Our groups discussion on Secret Life of Bees was quite interesting. We touched on many different topics and came to learn that not all of us felt the same way about the novel. Some of us highly enjoyed it, while other did not. Our discussion went in many different directions. We talked about if we thought male students would enjoy this novel. I particularly felt that they wouldn’t and it would be a struggle to engage them in this novel because it is very feminine. The story has a theme of the power the female community can have and almost a fantasy/storytelling aura to it that boys may just feel bored reading it.
We also found that we would not prefer to teach this novel to our students, we may teach it as a companion piece with To Kill a Mockingbird to demonstrate the very two different portrayals of the black characters. What I personally liked about this text was how Lily’s own prejudices of black people was changed over the course of the story. I would not go as far as saying that Lily is racist, but I do think at the beginning of the novel, we do see that she stereotypes Rosaleen in that she typically thinks that she is an uneducated woman who simply becomes a maid or housekeeper. When Lily meets August, who is this educated, caring, strong woman, her feelings change drastically. It is almost as if she could have never imagined a black woman to be so strong and unique. It would be very easy to relate a lot of social issues to this type of text as well and its sort of the only part I think you could engage the male students into. The novel does a great job in displaying the fact that it is human nature to possess some sort of racist feeling towards different ethnicities but we must recognize that as humans we all have very different personality traits and our skin colour should not matter because of it.
Another topic we touched on was the idea of family and what makes a family. This is particularly evident in the text as we see Lily longing for a mother like figure in her life. As a group we thought that it would be great to perhaps ask our students to discuss or write what they think constitutes as “family” Does family mean: a mom, dad, brother, sister, grandmother and grandfather? Rosaleen is a mother-like figure in Lily’s life but we still see her longing for her real mother. However when she arrives at the Boatwright house, she sees a strong female support system and by seeing the bond between the Daughters of Mary, she not only becomes a part of that female community, she starts to recognize that these women are her family.
As Rupi mentioned, we had quite the discussion regarding The Secret Life of Bees. I am very much on the book’s side and it wasn’t until I had to defend my opinion of the novel that I was able to really pinpoint why I think it is an effective text.
One point of contention brought up in our discussion was that the story is too simple and nicely wrapped up; it’s not a meaty, in depth novel. Though there are instances of hate crimes, racism, death, and abuse, they aren’t examined to the extent that we may be used to. In some ways, the novel and its characters can appear a bit flat.
That being said, I don’t think that the lack of in depth exploration works against the novel. The novel itself is far from realistic, so I was not expecting a biting social commentary or political statement. Though the story is set during the Civil Rights Movement and race relations do play a part in the novel and are integral to the plot line, the novel is not about race, racism, or politics; the novel is about a lonely teenage girl who wants nothing more than to be loved and included.
The theme of loneliness is something that I would venture to say most teens could relate to, which is part of what I think makes it a teachable text. As I mentioned, the novel is not realistic, but I think that’s part of its appeal to a teenage audience. The story lacks logic and can be read more as a living daydream. Things always work out the way Lily wants, even when the reader knows that they are logically improbable. As such, I can see how the book would be disappointing if the reader is looking for a realistic account of a young girl’s struggle. However, if the novel is read with a bit of suspended disbelief, the themes become more important than realism.
I would be interested in watching the 2008 film version of The Secret Life of Bees and possibly using it as a piece in a theme unit on sense of self, journey, strength, or one of the many other themes. I have not yet seen the film, but my hope is that it would appeal to a larger age range than the book, which I feel would be best enjoyed by grade 8 or 9 students.
First of all, there are two things that I’d like to comment on the previous post. I think we have to be careful when we talk about things like “human nature” because this kind of perspective many times justifies and supports our more terrible prejudices. We should try to understand human behavior as a culturally constructed process and not as a stable and finished product. This could be very helpful to overcome this kind of essentialism and the difficulties inherent in the intercultural relations.
