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.”
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