Character Analysis Of Lily Owens In 'When She Doesn T Cry'

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens struggles with the notion that she killed her mother and has to live with her abusive, neglectful father, T-Ray. Throughout, Lily searches for information about her mother and why she left her. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon new mother figures that play an important role in changing Lily to the person she is in later. The typical sequence of a hero’s journey includes a departure, initiation and trials, and reintegration into society. By the end, Lily Owens developes into a more mature, independent young women after experiencing a difficult childhood.

When lily went to South Carolina she goes to a lady named August. August is very artifice. Lily stays at her honey house for several months with her aunt Rooselyn. As she lives there she goes through many adventures and meets a ton of new people. She meets her true love Zach and two sister of August named May and June. She finds out a lot about her mother. She finds out that her mother Deborah stayed at the same honey house. She also finds out that her mother ran away from T-Ray when he was abusive. At the end T-Ray finds Lily at Augusts house and he threatens her that she has to come back home with him. Lily fights and eventually convinces T-Ray that she is better off with August and forgives him.

First of all, The Secret Life of Bees is a 1960’s novel based on a child named Lily, who was bossed around and treated unfairly by her dad T-Ray, which he himself had a black maid named Rosaleen working for him since before Lily was born. Lily and Rosaleen had a very special relationship that had loyalty, trust,

Luckily for Lily, she comes upon the Boatwright sisters once she reaches Tiburon. Because of the fact Lily does not have anyone to share her love with, she is compelled to stay and live with the Boatwrights. At one point in the novel, Lily and August are having a conversation when August asks Lily “What else do you love Lily?”(Kidd 39). Lily then thinks to herself, “No one had ever asked me that before. What did I love? Right off the bat I wanted to say that I loved the picture of my mother…but I had to swallow that back”(39). Lily does not feel comfortable enough yet that she says, “ I love writing poems, just give me something to write, and I’ll love it” despite the fact that Lily really loves August (39). She loves August so much that she would rather stay in Tiburon with the Boatwrights than be with her own father T. Ray. The loss of Deborah results in Lily going to obtain love somewhere other than her own home. This is also why Lily takes Rosaleen with her. Rosaleen is a black nanny who used to work on T. Ray’s farm. She has been there for Lily in the past but she cannot always be there one hundred percent because of her race. Due to Deborah’s death, Lily does not have a mother figure, however, he journey to Tiburon with Rosaleen proves to be a success as she finds the Boatwrights and strengthens her relationship with her nanny, Rosaleen.

Lily says "my skin has never felt so white to me" because, for the first time, she is with all black people. She says this because she feels she kind of stand out since she is the only white person

In view of that, relationships between characters in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ are clearly similar and different to ‘The Secret of Bees’. Lily explains her relationship by saying, “Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy– who I called T. Ray because ‘Daddy’ never fit him” (2). This quotation from ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is by Lily, narrating her relationship with Rosaleen and T. Ray. Rosaleen treats Lily like her daughter as she compliments Lily and gives advice on her decision of fashion school. Comparatively, when Lily tells her father T. Ray about the swarm of bees in her room, T. Ray does not believe her daughter and instead threatens punishment. This quote states Rosaleen genuinely cares for Lily as she thinks for her best while T. Ray does not treat her own

Lily overhears a conversation between June Boatwright and August, where June explains that the color of her skin matters and that she does not belong in the Boatwright house “but she’s white, August” (5, 87). Lily “[wants] to make [August] love [her] so [she could stay in the pink house] forever” but she knows that she will never truly “belong”, because she is not the same as theirs. Another example of this is during the weekly meeting of the Daughter of Mary, each member and sister would go up to the Statue of Mary and touch her heart. Lily took part in this ritual and as it was her turn to go touch Mary’s heart, June turned off the music and lily again realized “I am not one of [them]” (6, 111). Lily desires to be a part of their family, but she struggles with the feeling of being an outsider. At the end of the novel, lily is faced with a demand from her father T.Ray to come “home”, lily then realizes that physical home is not “home”, she belongs in the Boatwright house “ Lily can have a home here for as long as she wants” (14,

The readers see this as the turning point in the novel. It's a turning point because Lily now understands more about blacks and feels for them and this allows her to open her heart to

As readers first start the novel, the main character, and protagonist, Lily Owens is seen as a determined 14-year-old girl who will stop at nothing to find out more about her mother. After getting into a fight with T. Ray, Lily Owens thinks to herself, “That's when it came to me. What if my mother wasn’t leaving true? What if T. Ray made it up to punish me? … But I had such a moment right then, standing in my own ordinary room. I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open. In a matter of seconds, I knew exactly what I had to do -leave.” (Kidd 41) This quote gives the readers a sneak peek at how determined Lily truly is. She takes the risk of running away from her abusive father and the house she calls home. Once Lily runs away and breaks Rosaleen out of jail, she comes up with a plan as to how they will escape Sylvan. “‘We’re going to Highway Forty and

Lily comes to know three incredible women called the Boatwrights. Their names are August, June, and May. Lily became closest to August although she was close to May and June, also. Lily felt as though August had a comforting and consoling way about her. August once told Lily “Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough.” (Kidd 111). Her motivational life advice helped to guide Lily. Furthermore, August had to be the one to tell Lily that they had lost May; May had killed herself. Lily did not take the news so well. Lily claimed she had started to “shiver…[she] could feel the teeth in [her] mout, crashing against each other.” (Kidd 193).

