Section 2 Pages 76-150

I have read the second quarter of the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, making me half-way through the book. This book is really starting to grow on me. At first I was completely shocked at this book, disgusted by T. Ray's personality towards Lily. The first quarter was truly dark and had a sinking feeling over me as I read about this horrible life of Lily. Now we have a feeling of happiness and joy, as she has run away with Rosaleen to live with three black women, August, May and June.

Each of these women have such different personalities. Firstly there is August, who is such a kindred spirit that you have to fall in love with her. She cares so much for Lily, who she just met, her sisters, especially an emotional May, and her bees.She is passionate for her life and is a perfect role model for Lily. She even senses that Lily is lying to her about why she is there, but isn't pestering her for an answer, but just waiting for when Lily sees fit to share.

May is similar to August as she is a kindred spirit, yet a lot more innocent. May is easily bothered by any unpleasant situation. She will start crying and need to leave to her wailing wall, where she writes all of her unpleasant thoughts to try to let them go. I am very interested by May, it really shows how she over empathizes with everyone and everything, so much that it pains her. I hope she finds a way to overcome this with the help of Lily and Rosaleen, as I predict she will, but emotional trauma like she has gone through is hard to do. It will take lots of help and I feel will only be solved by Lily talking about her mom and T. Ray.

Finally there is June. She is the hardest to understand as she is closed off and cynical compared to her two kindred sisters. June hates Lily very openly, yet I think this is more because of what happened to April. Her sister had committed suicide after learning how horrible the world is to black people. I think this event caused a hatred towards all whites, so Lily coming to live with them carrying an obvious lie, would be difficult. Eventually she will come around, but right now I understand her pain and anger towards Lily. 

Lastly I want to briefly mention the new bond between Lily and Zach. It is obvious that they have strong feelings for each other, yet can't act upon them because of racial differences. It is horrible that they have to ignore their feelings just because it is frowned upon by the community. I hope that they end up together, yet the fact that it could be dangerous, as a white man sees it horrible for a black man to go for a white girl, and will beat him. Also I am curious to know how he will react once he finds out about all off Lily's lies and why she is truly there. I don't see it as a big problem, yet Zach may feel deceived and be indifferent towards her for a bit. 

This second quarter has a lot more information shared and as we wait for Lily to share her secrets, I think we all have that feeling of dread as we wait for the impending arrival of T. Ray. This second half of the book will be very interesting to see it all enfold. 

Sarah S.

May 18th, 2014