a random thin thing that happened whereas in the book the situation he was in seemed kind of random because I wasn't able to make a strong connection with why he was sent to jail and how his friends were there. The film version just made more sense and it was more dramatic which made the film even more interesting.

Sections/characters emphasized
I think one character that was emphasized was of course August because she was in almost every scene in the film. Another character that was emphasized in the film, in my opinion, was the lawyer. He was the only decent White person in the film and he seemed very nice and he also seemed like the go to person for the Boatwright family even though they probably don't need much support. One thing that supports what I have stated is when Zack got sent to jail the lawyer was the one who was by their side and he assured them that he would help them to the best of his ability.

Narration
Well during the film there is a voice over of the main character Lily. The voice over makes it easier to recognize that this fiml is being told through first point of view.

Description of one scene shot
There was one scene where May is making a track with marshmallows to lead the animals out of the house. When Lily sees her doing this a close-up is made. I thought he close-up was very well used because it showed the audience her reaction and that shot lets the audience know that Lili has remembered what T. Ray had said about her mom doing the same thing.

The film was great and I very much enjoyed it!

Secret Life of Bees (Chpts. 12-14)

Pages: 232-302

Summary
When s Lily finally is able to talk to August about her mother pieces of the puzzle come together. August had been Deborah’s nanny when she was younger. June didn’t like Deborah either because August had to wait on her so she didn’t like Lily either. T. Ray had loved her mother but she didn’t feel as strongly for him as he did for her. After becoming pregnant with T. Ray she gets bored with her life there and hits depression. She decides to go visit August for a while leaving Lily behind which angered Lily when she found this out. Doctors suggested that she went to a mental institution but she started to get better while she was away. Deborah then decides to go back for Lily and leave T. Ray to go live with August because she couldn’t take it anymore and that’s when the accident happens. After knowing about all of this Lily hates her mother and takes a while to reflect over things. When she gets back to her old self T. Ray finds her in August’s house while August was out in the bee house. Lily told T. Ray what she knew about her mother and for a while he starts speaking to Lily as if she were Deborah. When August comes in the house with backup T. Ray lets Lily stay and he leaves.

Quote
“They are the moons shinning over me” (Kidd 302).

Reaction
This is in the end when Lily is talking about Mary. I think this part shows how she has found herself. This is when she finally feels loved because she talks about having more mothers than any other girl. I think this also when she realizes that Mary is something that’s inside of you and that there’s a Mary inside of everyone.

Secret Life of Bees (Chpts. 9-11)

Pages: 165-231

Summary
When Lily asks May about her mother Deborah Fontanel, May tells Lily that she had been in the house with them for a while. After hearing that Lily becomes a nerve rack realizing that she must confront August with the truth soon. But the right time never comes. Zack gets into jail after refusing to give in his friend. When May finds this out it becomes too much for her and she ends up drowning herself in the river. A couple of days later they find a letter from May which told them she was tired of carrying the weight of everyone one her shoulder and had to end it. She also tells them that they needed to start living. While everyone in the house is mourning, Zack gets freed from jail. When all the mourning is over it gets time to celebrate Mary which means there still isn’t any time for Lily to confront August with the truth. Amidst all of that June finally says yes to Neil and plans her wedding. During the celebration of Mary Lily and Zack goes off to the river and she makes him promise that they’ll be together someday later in their lives.

Quote
“To say, If you’ve been wondering whether my leaving has caused T. Ray to examine his heart, or change his way, don’t waste your time” (Kidd 170-171).

Reaction
After Lily gives the call to his father she never tells anyone. However she badly wants to let Rosaline know but she doesn’t tell her. I think this quote shows disappointment because she wanted T. Ray to change after she had ran away. She half expected him to realize that the way he has been treating her wasn’t very good. But I do think that some part of her knew that this wasn’t going to happen because T. Ray never seems to show any fatherly emotions towards her.

The Secret Life of Bees (Chpts. 5-8)

By: Sue Monk Kidd
Pages: 82-164

Summary
During Lily's first week at the Boatwright's house she feels as if it was consolation. She starts her work with August working with bees to make honey. Rosaleen helps in the kitchen with May. Later on a boy named Zack who is August's helper returns. Here is an overview of the characters that are introduced in the story:
August: she's the oldest of the sisters and the one in charge. Se loves making honey and that's she makes her money off of. She is a strong believer of Mary and that's what her religion surrounds. She is very smart and always seems to know the right things to say. She also seems to be so free and has a strong sense of herself.
June: she welcomes Lily with palpable hostility. She is an Enlgish teacher. She spends her time playing the cello for the dead. In an earlier time in her life she was to get married but the guy never showed up for the wedding. So then she promised herself that she would never marry again and it has gone so far to the point where she refuses to marry Neil, whom she is in love with, no matter how much he asks her.
May: When she as younger she had a twin sister, April. They had an odd relationship with each other because whatever one felt the other also felt. When April committed suicide May began to feel everyone else's pain whenever she was expose to it. She had a very bright aura about her. She keeps a wall of all her pains as a way to get them out of her.
Zack: he wants to become a lawyer but the only thing that he fears can hold hime back is the color of his skin. He also starts to really like Lily but his skin color also becomes a factor for him.
During this part Lily does something that shell probably regret. She makes a collect call to T. Ray to ask if he knew what her favorite color is.

Quote
"I live in a hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her. You are the mother of thousands" (Kidd 164).

Reaction
This is when Lily gets touch the statue of Mary's heart. This is what she telling her as she is doing this. She believes that Mary is her mother and is watching over her. The second part of the quote is the same thing that August had told Lily and she kept it with her.