"Because you weren't ready to know about her. I didn't want to risk you running away again. I wanted you to have a chance to get yourself on solid ground, get your heart bolstered up first. ”When August first asked Lily who she was and where she came from August knew Lily wasn’t telling the truth

He was furious when he saw her. T- Ray pushed her around and screamed at her. He could not wait to get home so that he could punish her even more. August stepped in and asked if she could now take care of and be responsible for Lily. She knew that she could not let Lily go back to that horrible household. Lily was just starting to understand what life is really about, starting to mature and become a lady, and not have to worry about all the abuse from T- Ray. Her father gave his only daughter up in a mere second. He was done with her and could not wait to get Lily, his burden, out of his life. Before T- Ray left, Lily had to know what had truly happened to her mother even if it were their last words. These words would be what would help Lily to move on. She will never forget about her mother, but she will be able to think of things other than the killing of her mother. T- Ray knew that this time he had to tell her the truth, “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” (Kidd 299). Even though he just gave his daughter away, he has to care about her. T- Ray may have given up Lily, but he may have done it because he knew that she would have a better life being raised by people who can love and care for her. Knowing that she was the one to kill her mother was extremely hard, but this has helped her to let go of that hatred and show her how much she really does care about her mother no matter

Also later in the book, well into Lily’s stay with August Boatwright who owns and maintains a honey label and farm, also known as the honey label that Lily follows to get to the house in the first place, Lily goes on a drive with August’s godchild, Zachary Taylor or Zach, to drop off some honey, While Zach is viewing lawyer cases, Lily decides to give T-Ray a call, he initiates the conversation by starting with “Lily, where the hell are you?” he continues battering and hollering at lily, not even giving her a split second to think or speak and interrupting her with curse words and belittlement every time she attempts to speak, The conversation ends with Lily asking T-Ray if he knows what her favorite color is and him hollering at her for asking such a stupid question, and finally her trying her hardest not to bawl her eyes out (Kidd, 159-160). This proves my point because it shows that T-Ray isn't even civil enough to start the conversation with a “Hello” or “Are you okay” he has to be loud and uncivil and badger lily with rude, mean, and intimidating words. This also shows that he is only set on punishing Lily and really has no care for her well-being. Any parent would be upset with their child running away without giving a rational explanation but T-Ray does the extreme and isn't even concerned about the wellbeing of her. In addition, In the book when lily first arrives at the BoatWright house, she kind of talks about her point on prejudice and some of the things

The Secret Life of Bees begins in the town of Sylvan, South Carolina and tells the story of 14-year-old Lily Melissa Owens. She lives on a peach orchard with her neglectful and abusive father, T. Ray. They have Black maid named Rosaleen who is a companion and caretaker of Lily. The book opens with Lily's discovery of bees in her bedroom and the story of how she killed her mother. The eve before her birthday Lily sneaks out into the peach orchard to visit the box of her mother’s belongings which is buried there however before she can hide them T. Ray finds her and punishes her. The next day Rosaleen and Lily head into town where Rosaleen is arrested for pouring her bottle of tobacco spit on three white men. Lily breaks her out of prison and they begin hitchhiking toward Tiburon, SC, a town Lily had seen on the back of a picture of a black Virgin Mary which her mom had owned. They hitch a ride to Tiburon and once there, they buy lunch at a general store, and Lily sees a picture of the same Virgin Mary on a jar of honey. She asks the store owner where it came from and he gives her directions to the Boatwright house. They then meet the makers of the honey: August, May and June Boatwright, who are all black. Lily makes up a wild story about being recently orphaned. The sisters welcome Rosaleen and Lily into their home. They are then introduced to beekeeping and the Boatwright’s way of life. Lily learns more about the Black Madonna honey that the sisters make. She begins working

When Lily and Rosaleen start to live with the Boatwright family, Lily quickly realizes how compassionate they are. Lily idolizes their positivity and support, which makes them clear representations of motherly figures for her. When August sends Lily to the bee yard for the first time, she gives Lily great advice, to give the bees love. After all, she says, “every little thing wants to be loved” (92). This signifies not only that bees want appreciation, but so do humans. This also implies that if someone endures a long time without support, they become hard and sting. Ever since Lily was four years old, she has seen her father agitated and forceful towards her. T. Ray’s actions prove that he is an ill-equipped father for a teenager. By the end of the novel, Lily validates that living with the Boatwrights not only gave her one caring authority figure but several amazing mothers. Therefore, Lily needs positive mother figures to feel more worthy after she struggles for almost a decade. Evidently, a mother-figure would be affectionate to Lily no matter what she does or