Another interesting point is that if we want to make work a novel in a classroom, we have to be prepared to make the right questions to link the text with contingent problems for students. For example, if Canada is considered a multicultural country, is, in this context, a tolerant society? In fact, texts don’t work for themselves. We, as teachers, have to propose a methodology to make them work.
I think this novel it is a helpful element to pose a question to our students: Does exist a liberating female subjectivity different from the stereotypical role that women have played in western culture?
We could focus our attention in three symbols of the feminine present on the text: queen bee, August and Lady of Chains.
The first symbol is queen of bees, it goes all along the text as a preface of each chapter, that must be understood in order to complete the sense of the text “The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence.”(1) The text begins with this quote, which is an advance of the central relevance that has female characters in the novel.
The symbolical meaning of the queen is analogous to the character of August. She, as the queen, is the center of her community because she is the one who produces the honey, and as a result of this the community has economic independence. In other words, the role that plays the queen is a productive one, in the case of August an economic production. In this sense, the idea of women economically subordinate to men, one of the more traditional cultural stereotypes, is inverted: a woman is in charge of the economic livelihood of the house.
But women do not live on bread alone. They have a history that is told in oral tradition. August is the one who told them, “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here” (107). So it isn’t a economic production single-handed freedom because it considers the culture also, women are capable of (re)told their stories and in this way, they have symbolic freedom.
In this context, this story is independent from the masculinity logic and it leads to a symbolic freedom, in effect it is re-think one of the most repressive structures of society, religion. In the novel, a new religion is founded Daughters of Mary, that re-signifies a stern of a boat (part of a male institution: navigation) as “Our Lady of Chains”
the symbolism of the Black Madonna in the story is multivalent. She is a symbol of resistance against slavery and racist oppression, as well as an image of the divine mother, and the practices of worshipping her include the re-enactment of the story of her breaking free from her chains. (pg. 69-70 Knight, Re-mythologizing the divine feminine in The Da Vinci Code and The Secret Life of Bees in Religion and popular culture in America)
The center of this new religion is not the Heavenly Father, but Virgin Mary. Every strong male structure is re-read and changed in a female one. Black Madonna configures a new imaginary based on a new female subjectivity free from oppressor’s and racist prejudices that express western society.
With all these strong characters that redefine women imaginary, the novel can be read as relevant tool for teaching feminist approaches to students, which can help them to play a more critical an independent role in society.
The Secret Life of Bees
I sped through reading The Secret Life of Bees, I was deeply intrigued by the storyline and found it fascinating. However when I finished the novel, I was disappointed and even angry. I had a very negative emotional reaction and I was not sure why. I think a large part of what I found unsatisfying in the novel was its treatment of the black characters – and in particular, Rosaleen. Throughout the book Lily is searching for a loving parent figure, she often feels alone, unloved and is consumed by the desire for a mother. A possible mother-figure in the novel could be Rosaleen, it is made clear that Rosaleen does love Lily, “I was the only one who knew that despite her sharp ways, her heart was more tender than a flower skin and she loved me beyond reason.” At the beginning of the novel Rosaleen is the only constant, caring figure and though it is stated that Rosaleen loves Lily beyond reason, the text somehow denies her the position of loving Lily as a mother would. Rosaleen takes on a dependant role where Lily has to save her. Though the scene where she is put into jail is clearly unjust, the text positions Rosaleen as “sloppy” as though she stumbles into the situation: “But Rosaleen, who had less sense than I had dreamed, said in this tone like she was explaining something real hard to a Kindergaten student…” (31)The tone implies that even Lily cannot believe Rosaleen would behave in a manner which would clearly put her in danger. Eventually Lily is the one who takes care of Rosaleen, breaking her out of the prison and bringing her somewhere safe.
