The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd takes place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, in 1964. In the novel, Lily Owens leaves her home in Sylvan, along with her stand in mother named Rosaleen, in search for her dead mothers past. She finds the town of Tiburon written on the back of her mothers picture of a black Virgin Mary. When she gets to the town she discovers a big pink house where three African American sisters live and where the Virgin Mary picture came from. The three sisters show Lily new experiences, such as bee keeping and the black Virgin Mary, and help her with her problems. With their guidance, Lily uncovers her mothers past and faces new dilemmas that the discovery throws at her. When it comes to such a plot, conflicts come in many forms. In this novel, the characters face different types of conflicts such as with other characters, with themselves, and with society.
One major type of conflict represented in the novel is character verses character. To begin with, Rosaleen and Lily had a fight after they left Sylvan. A conflict of character verses character has to do with two characters having some sort of struggle. Rosaleen and Lily were the two characters fighting and the disagreement was on whether Lilys mom left her or not. Later on, June and Lily had their fair share of struggles too. This was more of a mental struggle, rather than a physical struggle, between the two. June did not want Lily there because she still resented the fact that August worked as a nanny for Lilys mother, Deborah. June took her feelings out on Lily, causing the whole struggle. Towards the end, Lily and T. Ray had a battle. They fought about if Lily should stay in the pink house her go home with her father. Lily did not back down from this conflict. Instead, she challenged T. Ray head on and she won. She overcame that conflict so she could stay at the pink house. Character verses character conflicts happen several times through out the book.
Another type of conflict when that occurs in the novel is character verses self. At first, June had self conflict when she was deciding if she should marry Neil or not. June had to make this decision on her own. She had her own problems, like being left at the alter several years ago, to get over. In addition, August had to get through Mays death on her own. During her mourning period, August went off on her own. She barely talked to anyone and she immediately closed down the honey business. The sorrow was something she had to overcome herself. In conclusion, Lily was having self issues when she found out her mom left her. For days Lily closed in on herself. She would not talk to anyone, she would not eat anything; she had to grieve on her own. She had challenges trying to deal with this news. She took her anger out by throwing honey jars at the wall by the Virgin Mary statue. This character verses self deal is another popular conflict that most characters have to endure.
Character verses society is another common conflict used through out the novel as well. For instance, Rosaleen had quarrels against a racist society when all she wanted to do was register so she could vote. On her way to register, racist men gave her a hard time. At the time, the whole town was frowning upon black people voting. Rosaleen had to practice writing her name because if it was not perfect, the town would not register her. In like manner, May had issues with society too. Mays mental condition alone was conflicted with society. May felt everyone elses pain and grieve. It was a very sad process. If any part of any society was damaged or had problems, May had to struggle not to feel that same pain. Furthermore, Zachs battle in jail was also against society. Zach did not even belong in jail to begin with. The only reason he got in was because he wouldnt turn his friend in for throwing a bottle at a white mans head. Zach was forced by the racist men of Tiburon to go to jail. In this novel, character verses society was a big conflict to deal with.
In The Secret Life of Bees many characters had to challenge the different types of conflicts like character against character, character against themselves, and character against society. First there were the character verses character problems. Rosaleen and Lily fought, June and Lily struggled, and Lily and T. Ray brawled. Each pair faced conflicts with each other. Next, there was the character verse self conflicts. June had to decide if she wanted to marry Neil, August had to get Through Mays death, and Lily had to grieve for her mother. Each conflict was faced by only the one character that had problems with themselves. Finally, the character verses society conflicts appeared several times. Rosaleen was arrested for her struggles against racism, May confronted problems feeling what everyone else felt, and Zach was arrested for doing nothing by a bunch of racist men. Every conflict was traced back to problems with society. All of the conflicts, including, character verses character, character verses self, and character verses society, relate back to the novel where different characters had feuds with the different types of conflicts.
Bibliography: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
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