The Secret Life of Bees A family is a basic social unit consisting of parents and children. It is considered a group of people where one can look to for acceptance, safety, happiness and love. Families are the foundation to a human beings life because it is where one can be welcomes into the society. Individuals are nurtured and given tools so they are capable of learning and experiencing the world. Living in an unhealthy environment may impact the way someone thinks and acts physically and emotionally, in the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens, a young fourteen year old girl who lives in South Carolina, loses her mother at the age of four because of a devastating tragedy leading to her …show more content…

Rosaleen who is Lily’s nanny and stand0in mother acts as the motherly figure and loves and supports Lily. In this novel, Lily Owens is greatly affected emotionally growing up in an unhealthy environment with a careless father who gives minimal support. Lily Owen is only wish is for her mother to be alive to support and love her with all of her heart. “I killed my mother when I was four years old, that’s what I knew about myself. She was all I wanted and I took her away. Nothing else much matters.” says Lily. When it’s Lily’s fourteenth birthday she wants nothing as a gift from T.Ray but to learn more about her mother. T.Ray replies that Deborah- who is Lily’s mother- would rather spend hours leading bugs out of the house with graham crackers and marshmallows but he would always just kill them. This goes to show what kind of character T.Ray plays in this novel. He is careless and insensitive. This act may be an example of flashback because as readers it may be obvious that T.Ray was also abusive towards Deborah. Lily misses her mother the most when she lays in bed late at night thinking about being with her mother in paradise. “That night I lay in bed and though about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise. I would meet her saying, “Mother forgive, please forgive” and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame.” (Kidd, 3)