Blog Four

““He met my mother when she went to see him with a toothache.”

I sat there a minute and thought about the odd ways of life. If it wasn’t for a toothache, August wouldn’t be here. Or May or June, or Black Madonna Honey, and I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to her.”

The Secret Life of Bees is different than a lot of African American literature that we’ve read in class due to the fact that it is so positive. It deals with horrific situations and issues, yet manages to maintain a positive outlook throughout the whole book.

I think the conversation above can also relate to the attitude the characters in this book had about the bad events that happened in this book, and, going even deeper, can relate to the attitude that the author had about racism and issues like that. They viewed them as terrible, awful things, yet looked for the good in them. They always stayed positive. They chose to see the “bright side” of things, no matter how much they were suffering. It is a beautiful portrayal of what I’m sure was a group of people in that time period, and I am so glad that someone decided to write book such as this one, allowing us to see a more positive side of things; not that any of the situations should be considered positive, but rather that the individuals involved in them did not give up, and kept a good outlook, despite the odds.