Week 2-journal 3

In Contrast to Organized Religion

Organized religion in this book does not seem very religious. T. Ray has “gone to church for forty years and was only getting worse. It seemed like this should tell G-d something” (3). Lily, the narrator, does not doubt the existence of G-d, in fact she refers to G-d quite often, but she does not seem to believe in the holiness or effectiveness of traditional, organized religion. Lily and Rosaleen steal two fans from the church, and Lily’s only concern is the fact that their stealing, not that they’ve transgressed against the church in any way. In fact, Lily calls the preacher “pompous” when he is overly indignant about the stolen fans.

Non-traditional forms of worship permeate Lily’s world. Rosaleen has a shrine in her house that is a mixture of nature and ancestor worship. In the center is a picture of Rosaleen’s mother (29). There is this strong strain of female worship in this book. Rosaleen has an altar set up around her mother’s picture, Lily worships the few remaining possessions of her mother (like relics?), and there seems to be a special emphasis on the Virgin Mary. Although they never talk about Mary, there is something significant about the fact that Deborah’s (Lily’s mother) Virgin is black. This one object, the black virgin Mary, parallels the other forms of worship found in the book; they are non-traditional, individualized representations of faith. Lily worships bees in a way. When she tries to share the bee’s with her father, they disappear. Lily is spiritual person. She has a semi-religious moment when she lays out in the peach grove looking up at the night sky (23) and she has what she refers to as a “true religious moment” in which she is told to run away (41). The actual message conveyed is this, “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open.” This phrase refers to the fact that Lily released her captured bees by leaving the jar open. At first the bees were too stunned to fly off, but they eventually understood they were free and flew off. The wording of the message ties Lily to the bees. There is some kind of spiritual connection between the two of them.

Organized religion in this book seems more closely connected to politics than to G-d. That being said, this seems to be a highly spiritual text in which the sympathetic characters discover their own personal ways of expressing faith and worshipping.