Journal #6 Rick Davidson the Secret Life of Bees Trough chapter 2
The Idea I will discuss is the use of the flashback by the author to introduce Lily’s mother and the antagonist, T. Ray. The Narrator is Lily; so the memories are from her and only her childhood. Lily tells us first and foremost, “My first and only Memory of my mother”. By doing this the author creates a familiarity with the memory so the reader cannot disregard or disprove any events of the memory. What I’m getting at is this memory really happened; it wasn’t a random thought or daydream (that is my meaning of “true”. I know she says some details get fuzzy but I’m not arguing that point. I’m merely saying unalterable events took place in the past). We can pull no more information out from the story besides what Lily remembers (This idea automatically shows it was done deliberately by the author to tell the reader only so much information). From Lily’s tone we can easily tell a couple of facts beyond the plot; she loves her mother and cherishes the memories of Her; the flashback is given from a child’s point of view; and finally it creates a more in depth look at the antagonist.
The fact of cherished memories implies she remembers it correctly, creates closeness to the mother who we will never really meet since she’s dead, and implies innocence of the child. The fact that it’s given from a child’s point of view creates certain trueness to it. Since Lily was only a little girl, it makes since she was small enough to “scoot beneath dress hems and pant legs”. Since details like these were remembered and it is quite possible for a young girl to scoot under those items, we can easily believe those details which then in turn make it easier to believe the “bigger” ones.
We can tell she loved her mother also by the fact, Lily shows a great wanting or yearning for her mother. She blames the circumstances that her hair isn’t brushed out and nice looking (all loving mothers, like her Mother, would surely love to take care of Lily hair for at least a thousand years). She hates the circumstances also because of the bitterness Lily feels over not attending etiquette school (She needed a non-black woman present at the final ceremony). And at the end of the memory we learn the grisly truth as to why her Mother is dead; Lily accidentally shot her Mother with a pistol. The shame she feels is palatable. She feels deserving of the hand life dealt her following the shooting as payment toward her “crime”. She knows\or believes her Mother has forgiven her in Heaven. She imagines herself, later in the story, in heaven with her mother and spending all eternity with her.
So far in the book T. Ray is the main antagonist. He caused the fight with her mother that lead to her death. Lily at this point doesn’t understand what was happening between the two adults, which casts an even blacker cloud around T. Ray. Lily’s ignorance of the situation implies T. Ray’s angry was unfounded once again casting him as a brutish unreasoning cruel man. The Narrator interjects T. Ray into the memory as already furious, enraged and bent on destruction. The author uses Lily’s memories to create a horrible first impression of T. Ray.
The author intentionally makes no passing note on why the mother was packing in a hurry by “not bothering to fold them (clothes)”. Lily’s ignorance or dismissal of the act of a woman packing to leave implies innocence. If Lily would have been anxious while her mother packed it would’ve put a new light in the memory. By Lily’s unassuming behavior as her mother packed we could assume this is a mundane occurrence; even though in reality most women pack alone because they are leaving. With others details, T. Ray’s anger namely, we can deduce the mother was packing to leave him and/or the marriage. But the author belittles this route of logic by showing Lily’s unconcern for this act.
I must say overall, The Secret Life of Bees, is the most well written literary work thus far, in my opinion. I like the subtle ways through which the author implies meanings like the ones stated above. I admire her character progression by showing us what the characters do instead of just telling us what they did. Her ability to instill the innocence of childhood within Lily even though the character is rough around the edges is great. The book makes me want to read it instead of sleep; the amazing part is this isn’t my normal genre.