English Year 10 - The Secret Life of Bees: Home

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The Secret Life of Bees - Synopsis

It is 1964 in Sylvan, South Carolina, and Lily Melissa Owens, a fourteen-year-old white girl, lives on a peach farm with her father, T. Ray, who is both neglectful and abusive. Lying in bed in her room at night, Lily is often visited by bees that seem to be at home with her. Lily holds a terrible and guilty secret: She believes she shot and killed her mother, Deborah, when Lily was four years old. Her vague memory of that day — when her parents were arguing and she picked up and shot the gun that her mother had dropped — continues to haunt her, and she yearns to know more about her mother...continue reading...

A short clip from the musical The Secret Life of Bees:

Quotes Explained

• "She was black as could be, twisted like driftwood from being out in the weather, her face a map of all the storms and journeys she’d been through. Her right arm was raised as if she was pointing the way, except her fingers were closed in a fist. It gave her a serious look, like she could straighten you out if necessary."
  
• “I’ve just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them.”
   
• "I can tell you this much: the world is a great big log thrown on the fires of love."
   
• “Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.”
   
• “There is nothing perfect,” August said from the doorway. “There is only life.”