The Secret Life of Bees (Chpts. 1-4)

By: Sue Monk Kidd
Pages: 1-81

Summary
The book begins with the protagonist Lily Owens. It shows us a quick look into her life with T. Ray who is her father. Her mother died when Lily was very young and it was her fault. She had accidentally pull the trigger. After the death of her mother, Lily's life of mental abuse, harsh punishments, and a sense of no love surrounding her begins. However, one tragic day changes all of that. The story takes place in 1964 during a time of pure racism. When the right to vote is given to African Americans Rosaleen, Lily's "nanny", and Lily goes to the city to get her named signed up to vote. Before they even get there everything goes downhill. Rosaleen steals a fan from the church. Then when three white men start to mess around with her she drops a bottle of her spit on their shoes which angers them. They end calling the police and both Lily and her wait for T. Ray in jail. Rosaleen gets beat up during her time in jail and Lily get's out when T. Ray comes. When Lily gets back home she begins to realize that she can escape and does exactly that but not before rescuing Rosaleen from the hospital under the watch of a police. During their on the road they hitch hike and walk the rest of the way to Tiburon, South Carolina. She carried with her a black image of Mary which is what leads her to the Boatwright sisters, August, June, and May. After Lily tell them a made up of her journey the sisters invites them both with open arms, except for June. For some strange reason Lily feels as if she belongs in this pink house with the Boatwright sisters.

Quote
" My fist and only memory of my mother is the day she died" (Kidd 5).


Reaction
When I read this line it automatically made me pause and read it again. I thought it was really sad that the only memory she had of her mother was the day she died. I think that this one sentence really explains what the journey of Lily will be because it seems like she feels like she doesn't know herself and the absence of her mother is probably a huge part of that. This sentence was followed by her remembering the day her mother died. Her mother was taking clothes out of the closet and telling Lily to hurry up. When T. Ray comes up the stairs they get into an argument and she takes out a gun for protection. When the gun ends up on the floor Lily reaches for it and it goes off. That's the last of her memory from that day.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 28-35)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 177-234

• Summary

Part 4
During the first chapter a lot of things are revealed about Sophie and Martine. Martine has breast cancer and Sophie developed bulimia when she got married. Sophie spends the night with her mother and their relationship seems to be more understanding. This is probably because Sophie now goes through the same things as her mother and understands her better.
Martine tells Sophie that she is pregnant. Martine doesn't want to keep the baby because it makes the nightmares worse and it feels like she's getting raped every night.
Sophie feels as if her and Martine's relationship with each other is more now and she feels like they have become twins.
In order to deal with her nightmares and hard times Sophie goes to a sexual phobia group with three other women. She also sees a therapist. During her meeting with her therapist Sophie admits that she fears abandonment from everyone in her life except from her daughter. The therapist recommends that Sophie go back with Martine to the place where she was raped so they could both confront it and leave it behind.
During a family dinner with Joseph, Sophie, Marc, and Martine,Martine tells Sophie her decision to get rid of the baby inside of her.A couple of days later Marc calls about the death of Martine. She was found lying in the bathroom surrounded by blood. She had stabbed herself in the stomach 17 times.
Sophie left her suspicions of Marc behind and went to Haiti to follow her mother's wishes of being burried in Haiti. Sophie chose to bury her mother all in bright red. During the procession Sophie ran into the cane fields. The book ends wonderfully when Sophie's grandmother comes to Sophie in the cane fields and puts her hands on her shoulder and explains how "you will hear your mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: 'Ou libere?' Are you free, my daughter?"

• Quote

"I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to. My mother was as brave as stars at dawn. She too was from this place. My mother was like that woman who could never bleed and then could never stop bleeding, the one who gave in to her pain, to live as a butterfly. Yes, my mother was like me" (Danticat 234).

• Reaction

This is in the last chapter when Sophie runs into the cane fields during the funeral procession of her mother's death. These are Sophie's thoughts. I think that when she runs into the cane fields it was her way of freeing herself. She came to the realization of how similar her and her mother was. They were both brave and sought to live longer than their nightmares. Though her mother didn't win the fight Sophie can use this as a time to confront all of her fears. She can confront and then leave behind all her troubles and the source of all the mishaps in her life. I really liked this quote because it included the title in it. I think the title shows how her current life, what she sees, and her pass are all one. This is the world in which Sophie and her mother came from. Their past followed them throughout their whole lives. Now with Sophie it all ends and she is finally free.

Breath, Eyes, Memory (Chpts. 21-27)

Breath, Eyes, Memory
By: Edwidge Danticat
Pages: 134-174

• Summary

In the beginning of the first chapter Tante Atie's change becomes more apparent when she starts drinking to forget her worries.
Sophie confronts her grandmother about the tests the mothers gave to their daughters. Her grandmother responds "if your child is disgraced, you are disgraced". This means that for whatever wrong doings a child has done then people will blame the parents not the child. Sophie explains her nightmares to her grandmother because she knows they will never go away. In the night both cry for each others pains.
Martine comes to Haiti to bring Sophie and Brigitte back to America. Before they leave Louise, Tante Atie's bestfriend, leave for America without telling her. Tante Atie is heartbroken and feels completely alone and betrayed.

• Quote

"The men in this area, they insist that their women are virgins and have ten fingers" (Danticat 151)."

• Reaction

This quote was said when Sophie decided to cook for her family in Haiti. She remembered something Tante Atie had said about the ten fingers. Each finger represents something: mothering, boiling, loving, baking, nursering, frying, healing, washing, ironing, and scrubbing. Also men have always wanted their women to be pure before they got married which is why mothers did the tests so their daughters would be married. I picked this quote because it was something that I thought wasn't right. Though those ten qualities are good for every one to have I don't think that they should be considered as a necessities by men.