BLOG 5

The love story between Zach and Lily happens slowly and seems to take both of them by surprise. When they first meet, Lily is completely shocked that she could find a black boy handsome, and Zach is completely surprised that August is letting a young white girl stay at her home and help them with the beehives. Lily begins to realize her racism when she describes Zach. "He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hairl like ost of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn't help staring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome." Lily describes how the kids at her school back home used to make fun of black people's features, and she has the urge to write them all and tell them how wrong they were. She wanted to tell them, "You should see Zachary Taylor." Zach is no ordinary high school boy. He had high aspirations and dreams that astounded Lily; for they were nearly opposites. After getting to know Zach, Lily reflects: "It seemed like I was now thinking of Zach forty minutes of every hour, Zach, who was an impossibility. I can tell you this much: the word [impossibility] is a great big log thrown on the fires of love." While their love is young, the beauty is that against all odds, they realize that in a world where it would never be easy or uncomplicated for them to love each other, they realize that it would all be worth it. Zach gives Lily her green journal to write in. Lily goes to visit Zach when he was thrown in jail, and reflects to herself: "I watched him, filled with tenderness and ache, wondering what it was that connected us." There was a connection between them that couldn't be broken by social prejudice or the opinions of everyone else. There is something almost magnetic that seems to pull the two of them together, from the first day they met.