Summary
Lily and Rosaleen arrive at the Boatwright house, which
is painted bright pink. August stands out front, wearing a beekeeper’s
helmet and working with the beehives. June Boatwright answers the
door, with May Boatwright behind her. Lily finds May to be not “altogether
normal” and finds June to be a bit harsh, but August, who soon comes
in, is very warm. Lily notices a three-foot-tall statue of a black
Mary known as “Our Lady of Chains” in the corner of the living room.
She senses its spiritual power. Lily tells August that she and Rosaleen
have run away, because her father has died in a tractor accident.
She claims that they are headed to Virginia to be with her aunt
Bernie. Lily thinks that August has seen right through her lies and
feels a twinge of guilt. However, she wants to be accepted into the
house too badly to risk being honest. Rosaleen gets irritated at Lily
not only for lying but also because Lily keeps speaking for Rosaleen,
as if she were not there. August welcomes Rosaleen and Lily, even
though June has reservations about letting them stay. Lily and Rosaleen
are taken to the honey house, where they will be staying. A storm
hits, and they stay inside. At dinner, August explains that she inherited
the twenty-eight-acre bee farm from her grandfather. Outside, Lily
finds a wall filled with mysterious slips of paper and walks to
the stream nearby, where she wets her feet.
Rosaleen and Lily spend a week at the Boatwright house.
Lily feels at ease; Rosaleen gets a new wardrobe. Lily feels very
conscious of her white skin. She overhears June making comments
about her skin color. She also learns that June plays cello for
dying people, May sings “Oh! Susanna” whenever she gets upset, and
August runs the bee farm with the help of someone named Zach. One
night May has a breakdown and must be escorted to her special wall.
Lily is told she will help August and Zach with the bees, while
Rosaleen will help May with the household chores. The television
reports constantly about the process of desegregation going on around
the country, which makes Lily very self-conscious about her race.
At night, they pray to the black Mary statue. August explains that
their religion is partly Catholic, partly self-invented. Then August
tells Lily a story about a nun named Beatrix who runs away but is replaced
by a stand-in Mary while she is gone. Lily wonders if Mary is standing
in for her back in Sylvan with T. Ray but doubts that something
like that could be true.
On their first Friday together, August teaches Lily about
honey farming. She urges her to send the bees love, saying that
everything needs and wants to feel loved, and explains that females
make up the bee community about 90 percent
of the time. Lily longs to make Rosaleen love her. That night, August
explains about May’s condition—that she feels the wrongs of the
world as if they were her own—and the therapeutic purpose of May’s
wailing wall, where she goes to cry. She then tells Lily the story
of their fourth sister, April, and her early depression and suicide.
In the honey house later that evening, Lily wonders if T. Ray misses
her and she feels a bit of nostalgia for her home in Sylvan. However,
her most intense sadness comes from missing her mother. Also, Rosaleen
expresses some jealousy over all the time Lily is spending with
August. Lily falls asleep hoping she can figure out a way to discover
some information about her mother without revealing the truth—that
is, that she and Rosaleen ran away.
Analysis
August embodies the new, exotic lifestyles and relationships
Lily discovers in Tiburon, at the bee farm. Upon first spotting
August, Lily compares her to “an African bride,” something that
Lily has never seen, of course, but nevertheless something that
Lily associates with the far-away, the pure, and the magical. Maternal
longing has driven Lily to the farm, and maternal longing keeps
her there. Lily does not really question the structure or customs
of the Boatwright sisters, even as they might shock her. For example,
she overcomes the initial strangeness of praying to the black Mary
statue, because she trusts August’s judgment. To capture August’s
love, Lily willingly performs any tasks August asks her to do, such
as taking care of the bees. Lily has never seen such a strong community
of women, nor has she ever participated in a mystical, self-created
religion such as the one practiced in August’s home. She has never
witnessed outright displays of depression, nor has she ever felt discriminated
against because of her skin color. As a character, August is the
living symbol of these new feelings, sensations, and experiences
for Lily.
Like Lily, August understands the power of storytelling
to tell truths without pointing fingers or instigating direct confrontation. This
ability to tell stories links August and Lily immediately and fundamentally.
August uses narratives to understand the world around her. The story
August tells Lily about Beatrix the nun has three purposes: First,
August uses the story to entertain Lily and to make Lily like and
trust her. Second, August uses the story to teach Lily a lesson
about leaving—and returning—home. Third, August uses the story to
impart to Lily some of her religious faith and trust in the divine.
Of course, Lily tells her own story in The Secret Life of Bees, using
her unique voice (note that the novel is told in the first person).
Lily tells her story to the reader, much as August tells stories to
Lily. Throughout the novel, many stories will be heard, told, and retold,
a reminder not only of the importance of storytelling but also that
the novel itself is a story.
In this section of the novel, Lily learns a lesson about
racism and prejudice. Until this point, she has understood racism
as an act whites committed against blacks. She reveals her racism
to the reader when she thinks of herself as naturally smarter than
Rosaleen, despite the fact that she is a child and Rosaleen is a
grown woman with much life experience. A product of her environment, Lily
believes that she, as a white person, will always be better or smarter
than a black person. Nevertheless, Lily respects and feels devoted
to August, and this respect and devotion begins to chip away at
Lily’s innate racism and prejudice. Lily also learns that racism
and prejudice can flow from blacks to whites when she overhears
June protesting to August about Lily’s stay on the farm. Lily is totally
shocked that June would not be able to see beyond her white skin
and into the personality beneath—and she starts to see that people
are people. June’s feelings toward Lily and Lily’s feelings toward
August help Lily understand the irrationality of racism and help
her begin to see beyond skin color to the beauty of individuals.
