Quotes from Secret Life of Bees

Nicholas Nerys Leighton Secret Life of Bees Chapter 1 “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about like.” Lily, p.2 -Lily said this in response to her mother’s death. To her, the worst thing was losing someone you love, which was her mother. It is the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to her. “Bees swarm before death.” Rosaleen, p.2 -According to Lily, this was just another one of Rosaleen’s crazy quotes. In response to Lily’s nightly visions, Rosaleen said this. Lily always wondered why the bees never killed her since they were always around. Chapter 2 “A brazing feeling had broken loose in me.” Lily, p.38 -When Franklin Posey was hitting Rosaleen, Lily thought this to herself. She felt this way because Rosaleen was a mother figure to her and it wants right how they were beating her because she was black. “Your mother ran off and left you.” T.Ray, p.39 - T. Ray says this to Lily when they return from the jail. Lily is so outraged by this statement that she runs away, only to find out he was telling truth. Chapter 3 “Day one of my new life.” Lily, p.57 -After running away from T.Ray, Rosaleen and Lily catch a ride in a truck and are dropped off near Tiburon. When they decide to camp out in the woods, Lily realizes she isn’t going back and this is her new life. “I’ll take nine steps and look up. Whatever my eyes light on, that’s my sign” Lily, p.60 -With nothing else to search for, Lily is desperate and wants anything or any sign to help her because she is clueless. When she opens her eyes, she saw a crop duster spraying plants. She couldn’t decipher it as if the plants being murdered or saved from the bugs. Chapter 4 “Lily Owens, I know you down to the core.” Rosaleen, p.71 -Rosaleen didn’t directly say this to Lily, but Lily knew it was what she was thinking. Growing up raising Lily gave her the opportunity to study her and know her and what troubles her and what’s best for her. “But she’s white August.” June, p.87 - When Lily overhears June make this comment, she becomes angry and thinks how absurd it is to dislike someone for her skin color. This is an interesting moment in the novel because white people do not usually experience this type of discrimination. Chapter 5 “There was no difference between my pigs and June’s. That’s what I thought when I looked at the dark circle on the ground. Piss was piss.” Lily, p.88 -Lily finally realizes that there is no difference between blacks and white and this segregation is all wrong. We are all the same, all here for a reason, and all should be happy. People are people. “What if you find out something you don’t wanna know.” Rosaleen, p.100 -Rosaleen knows the truth about Lily’s mother and what happened. She doesn’t want to tell Lily because it might crush her inside. Chapter 6 “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die we can’t remember who we are, or why we’re here” August -Stories can be passed down from generation to generation. And without these stories, it can break the chain and disrupt it. To keep them going, you must repeat them to people. They tell who you are and when you lose them you lose yourself. “When she began, it didn’t sound like August talking at all but like somebody talking through her, someone from another time and place.” Lily, p.107 -When August was speaking to Lily, it didn’t feel like it was just another speech. Instead this one actually meant something to her and touched her deep down to a level that affected Lily a lot. Chapter 7 “You gotta imagine what’s never been.” Zach, p.121 -Lily never heard of a black lawyer before, and there weren’t any during this time. But Zach told her to imagine what’s never been, and to think outside the box for once and stop following the ways of segregation. “Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.” Zach, p.135 - Zach says this to Lily regarding their romance between them. This comment shows how unfair racism is. Young love is typically carefree and easy. As young teenagers, Lily and Zach have to think about the racial effects of them two being together. Chapter 8 “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.” August, p.148 - This quotation is significant because, developing the metaphor of society as hive and bee as human, it shows that people are typically much more complicated that then appear on the surface. “I live in the hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her, you are the mother of thousands” Lily -This quote was meant specifically for August. Because overall she is the Queen Bee, and she takes care of thousands of bees and people who love with her. She is the mother of thousands of living creatures. Chapter 9 “Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if u lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like elevator doors, letting all the secret thoughts that have been standing so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the to. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long.” Lily, p.170 -Everybody hides things in their lives, and it ends up hurting them. It is better to let it out and get it off your chest instead of letting it stay in you like a bomb and eventually explode. “Oh, yes, Deborah Fontanel. She stayed out there in the honey house. She was the sweetest thing.” August, p.173 -Playing stupid, August acts like Deborah was a nobody. She actually knows that Lily is her daughter and wants to see what she’s going to say about her. Chapter 10 “I’m just saying it’s not natural, that you shouldn’t be…well, lowering yourself.” Mr. Hazelwurst, p.198 -Telling Lily this, not to be with Zach. She shouldn’t lower herself to be with him. His is how Bad segregation was. “Putting black cloths on the hives is for us. I do it to remind us that life gives way into death, and then death turns around and gives way into life.” August, p.206 -No matter what happens, the circle of life repeats itself. When something dies, it’s to make way for something new to come in. Chapter 11 “I love this place with my whole heart.” Lily -Lily is in love with Tiburon. It is like she was always meant to be there. She never really knew what love was until now. And when she says this, she is telling the truth. “Those boys who made me wear the fish – they were angry like that too. Angry at the world, and it made them mean. You have to promise me Zach, you won’t be like them.” Lily -After being hurt many times by guys that she liked, she’s afraid Zach will do the same. She cares for him so much she makes him promise her he won’t. Chapter 12 “Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d trade in a pack of lies for a pack of truth…” Lily, p.255 -Knowing about her mother, and her father, and what happened, it haunts her. She can’t live with herself after her mother’s death and running away from her father. Instead of finding out about her killing her mother, she would have rather been told from the beginning. “There is nothing perfect…There is only life.” August, p.256 -This represents the relationship she had with Lily. August teaches Lily about bees and about life. August was like a second mother to Lily and things liked this helped Lily realize that her mother did love her. Chapter 13 “I sat there with my shoulders slumped, staring at the floor. I would not think the word unwanted.” Lily, p.259 -After everything she been through with her mother and running away, she is upset tremendously. She doesn’t want the feeling of un-wanted-ness so she denies it. “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child.” Lily, p.259 -Lily finds the truth out about her mother. At first she was beyond outraged and couldn’t believe what she heard. Since then, Lily has loosened up and finally realized her mother did actually love her. Chapter 14 “Regrets don’t help anything, you know that.” August, p.280 -When May died, June broke down because May always wanted June and Neil to get married. Now she’s dead, June regrets not getting married. To help her move on from this, she says regrets don’t help anything. Which in real life today, it doesn’t. “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” T. Ray, p. 299 -This was the climax of the story when he said this. When Lily finally realizes it was her fault, she begins to forgive herself about the past and finally move on after having this closure.