The Secret Life of Bees

 

by Sue Monk Kidd

 

 

 

 

 

"A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love." -Connie May Fowler

 

“People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” Lily p.2

This is an important quote because Lily’s life has been profoundly affected by her mother’s death. This statement suggests that living with someone else’s death can be more painful than dying.

 

 

“Well if you have a queen and a group of independent-minded bees that split off from the rest of the hive and look for another place to live, then you’ve got a swarm.” -August, p. 93

 

 

This statement explains how Lily feels, having broken away from her “hive.” She is moving senselessly, like bees in a swarm.                          

 

 

 

Life may change us, but we start and end with family.

                                    -Dove Promise Messages 

 

 

In a way, I have empathy for Lily because I know what it feels like to be blamed for others problems or feelings. I feel like things are out of my control and no matter what I do or say is going to change how other peole will look at me.

 Songs that relate

 

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough by Patti Smith

Now, I don't want to lose you

but I don't want to use you

just to have somebody by my side.

And I don't want to hate you,

I don't want to take you

but I don't want to be the one to cry.

 

 

And that don't really matter to anyone anymore.

But like a fool I keep losing my place

and I keep seeing you walk through that door.

 

 

(Chorus)

 

 

But there's a danger in loving somebody too much,

and it's sad when you know it's your heart you can't trust.

There's a reason why people don't stay where they are.

Baby, sometimes, love just aint enough.

 

 

Now, I could never change you

I don't want to blame you.

Baby, you don't have to take the fall.

Yes, I may have hurt you, but I did not desert you.

Maybe I just want to have it all.

 

 

It makes a sound like thunder

it makes me feel like rain.

And like a fool who will never see the truth,

I keep thinking something's gonna change.

 

 

(Chorus)

 

 

And there's no way home

when it's late at night and you're all alone.

Are there things that you wanted to say?

And do you feel me beside you in your bed,

there beside you, where I used to lay?

 

 

And there's a danger in loving somebody too much,

and it's sad when you know it's your heart they can't touch.

There's a reason why people don't stay who they are.

Baby, sometimes, love just ain't enough.

 

 

Baby, sometimes, love... it just ain't enough.

Oh, Oh, Oh, No

==================================================================================== 

      Lucky by Alice Sebold

 

 

     Alice herself says that she looks her attacker in the eyes and knows she's looking into the eyes of the man who will kill her. She pleads for her life but realizes that isn't going to save her. She then turns attention to doing everything the attacker demands to save her life.

                                      

 

Alice talks alot about how when she was little no one in her home showed affection to one another. When her mom was sitting on the couch, Alice would sit by her and slowly sneak closer and closer to her and discretely set her head on her moms lap. If she was lucky, her mom would stroke her forhead without realizing what she was doing. When she realized, she would tell Alice to get up and go read a book or something. These brief moments of love from her mother are what Alice cherished the most.

 

Conviction by Alice Sebold

 

If they caught you,

Long enough for me

To see that face again,

Maybe I would know

Your name.

 

I could stop calling you ‘the rapist,’

And start calling you John or Luke or Paul.

I want to make my hatred large and whole.

 

If they found you, I could take

Those solid red balls and slice them

Separately off, as everyone watched.

I have already planned what I would do

For a pleasurable kill, a slow, soft, ending.

 

First,

I would kick hard and straight with a boot,

Into you, stare while you shot quick and loose,

Contents a bloody pink hue.

Next,

I would slice out your tongue,

You couldn’t curse, or scream.

Only a face of pain would speak

For you, your thick ignorance through.

Thirdly,

Should I hack away those sweet

Cow eyes with the glass blades you made

Me lie down on? Or should I shoot, with a gun,

Close into the knee; where they say

The cap shatters immediately?

 

I picture you now,

Your fingers rubbing sleep from

Those live blind eyes, while I rise restlessly.

I need the blood of your hide

On my hands. I want to kill you

With boots and guns and glass.

I want to f*#@ you with knives.

 

Come to me, Come to me,

Come die and lie, beside me.

 

Alice writes this poem when she returns to college after the rape the previous year. This is the first time she has addressed her rapist directly. This shows a significant step in her healing process and the growth she gains from this unfortunate experience.

 

 

=================================================================================== 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Reflection:)    

     The Road was a very impacting book for me. I had heard alot of good things about it so i decided to read it for myself. In the story, the man and his son or trying to survive in the now desolate world. They are traveling south and struggle daily to find food and shelter. They have to constantly be on the look for  "bad guys." This story raises alot of questions in my mind about the world and our trouble economy. What if everything were to vanish and we were left with nothing? Would we survive? Would we have the will and desire to press forward and outlast the troubled times?

 

Question and Answer

Q: Why does Cormac McCarthy in 'The Road', not give his character's names? How does the labels 'boy' and 'man' affect the way readers relate to them?

