The Secret Life of Bees By: Sue Monk Kidd

Setting

American South (S. Carolina)

1964

Year of the Civil Rights Act

Racial unrest

Characters

Lily Owens

14 years old

T Ray

Lily’s father

Rosaleen

Lily’s nanny

Characters

August

Boatwright

Beekeeper

May & June

Boatwright

Augusts’ sisters

Characters

Neil

June’s boyfriend

Zack

Works for August

Friends with Lily

Mr. Forrest

Lawyer in town

Characterization

Characterization – The way the author

presents the personality of a character.

Directly - describing the character

Physical features

Indirectly - by showing the character’s

actions, speech, and thoughts and how they

affect the other characters

Character Traits

The qualities that a character possesses Kind

Shy

Motivated

Courageous

Humorous

Influential

Manipulative

Easily Influenced

Character Traits

List 2 traits (one general idea/word) for the

following characters:

Lily Owens

T. Ray

August Boatwright

Conflict

Major problem in the plot of a literary work

Internal Conflict Struggle in the mind of a character who must

resolve something.

External Conflict Struggle between characters

Between characters and a force of nature

Major Conflict

Lily’s search for:

Truth

Answers regarding her mother

Happiness

Love

Family

Symbol

Something that has an actual meaning

and then can be further explained through

a deeper meaning.

The Bees are a major symbol in the novel

Theme

Controlling idea

Main idea

Message the writer conveys

Themes

The power of women

Race relations

Search for love

Family

Belonging

Style of writing

The way the author expresses his/her

ideas

Coming of age story

When a character goes through a huge

transformation in their personality, life, or way of

thinking in a short amount of time

Foreshadowing

Hints/clues in a story that give the reader

advance warning of events to come

What foreshadowed the fact the August had

known Lily’s mother?

Irony

Contrast or difference between what you

think will happen & what actually happens

A situation is ironic when it is totally different

from what the reader or character expected

What situation(s) would you consider IRONIC

in the novel?

The Secret Life of Bees

Explain in detail the following quote using specific examples from the novel.

“The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness.”