Upon their arrival to the pink house Rosaleen is again relegated to a side role, as if she does not live up to the Calender sisters in their manners and culture. There is one instance where Lily explicit states that she wishes Rosaleen would be more cultured: “August pretended she didn’t hear it while I stared at the velvet footstool and wished Rosaleen could be more cultured.” It seems like Rosaleen’s love for Lily is forgotten, as if not worthy: “You are unlovable, Lily Owens. Unlovable. Who could love you? who in this world could ever love you?” In Lily’s intense desire for a mother, she has forgotten her main companion and friend and denied her a mothering role.
In her article “Teaching Cross-Racial Texts: Cultural Theft in the Secret Life of Bees” Lauri Grobman states that Rosaleen “perpetuates one of the most time honored stereo-types of black women: Mammy, the faithful, devoted family servant who is asexual because she is a surrogate mother to a white family’s children.” Grobman goes on to state that “Her first loyalty is to her white family; her ties to her biological family is often severed, and she has no needs of her own.” Although Rosaleen is in trouble with the law, and there is a scene in the novel where she questions Lily’s intentions she eventually accepts Lily’s lead and follows her to the pink house. It seems as if Rosaleen has life outside of Lily’s. Grobman also points how Rosaleen and August are desexualized in the novel, Rosaleen, having thrown out her husband after only three years of marriage and August finding love but choosing freedom. This is in sharp contrast to Lily’s own mother who followed her own desires and is figured as a very vivacious, beautiful and desirable women.
Grobman writes that : “In spite of its deep flaws, The Secret Life of Bees may present a cross-cultural female conversation that has rich possibilities for teaching and learning about these matters – not only in spite of its flaws, but because of them.” I strongly agree with the comments about the value of teaching Secret Life of Bees in the context of motherhood, family, loneliness and symbolic freedom. In a way I was distracted by these worthwhile themes by my own emotional reaction. In re-thinking my initial reaction I can see now how Secret Life could be a very valuable text to use in the classroom but I would be cautious about relying on it solely for themes of racism, segregation and cross-cultural identity.
Firstly, I thought I’d briefly comment on the use of “roles” in literature circles. Our group had a very engrossing discussion of the merits and flaws of The Secret Life of Bees without really drawing on the assigned roles we had prepared. The discussion director role was probably the most useful, as whenever the conversation started lagging (which wasn’t very often), she came up with a new direction or question. Having said that, we also discussed the fact that these roles might be more useful in a secondary school setting than a post-secondary one. Because we all have English degrees, most of us are already engaged readers who have no problems contributing to a discussion on a given piece of text. However, secondary students of English are, for the most part, in the class because they are required to be. They may have lower levels of literacy proficiency and/or the ability or desire to engage in a text. This setting is where roles may be highly useful to focus and prompt a discussion from class members who are unsure how to go about analyzing texts in a group setting or simply don’t want to participate. Assigning students roles ensures that will are accountable for a part of the discussion and may encourage them to actually do the reading and to take a deeper look at the text. I also think that students generally enjoy being the “expert” on a given topic and lit circle roles can contribute to that. Some roles may be more useful than others but I think that this depends on the interests and abilities of a particular class.
After reading through the other posts on this novel, I must admit that I was one of the voices of dissent and against teaching this novel. Personally, I did not really enjoy it and I would not make it a required book that a whole class would have to read. I would have no problem, however, presenting it as an option as a possible lit circle book because then students could choose whether or not they wanted to read it. Like Hannah, I had a hard time articulating a reason for why I didn’t care for this book. While I also had some issues with the characterization in the novel, particularly that of Rosaleen, I also found it to be condescending and overly sentimentalized. Many of the characters are either too unrealistically flawed or much too perfect to interest me. I do realize that I am reading it through the lens of a post-secondary student, but I feel that it may come across this way for high school students as well, particularly boys. As a female, I had a difficult time relating to characters and events and I think that it would be very difficult for secondary-aged boys to lay the feminine aspects of the text aside to pick out and dissect the universal themes in the novel of loneliness, family, and freedom that could be personally relevant and interesting to them.