Mara Scribner
7/1/10
The Secret Life of Bees

On page 46 of The Secret Life of Bees Lilly has come to fine Rosaleen and save her from her fate of either jail or even death. Rosaleen was beaten by three men whom she greatly disrespected by pouring her chewing tobacco juice all over their shoes after they made fun of her being black and the fact that she was on her way to register to vote. Rosaleen seems like the type of woman that is very strong. She is strong-willed, strong-hearted, and she seems to have a tough external surface. I believe that the fact that Lilly had never seen her cry before that day is very important. It shows the reader that Rosaleen doesn’t let too many things get to her, but for once in her life, she is truly scared. It is horrible to think that a group of men would gang up on a woman, white or black. I’m in no way sexist or have sexist views, but it is just a fact of life that a woman could not properly defend herself against a group of men. The fight is just not a fair one. I understand Rosaleen’s pride and her need to stand up for herself, but if I was in her position I would have just apologized to the men, rather then get beat up.
I feel that when I was learning about the civil rights movement in school we often heard of how brutal the white man was to the black community. It is easy for me to say that they were ruthless and had no sense of mercy. Beatings like Rosaleen experienced were very, very common especially around the southern portion of America. However, I feel that most of the instances I heard of and read about were done against adult black males, not black females. I feel that after the days of the slave trade it was our responsibility as a nation to accept the strong-willed black people into our society and to let them be. After being oppressed for so long and having no rights they deserved their freedom and the definitely deserved the right to vote, which is what Rosaleen was exercising.
After her beating, Rosaleen still didn’t apologize to the men, which is important to the story. The men were very likely to come back and beat her more until she did apologize which meant Rosaleen had to get out of that town. Lilly, who was regularly abused by her father, needed some type of refuge as well, so they left together. This sets up the story to encounter a great adventure.