Literature, just like any other form of art, is one of the expressions of ideas and thoughts regarding the humanity and its development. In fact, in literature, authors commonly want to draw attention to the vital challenges faced by the human society in order to help address them or, at least, point to their existence and criticality so that their scopes and severity could be mitigated. One of such pieces of work making focus on critical societal issues is The Secret Life of Bees. It is a novel by Sue Monk Kidd. It tells a story of a fourteen-year-old Lily, the only daughter in the family of T. Ray and Deborah Owens. In this story, the stress is on racism. Specifically, in the novel, the author points out that racism is irrational, and it is masterfully achieved by depicting the internal transformation of the main character and her path from individual bias to becoming a more conscious person.
At the very beginning of the story, Lily was a prejudiced girl and it was largely affected by her upbringing. Lily was lucky to be born a white person. The point with luck is associated with the fact that the events depicted in the story date back to 1964 – the year when the Civil Rights Act was signed (Marshall and Sensoy 153). Even though it was supposed to bring segregation to life, in reality, the issue of balanced and friendly interracial interactions was as critical as years before. Lily, just like any other kid born during that time, was taught that black people belonged to a lower class because of their skin color so that there is no need for respecting them or treating them in a way equal to that of treating whites. It largely affected Lily’s perception of the black people and made her prejudiced.
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However, just like in the case of any other child, Lily could not be blamed because she was not free in her perception of the society and human interactions. Instead, her discriminative and biased viewpoints have been imposed by her parents. Although Lily spent a lot of time with her colored maid, Rosaleen, she would still judge people by their skin. For instance, when she first met her friend-to-be, she was surprised with his joke – calling himself a name of the president (Zachary Lincoln Taylor) while not having nothing white to have such a name (Kidd 116). This scene points to the biased perception that was dominant at the beginning of Lily’s story, as she could not believe that a black boy could have a name of a white president or be handsome (Kidd 116). Also, she could not believe that blacks could be as smart as whites (Kidd 78), and this belief was mainly rooted in her father who taught her that blacks could not be smart, or that a black boy could be ambitious enough to want to become a lawyer, not a player (Kidd 121). In this way, internally driven superiority and the belief that whites are better and more attractive that blacks characterized Lily at the beginning of the story.
Regardless of being brought up in the biased family, Lily could not avoid internal transformation. It was mainly connected to the revelation that black boys could be handsome – the idea she was stroke by when first meeting Zachery (Kidd 116) – and black women could be smart (Kidd 78). Her connection with the colored maid, Rosaleen, as well played a role in changing Lily’s worldview. It all made her question the essence of interactions between people of different skin color, as she witnessed numerous instances of segregation and race-based violence: for instance, keeping her maid in the colored wing of a hospital or race-based murders (Kidd 47) and people trying to tell her that staying in a colored house is unnatural and somehow lowering (Kidd 198). However, the major event that changed her was the internal recognition that she was like anyone else because she believed that she could be smarter and better just become of being white (Kidd 78). All in all, she began her search for the inner freedom when she took a new perspective on the life of the colored people and lived with them in a colored house, which made her think that they should be equal regardless of the bias and prejudice promoted in the society.
Over time, Lily has become more conscious. She realized that the interactions between whites and colored resembled a do-or-die contest (Kidd 21). As a result of seeing that black people were more competent, ambitious, and wise compared with the white people she knew, Lily understood that the only challenge was with the skin pigment that was valued more than a personality and this value was promoted and the institutional level (Au 270). Therefore, her path ends with crafting a unique solution to the problem of racism in the society – be colorless. However, to bring it to life, it is critical to be colorless together with the colored – live with them, learn their culture, and become familiar with their lifestyle, as they do not think of whites as being different (Kidd 209). In other words, promoting multiculturalism would help cope with the problem of racism (White and Henderson 31). Looking closer at them would help realize that they are special but, by no means, worse.
Summing up, over the story and through getting to know the colored people better, Lily could free herself from the stereotypes and biases and develop her own way that would help combat discrimination and prejudice at the level of an individual – herself, – thus putting an end to the intentional desegregation in her personal matters and life affairs. Therefore, she managed to turn from a biased and egoistic individual into a conscious and smart person.
- Au, Wayne, editor. Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice. Rethinking Schools Publications, 2009.
- Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Penguin Books, 2002.
- Marshall, Elizabeth, and Ozlem Sensoy, editors. Rethinking Popular Culture and Media. Rethinking Schools Publications, 2011.
- White, Joseph L., and Sheila J, Henderson, editors. Building Multicultural Competency: Development, Training, and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
