Journal Entry #2 Pages 76-150

In this section of the book, I feel that a lot more things happen than in the previous section. For example, we learn about the three sisters August, May and June.

We learn that May had a twin sister named April, and how close they were. "If April got a toothache, May's gum would plump up red and swollen just like April's". When they were 11, April got into a rut of severe depression, and finally killed herself with her father's shotgun.

We also learn that May has a "wailing wall", to help her deal with her emotionality. I think that this is a sign of how someone who is suffering from trauma or depression from a past event can find help in anything.

In this section of the book, one major theme is romance. Lily meets a young black man named Zach, who works at the bee house after school. At first, Lily sees nothing different in him than anyone else, but slowly she starts falling in love with him. But she knows that since she's white and he's black, they'll never be able to be together.

I think that this section of he book was more interesting than the last as well, because not only do more things happen, but we learn a lot more about certain characters. To me, learning about characters is more entertaining than just having the plot move along at a slow-ish pace that is happening in The Secret Life of Bees.

One thing that I really like about this book, is the dozens of little facts about bees that are scattered around the novel. For example, at the beginning of every chapter, there is a fact at the top of the page, and when Lily is learning about how to work at the honey-house, she is told several facts about how bees live and what the queen does etc...