Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Final Reading Responce

Reading Response

Title: The Secret Life of Bees
Author: Sue Monk Kidd

In life your childhood plays a big role in life. What you experience when you’re a child can have a big effect on you when you get older. The book The Secret Life of Bees talks about the main character named Lily who had killed her mom. This was an effect onto her life because she didn't have a female role model, she became lonely, and her father started hitting her. This shows that the things you’ve done in the past can affect your future.

When lily was younger her mother was killed and it was terrible. When her mother died Lily had no female role model. Losing someone like your mother is one of the worst things that can happen they brought you in the world and, most of the time kids look up to their parents. So when one parent is killed you lose a role model in your life. "My first and only memory of my mother was the day she died" (pg.5) this quote shows the only true memory of Lily and her mom was the day she died, this quote showed that in her life she didn't have a woman to turn to.

Child abuse is a big deal in America in this book Lily gets abused by her father T. Ray verbally and physically. The reason is Lily killed her mom but it was by accident. “We were arguing like you said. We didn’t see you at first. Then we turned around and you were holding the gun. You’d picked it up off the floor. Then it just went off.” (19) After this moment in Lily’s life, her relationship changed with her dad. “He poured a mound of grits the size of an anthill onto the pine floor. “Get over here and kneel down.” (24) This is an example of physical abuse when I read this it got me so mad. Who does that to their child like really? Who makes their children knell on hot grits! “I’d been kneeling on grits since I was six.” (24) She said six, at the age of six when I did something wrong I got hit. But I never got brutal punishment. “How long did he keep you on these grits?” “I shrugged. “Maybe an hour.” (25) An hour, on hot grits does T. Ray not know how hot grits can get? He is so brutal and stupid! I bet you if Lily reported him he would be in jail. “I expect this out of boys, Lily-you can’t blame them-but I expected more out of you. You act no better than a slut.” (24) What? What? T. Ray called his daughter a slut, how are you going to do that? Right here is an example of verbal abuse. From reading this book the setting sounds like it takes place in South Carolina because when Lily was talking about her friend of the family named, Rosaleen “she would tell me she was born in 1909 or 1919 depending on how old she felt at the moment. She was sure about the place: McClellan Ville, South Carolina…,” (12) South Carolina is part of America and America doesn’t like child abusers but, yet T. Ray gets to hurt his daughter. I am surprised that when Lily goes to school the teacher doesn’t noticed her knees? Or at least noticed her pain?


Since the event of Lily’s mom’s death she became lonely and her father doesn’t like her. “I lay in bed, waiting for the bees to show up” (2) she is waiting for bees this example makes Lily really sound lonely and lame. I say if you’re so lonely get a stuffed animal and talk to it. Hey, at least you will have a better chance of not getting stung. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (2) I agree to this this quote makes Lily’s philosophy great this really shows what she follows by. When reading this it kind of sounded weird because, her saying this made her seem sort of  suicidal both examples make her seem lonely and somewhat emo.


The things you’ve done in the past can affect your future. The book The Secret life of Bees helps me prove this statement. Lily had done something she didn’t mean to do and then consequences followed. Her father started abusing her with hot grits and made her stay on the grits for an hour; if someone had done that or tried to do that to me. “OH HAIL NAHHH! They are not going to survive I would curse them out drag them by their hair and throw them down the stairs. Then I would say “How you like me now you BUM!” I just can’t believe the author would write something so serious like child abuse and make it seem so realistic. On the news they talk about child abuse but don’t really do anything about it all they do is send the person to jail. I feel that police should go out and find the abused children and get them better places to live. There are social workers for kids, but I never see them investigating. I think they should go out and investigate. This book relates to Sold both main character go through similar difficulties. And the both books made me mad. I think problems need to be solved and things need to be changed so America doesn’t seem like a country that doesn’t solve problems until it gets to a point where it can’t be controlled.

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