Is there a Queen Bee?

After reading the book I wondered, is there a Queen Bee in this book?  I think my answer is Lily.

I know that is not the answer for most, but for me she is the main character and she is the one that really drives the story.  Without her, there is no story and it remains static.  Her curiosity is magnetic and as a reader I was really drawn to her more than the other characters so for me it's Lily.

Nature & Bees

Sue Monk Kidd does a fabulous job in keeping with the theme of nature throughout the book.  Tying the characters to nature with the wailing wall, bees, honey, and the river all of which help the story progress in some way or another.  The bees are a subtle way to show symbolism in how much we depend on such a tiny insect for something so beautiful and sweet.

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.”

Lilly & Deborah

The beginning of the story reflects back to the death of Deborah, Lily's mother.  We come to know later in the novel that Lily's mother was going to leave Lily's father and that is why Lily had the memory of arguments.  Lily is curious in her own nature.  She fantasizes of what it would've been like to grow up with her mother.  Deborah becomes this "larger than life" character in Lilly's life.  When Lily finds out the truth of how he mother wanted to leave her father, and ultimately her as well, Lilly is filled with anger.  Lily turned the anger into love by searching of ways her mom still cared about her.  Lily comes to terms with the real/complex person her mother was.  No longer was her mother this memory of loving definition of simplicity; she had faults.  Lily also comes to find out that her mother's death was an accident that she caused by holding a loaded gun and accidently firing it at her mom when she was only three years old.  Lily slowly works her way out of the trauma she has suffered in her life by looking at the woman around her and herself and how far she has come.

T. Ray and change

There was a point in the novel where August was explaining to Lilly what had happened to her mother. In her mother's story she mentions that she came from a very good background, a rich background in fact, and at one point she met her husband. T. Ray, who was a war veteran I believe had completely swept her off her feet, once they got married things changed. Apparently he wasn;t the same person and it left Lilly's mom unhappy. What exactly left him to change? One would think that after having the chance to marry the person he wanted, he'd be much happier.
I wonder if the fact that T. Ray was not as rich as his wife's family wwas and that lleft her uneasy. Lilly's mom grew up with someone to be at her beck and call 24/7 and not she was put into teh position as being a wife and expected to take care of her husband. This has me wondering if T. Ray was just eh same person as always but it wasnt until reality set in for Deborah that she started to become unhappy in her marriage and it wasn't just T. Ray that changed.

May

May is an interesting character because the moods of the sisters seem to surround her. May is the sensative type who takes the world on her shoulders, and wheeps for those who mourn. To be honest, I was really upset by the passing of May and really didn't see it coming. Why hadn't the wall helped her with the emotions? It had helped many times before...just not now. And the way May went along with it all puzzled me. She drowned herself, a painful slow death. It was as if she decided to take on the pain of Zach being arrested to an extreme, and she hurt herself. Call it creptic or not, but I wonder why she chose such a slow way to die?
The reactions of May's death were just as I imagined...time seemed to stand still with the passing of an innocent soul. May was the type of person that could not hurt a roach, and led them out of the hhouse with marshmellows, yet she was willling to hurt her sisters by taking her own life. Even if May wasn't completley normal, I think that if anyone could withstand a passing of someone close it was her sisters. June and August had experienced the death of May's twin and both were able cope. May on the other hand could not cope with the passing of her sister, and it left her unstable.

Child as Murderer

I think this is a subject that bothered me throughout the book: did Lilly actually kill her mother as a child? It's probably due to my interesting imagination, but I have some hope that Lilly never actually did it. It puzzles me that a little girl could actually pick up a loaded gun, point and shoot it. I mean she was very young, how exactly did she have the strength to do that? I know it is a novel, and therefore anything can happen, but the tradgety of it all leaves me uneasy.
Part of me wonders if T-Ray actually made up the entire scene and somewhat "brain-washed" Lilly into thinking that she was the one who killed her mother. Either way, it explains a lot about Lilly's personality and how she doesn't really trust herself or anyone else around her. She is timid, but has spirit...but she doesn't know what to do with it.
The psycology of it all is very interesting, because of the fact that Lilly was so young when it all happened, and with a father like T-Ray I'm surprised that she was so normal.

Mary and Hope

It is a commen concept that hope is evident in African American religous circles. Because of the bondage that their race has had to go through and the pain that they've had to endure hope is something that many hold onto. The representation of hope is valid throughout the novel, mostly in the character of Lilly. In some ways it reminds me of the theology of hope that Jorgwn Moltmann writes about.
Through Mary, Jesus' mother the characters live with strength which in turns gives a stronger sense of hope for a better tomorrow. I like to think that becuase of the story and their love for Mary that are given a sense of power and a meaning to themselves that they are someone. Especially in the likes of Lilly, who is on a search to find out who she is through her mother's past. Lilly is not content with who she is until she finds out who her mother was befre she was killed. Even when Lilly becomes "closer" to Mary, she still does not find that sense of comfort. Yet, she is given hope that she will one day find out ood things about her mother, and the love that her mother bestowed on her before she died.