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Andreal Williams
April 17, 2015
English 102-08
Dr. Witherspoon
The Secret Life of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees is a story about the constant search for love and belongingness. It
tells a story of a fourteen year old Caucasian girl, Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped
around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother, was killed. When Lilys fierce-hearted
stand-in mother, Rosaleen, insults three racists in town, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina
a town that holds the secret to her mothers past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black
beekeeping sisters, Lily finds refuge in their mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black
Madonna (Bytes). The novel was written by Sue Monk Kidd and published by Viking in 2002
and sold over 8 million copies worldwide (Bytes). From that point on the work flourished and
became one of Kidds most known and successful works. The Secret life of Bees have won
awards such as Book Sense Book of the year in 2004, a New York Bestseller for two and a half
years, and a Good morning America Read this Book Club pick (Bytes). It was even created
into a movie in 2008 directed by Gina Prince-Bythwood. The movie being just as successful as
the book earned a total $37,766,350 in the box office. The movie was an outstanding
representation of the book. However, the difference in plot, characters, and scenes altered the
meaning of the story a bit.

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First, the plot was identified as the scene where T. Ray finally finds Lily in Tiburon,
South Carolina. The scenes leading up to the plot in the movie could have been left the same as it
was in the book. In the novel it states that she places a phone to her father. While she was with
Zach delivering honey at an attorneys office, she placed a collect call to T. Ray her father.
Within the conversation she asked if he knew her favorite color and when he would not answer
she hung up (Kidd 157). The significance of the phone call was to determine whether her father
actually loved or missed her at all. This scene should have been in the movie because it shows
you exactly how distant the relationship is between her and her father and how much she yearns
for love and attention from him. In the novel he eventually finds Lily by tracing the call. In the
movie he finds her by find a certain spot she pinpointed on the map. Although there was an
important scene removed from the movie the audience of either the book or the movie
understood the purpose of the plot.
Next, the casting did a phenomenal job portraying the role assigned to them. All of the
actors chosen have had multiple experiences with acting or are award winning actors and
actresses. The actors also looked the as well. For example Queen Latifa would not be a good
person for the role of June Boatwright and Alicia Keys would not be a good person for August
Boatwright. Not to say that they could not portray these characters but it just would not fit their
personalities that well.
Finally, there were scenes that were changed significantly or cut out of the movie that had
some importance or was supporting details leading up to the plot. Some scene changes altered
what the author of the novel might have meant or really wanted the audience to understand and
grasp. For example in the beginning of the movie they showed how her mother was killed. The
book gave more of a description of the memories of her mother. In the book it states she

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remembered the way she used to smell and how would frequent the perfume store regularly to
find the exact scent to only find out it was Ponds Cold Cream (Kidd 6). Another thing that was
not portrayed enough would be the way she was treated by her father. The movie fails to show
you exactly how evil and cold hearted T. Ray really is. There are multiple examples of abuse in
this story both physical and verbal. There was one point in the book where she mentions he
owned a dog and treated the dog better than her at times. She was more like a servant than a
daughter to T. Ray it just seemed as if he really did not care that much. He also did not like
discussing her mother with her it says in the novel that when she attempted to ask some
questions he told her to shut up and when she continued he threw a jar of blackberry jelly against
the wall (Kidd 12). The scenes described could have helped the audience further understand the
mistreatment Lily dealt with for that period of her life. Another scene was the story behind
Aprils death. This is a scene that definitely should have been added in the movie because it is
the main cause of Mays illness. The movie told us how close they were as sisters but never told
the complete story of what happened to April. The book says that when April and May were
eleven they went to buy ice cream. They had seen the white children licking their ice cream
cones and looking in a cartoon book and told the man she wanted to look at a cartoon book as
well. She argued with the man and he kicked her out of the ice cream shop. She began to have
spells where she did not want to do anything and she went into depression and being twins
whatever April felt May did as well. So at the age of fifteen April took their fathers shotgun and
killed herself (Kidd 96). After that May sort of stayed in this depression stage and the world
became Mays twin sister. This scene would have been a big support of explaining why May acts
the way she does. The final scene that they could have kept the same is when Zach was arrested.
In the movie they made it seemed like he was just kidnapped by a group of white men. The book

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explains it totally different. It says that one afternoon Zach and Lily rode to town for a new
radiator for his truck. When they arrived there were six white men standing in front of the ticket
booth for the movie theater. There had been a rumor around town that an actor named jack
Palance was coming to visit and was bringing his colored girlfriend along. Zachs friends are also
there. They are three black teenagers like Zach. After taunting the white men, one boy throws a
bottle at them. He hits a man in the nose. Zach and his friends will not reveal which boy threw
the bottle and they are all taken to jail. Lily, left alone in the truck, walks home (Kidd 177). If
these scenes had been left the same the movie as they were in the novel it probably would have
had a bigger impact on movie goers. The audience might be more sympathetic to the characters
and their situations had they have known what was originally written in the book.
In conclusion, the movie might not have captured the true essence of the original text
because of major cuts and changes done in the film. However the overall meaning of the story
was still understood. The themes and symbols of the story were still clear to the audience as well.
For example they showed how symbolic mothers are throughout the story. The lack of mothers,
the search for mothers, and the importance of mothers appear throughout the novel and
demonstrate the significance of mothers to adequate human development (The Secret Life of
Bees).Lily discovers, a person does not need to share a biological connection with a mother
figure (The Secret Life of Bees). Although Rosaleen took care of her for years, she is not a good
representation for a mother figure. August, however, provides Lily with what she considers to be
mothers love: total and complete understanding, firm guidance, and the ability to gently
criticize (The Secret Life of Bees). There is also the level of importance the bees serve in Lilys
life. The bees are serving as a guide for Lily throughout her life. For every important action Lily
takes in the novel, bees and their products play a role: from realizing she is in love with Zach

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(when she licks honey off his finger) to realizing she loves August (when she lets the bees rest on
her body) (The Secret Life of Bees). Lily even finds the secret life of bees similar to her own
life. Their industrious care for their mother, their continuous ability to keep going in work, and
their ability to survive inspire Lily (The Secret Life of Bees).The movie was an outstanding
representation of the book. However, the difference in plot, characters, and scenes altered the
meaning of the story a bit.

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Work Cited
Bytes, Author. "Overview - Sue Monk Kidd." Sue Monk Kidd. Sue Monk Kidd, 2015. Web. 17
Apr. 2015.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Viking, 2002. Print.
"The Secret Life of Bees." IMDb. IMDb.com, 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
"The Secret Life of Bees." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.