Secret Life of Bees: Honey Bees and the Boatwrights By Jake Reinartz 5th hour English 11C Hoffman

Honeybees

Introduction In the Secret Life Of Bees, the story is told from a first person perspective by Lily Owens. The story takes place during the civil rights era, so there is high black and white tension. She ends up on a bee farm after leaving her home town. She was tired of living in a house with her neglectful father and dealing with a town full of racial hatred . So after busting her friend Rosaleen out of police custody, they headed for Tiburon, South Carolina. In hopes of finding out about some of her clouded past. Upon reaching Tiburon, she is told to go to the house of the Boatwrights. When she arrives, she meets August Boatwright and is taken in by her and her family.

Introduction As Lily works on the bee farm she is taught the trick of the trade (beekeeping). She learns about their behavior and their lifestyle. This understanding is how we, as readers, can relate their behavior to the Boatwright sisters. Through the Bees.

The Boatwright Family. In the Boatwright family there are three sisters. There names are May, June and August. May is the youngest. Followed by June and August. The sister live on the property alone and occasionally request assistance unless needed. One of those helpers being Zach Boatwright (their nephew).

Bees Bees are related to the sisters so many ways. First off in the book, you learn about bee behavior and what it is like in a hive. Just like the sisters, bees are almost all female which consist of: one queen, many female drones and a few male drones (used only for mating).

Bees The females do all the work in the colony. The bees have many specific jobs which can be from gathering food to protecting their queen. The jobs a bee has are so complicated that they don’t always have a long lifespan.

Bees Bees have a secret life. You don’t always know what really goes on in a hive. Most people would say they collect honey, or they just want to sting you. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. Each of the Boatwright sisters represent bees in many ways. From their daily tasks to their house lifestyle, they are very similar to bees in personality.

Reputation as bees As you know, bees are not well liked in our society. We tend to have a hatred or fear of them with out knowing what they truly are like, or what there lives are like. and until you understand them, they will always remain disliked or hated. The only thing are society is truly thankful is the fact that the bees make a natural products that make are lives better.

Black family in the south Well very much like bees, the sisters are discriminated against for being black in a repressive southern state. But they are kept at peace mainly because of Augusts honey business. Their lives are kept alone, but still un-trusted by society because, just like the bees, they can’t change who they are. Even if they haven’t “stung” anyone yet, they won’t ever be thought of differently because, just like society, their reputation as African-Americans will never change the way they are thought of.

May May Boatwright is complicated person, but sweet. She spends her days caring for the house and cooking. She had a twin named April who completed suicide as a young girl. After this May became very emotionally disturbed. To cope with this problem, she goes to a wailing wall where she releases her pain into the wall and is free from it for good.

May Bee behavior is such like the sisters in so many ways