I’ve just finished reading „The Secret Life of Bees“ by Sue Monk Kidd and I liked it quite

a lot. I give you a link to a website where you can read chapter summaries of the plot or get information about the writer and her spiritual development, her reasons, the prejudices from the part of the white as well as of the black people, about wisdom and independence, about the importance of female community and the importance of the guide of a mother in the hope that you will then be inspired to read the whole book!

I especially loved the information about bees, beekeeping and honey making and the epigraph about the bees at the beginning of each chapter that shows us what the following chapter is about, that there are many similarities with the needs or behaviour of Lily and the human being in general and the bees!

Let’s look at the Epigraph of chapter four:

A BEE’S LIFE IS BUT SHORT. DURING SPRING AND

SUMMER – THE MOST STRENUOUS PERIODS OF

FORAGING- A WORKER BEE, AS A RULE,DOES NOT

LIVE MORE THAN FOUR OR FIVE WEEKS......

THREATENED BY ALL KINDS OF DANGER DURING

THEIR FORAGING FLIGHTS, MANY WORKERS DIE

BEFORE THEY HAVEREACHED EVEN THAT AGE.

Without knowing the
story what could this epigraph refer to?

Let’s also look at the Epigraph of chapter eight:

HONEYBEES DEPEND NOT ONLY ON PHYSICAL

CONTACT WITH THE COLONY, BUT ALSO REQUIRE ITS

SOCIAL COMPANIONSHIP AND SUPPORT. ISOLATE

A HONEYBEE FROM HER SISTERS AND SHE WILL DIE SOON.

Don’t you think this is also true for most of us?

Discuss why / Yes / No

Sentences I liked particularly:

August said, „Didn’t you tell me (Lily) this past week one of the things you loved
was bees and honey? Now, if that’s so, you’ll be a fine beekeeper. Actually, you can
be bad at something, Lily, but if you love doing it, that will be enough. (Page 208)
Do you agree with this?

„Really, it’s good for all of us to hear it again, „ she said. „Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.“

We lived for honey. We swallowed a spoonful in the morning to wake us up and one at night to put us to sleep. We took it for every meal to calm the mind, give us stamina and prevent fatal disease. We swabbed ourselves in it to disinfect cuts or heal chappped lips. It went in our baths, our skin cream, our raspberry tea and biscuits. Nothing was save from honey. In one week my skinny arms and legs began to plump out and the frizz in my hair turned to silken waves. August said honey was the ambrosia of the gods and the shampoo of thegoddess.