Micro Scene Analysis
The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
Strong Mentor Figure. August Boatwright mentors Lily through her relationship with her dead mother and her coming-of-age during the turmoil of the Civil Rights Act.
Randall Surles
4 minute read
1. What is the genre?
Global—Worldview > Maturation
Secondary—n/a
2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?
Conventions
Strong Mentor Figure. August Boatwright mentors Lily through her relationship with her dead mother and her coming-of-age during the turmoil of the Civil Rights Act.
Big Social Problem as subtext. Racism; The passing of the Civil Rights Act
Shapeshifters as Hypocrites. June seems aggressive and bitter about Lily’s presence when she arrives, resenting Lily’s mother for having August as her nanny, but comes around and embraces her as one of the Sisterhood
A clear point of no return: When T. Ray shows up and Lily refuses to go back to the Peach Farm.
Ironic win-but-lose, lose-but win ending. Lily stands up to T. Ray with the help of her new family, but finds out she accidently killed her mother. In the end, she overcomes this knowledge and gets to stay with the Calendar Sisters instead of returning with T. Ray to the Peach Farm.
Obligatory Scenes
The 4 Steps to Writing a Publishable Novel
Free, on-demand training from Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl. About 60 minutes.
Inciting opportunity or challenge: Lily’s mother dies under mysterious circumstances when Lily is four years old and she is forced to live with her abusive father T. Ray
Protagonist sidesteps responsibility to respond to the opportunity or challenge: Lily remembers holding the gun and an explosion, but is not sure if she killed her mother
Forced to respond, the protagonist lashes out. T. Ray, Lily’s father, tells her that her mother didn’t come back for her, but was packing to leave forever. Lily runs away to find out more about her mother
Protagonist learns what their external Antagonist's Object of Desire is. T. Ray wants to punish Lily for coming between Deborah and himself, he wants to intimidate her and hurt her
During an All is Lost moment, Protagonist realizes they must change their black/white view of the world to allow for life’s irony. The All is Lost Moment happens when T. Ray comes to get Lily and it appears that no one will be able to do anything to stop him. Lily realizes that no one has to play the role of victim.
The action moment is when the Protagonist’s gifts are expressed as acceptance of an imperfect world. Lily’s gift is her family. Lily embraces the love of her new family (the calendar sisters and the sisterhood) and gathers strength from them to stand up to T. Ray when he tries to forcefully take her back.
The protagonist’s loss of innocence is rewarded with a deeper understanding of the universe. Throughout the novel Lily becomes more aware of the way blacks are treated differently than whites and, in the end,, she defends Zach (who is black) in a mixed school against racism. Additionally, Lily comes to terms with killing her own mother by accident when she was a child.
Learn more about obligatory scenes and conventions.
3. What is the point of view?
First Person from Lily’s perspective
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4. What are the objects of desire?
External/Conscious: Lily wants to escape her father and find out more about her mother
Internal/Subconscious: Lily needs to be loved and realize that she is not ‘unloveable’.
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5. What is the controlling idea / theme?
When a young girl runs away from her abusive father to find out if her dead mother lover her, she comes to understand that the world is not fair (not just to her, but to others – specifically black people) and that love can be expressed in many ways by all races
Learn more about controlling ideas.
6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?
Beginning Hook - Lily if forces to live with her abusive father after her mother dies mysteriously, but when Lily’s father tells her that her mother never loved her, Lily decides to run away in order to find out the truth
Middle Build – When Lily sees a honey jar with a picture of the Black Mary that her mother had, she lies her way into staying with the Calendar Sisters and discovers that her mother had stayed with them before her death. Lily decides to confront August and finds out that her mother did leave her behind when she ran away from T. Ray which results in Lily feeling ‘unloved’ and abandoned.
Ending Payoff – After Lily overcomes her initial shock that her mother left her, she learns to forgive her mother and settles into living with the Calendar Sisters, then T. Ray arrives and demands that she returns to the peach farm with him. Lily decides to stand up to him and refuses to go. With the support of the Sisterhood, they convince T. Ray to leave Lily with the Calendar Sisters where she lives surrounded by love.
