Lily’s violent reaction contrasts with the loving, healing activities performed on the Our Lady of Chains statue. Along with the Daughters of Mary, Lily rubs honey all over the statue to polish and preserve it. Lily wonders what it would be like to cover herself with honey, not in a sexual way but in a healing, restorative way. What Lily fails to realize is that the bees and the honey she has found at the Boatwright house have already symbolically been rubbed all over her body. Through her experiences with beekeeping, Lily has been able to confront her anger toward her mother. The bees teach Lily to love and be loved, to surrender, to feel the power of religion or spirituality, and, as when she smashes the jars, to express her feelings, rather than bottling them up inside. At the Boatwright house, surrounded by bees, Lily grows into the intelligent, sensitive, well-adjusted person she is at the end of chapter 13.