The Secret Life of Bees and Its Portrayal of Discriminatory Views of the Time

The secret life of bees illustrates the specious of racism. It demonstrates how people are taught to hate just because the color of their skin. Characters such as the black and whites not only depict morality of humanity but also shows how Lily herself, struggles with and overcomes her own racism.

Lily, however, is not racist like the ignorant group of men that harasses Rosaleen. “Lily and Rosaleen proceed to the “bad part” of Sylvan. They see a group of rough-looking men playing cards and shouting. One of the men calls Rosaleen a “nigger,” to which Rosaleen proudly replies that she’s come to Sylvan to register to vote. Although Lily whispers that they should keep moving, Rosaleen stays put. The men approach Rosaleen, ask her where she got her fan: she says she stole the fans from a church, and then she empties her snuffbox onto the men’s shoes. Furious, the men ordered her to clean their shoes, but she refuses. They push her, and a fight breaks out. Lily feels “caught up in a current.” She sees Rosaleen lying on the ground, bleeding.” (pg. 31-32) Here Rosaleen is brave and confident and tries to stand up for herself even though she knows she is going to get hurt by the racist men. Lily, however, shows preconception of stereotypes at the beginning of the book.

 Lily assumes that all African Americans are like Rosaleen. Uneducated, an imbecile. “T.Ray did not think colored woman were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst parts, I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white.” (pg.78) Lily's outlook on this changes when she meets August Boatwright who is educated, clever, and very special. She seems surprised and shocked after she learns that a black person could actually be intelligent and have felt the same as a white person. “Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this. That's what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me.” After learning this Lily realizes the truth about the indiscriminate of racism. “As an individual, we may belong to a different religion, speak a different language or have different skin color but we all belong to one human race.”

Further into the novel, Lily starts to develop feelings for Zach, who is ravishing and a sweet African American boy. In school, back home in Sylvan, Lily learned about racism. She was taught that black boys, could never be as charming or have the same features as a white boy because of the color of their skin. As she realizes that this isn't the case she feels as if she finally has revealed something that the other children couldn't. But she also comes to the conclusion she was being illogical and racist. “I was shocked over him being handsome . At my school they made fun of colored peoples lips and noses. I myself laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in. Now I wished I could pen a letter to my school to be read at opening assembly that would tell them how wrong they had all been.” (pg. 116)