A:By not giving his characters names, McCarthy makes them more universal, more representative of humankind. As readers we can identify more directly with this father and son and we see the two as people who have survived the apocalyptic events that come before the opening of the novel. This man and his son are good people who struggle against enormous odds and against other people who have chosen evil ways to cope with the aftermath of the tragedy. The man and the boy are truly the "good guys" who we want to survive. In every encounter they have with others, in every struggle, and in every predicament, we hope for their success. Although you may be frustrated by their lack of names, McCarthy has pur purposely left them nameless to make them symbolic of all of the people who are like them.

 

Q: What is the theme of this book?

A:This a novel that is filled with pretty sad and depressing events, so most of the themes are going to be dire:  loss, loneliness, survival, destruction, isolation, despair, and endurance.However, there are underlying themes that are more positive:  humanity, decency, familial love, and loyalty.  These positive traits are evidenced through the narrator and his son, while most of the more negative themes come out through the world that they are living in.

 

Q: What is the metaphoric meaning of "the fire?"      (Quotes)

A:"Fire" is mentioned 76 times in the novel.  Most of the time it is used literally to mean fire.  A few times is it used as a metaphor by the father and/or son.

Pg. 83: "Nothing bad is going to happen to us...because we're carrying the fire."

Pg. 129: "We're the good guys...and we're carrying the fire."

Pg. 216: "Are they carrying the fire too?  They could be yes.  But we dont know.  So we have to be vigilant."

Possible uses as a symbol:

As metaphor, it is fire: which is used for survival, warmth, cooking, protection.  Will the gun "fire"?

Ironically, the earth seems to have been destroyed by fire, so it could symbolize the apocalypse.

It could symbolize death.  If the truck people or cannibals see their fire, they could be killed.It could also end the father's and son's life as it did the mother's in suicide. Metaphorically, it is hope, faith, God, the past, the future, humanity, survival, goodness, family.

 

VOCABULARY

flowstone-a layered deposit of calcium carbonate

granitic-anything compared to igneous rock in great hardness, firmness, or durability

collet-a collar or enclosing band

chifforobe-a piece of furniture having both drawers and space for hanging clothes

discalced-without shoes

pipsissewa-any evergreen plant

macadam-the broken stone used in making a road

woad-dye extracted from a European plant

meconium-the first fecal excretion of a newborn child

rachitic-softening of the bones

chert-a compact rock consisting essentially of microcrystalline quartz

 

Song that mirrors the main obstacle faced by the characters in the book...

The End by The Doors 

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand

In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane

All the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town

Ride the King's highway, baby

Weird scenes inside the gold mine

Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake

To the lake, the ancient lake, baby

The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best

The west is the best

Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us

The blue bus is callin' us

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Wednesday Letters

 

By Jason F. Wright

 

 

 

 

 

CHARACTERS

 

Jack-the husband

 

Laurel-the wife 

 

Matthew-Jack and Laurel's oldest son..he is a driven businessman but his home life feels empty. He and his wife, Monica, don't have children and they are drifting further and further apart. She has chosen not to attend Boston her in-laws’ funeral and Matthew is painfully conscious of her absence.

 

Samantha-Jack and Laurels only daughter..an aspiring actress until her ex-husband crushed those dreams. Now, she works as a police officer in Woodstock near Domus Jefferson, her parents’ B&B. The single mother of a young daughter, Sam struggles with feelings of bitterness towards her ex while trying to nurture the hope that she may again act on the stage. And as her brothers fall into their familiar bickering, Sam finds herself—once again—mediating between them.

 

 

Rain-Malcom's "lost" love

 

Malcolm-Jack and Laurel's youngest son..Two years ago, the youngest Cooper fled Woodstock as a fugitive after seriously injuring a man in a bar brawl. But the law is the least of Malcolm’s worries. Rain, his parents’ most valued employee and the love of his life, is engaged to another man. Malcolm is already struggling with sadness, anger, and hope when the letters expose a secret that leaves him reeling.

 

 rEfLeCtIoN... 

The story is about the long and happy marriage of a couple who died on the same night. As their children gather they find letters that their father wrote every week. Reading the letters, they learn a lot about their parents and how much effort the two put into making the marriage and parenthood work so successfully.
This is Christian fiction, but it is real. The concepts of fidelity, forgiveness, grace, and sanctity of human life are woven in to a story of life as it is lived. We don't always want to forgive and life isn't always easy.

 

  lOvE qUoTeS...

*Two souls and one thought, two hearts and one pulse. 

 

*Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

 

*The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom or church or synagogue. It's a choice you make -- not just on your wedding day, but over and over again -- and that choice is reflected in the way you treat your husband or wife.

 

*''Love is the dawn of marriage, and marriage is the sunset of love.''

 

*Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

 

*You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.

*Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

 

*Love is as much of an object as an obsession, everybody wants it, everybody seeks it, but few ever achieve it, those who do will cherish it, be lost in it, and among all, never... never forget it.

 

*Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.