‘HOW TO BEE’ PARAGRAPHS By EzRA ITAAS

“To all the kids who face hard times with courage and stand tall for the ones they love”
-Bren MacDibble.

Have you ever felt like your parents are setting your own goals and paths for a better
future? How to bee by Bren MacDibble expresses the importance of having perseverance
in working hard towards your goals and always looking on the bright side of obstacles
when they try to pull you away from pursuing your dreams. The theme of the story runs
through the eyes of a young farm girl, Peony, who has the passion to win the title ‘bee’
at the farm where she lived with gramps (grandpa), Mags (Magnolia) and another family
next door. But with her exhausted opposing mother on the hand, everything just seems
to be too difficult for Peony to follow her own path, or as the reader may think. “You
know there’s other jobs in the city for smart girls like you”, she says, like being a bee is
nuthin’. This is a quote, narrated by Peony, of her mother, Rosie, persuading her to
come with her to the city to make a new living together and earn money for a better
future. The idea of Peony being in the city sounded like rubbish to her for there were
many things about being an urban she was against to. Thus, she loved being in the farm
and knowing the fact that one day she will become a bee, a dream and passion she could
never let go of. Many more difficulties surrounding this one, pressured Peony like heavy
weights stacked on her shoulders, but with the courageousness of by far than a
teenager, her dreams and even better are met by the end of the novel.

“Today! It’s here! Bright real and waiting. The knowing of it bursts into my head so big
and sudden like the crack of the morning sun”. The sequel of the book begins with a
bright, upbeat start where Peony gets up excitedly in the morning, hurriedly getting
ready for an important event she had always been waiting for, bee day. ‘Bee day’ was a
competition, farm kids from the age of 10 participated in. Though Peony was still too
young to be part of the program, she decides to lie about her age. Their tasks were to
complete the jobs a bee would do in certain steps. The author describes the bee event
occurring as a race, the first who gets to the finish point and does all their tasks
accurately wins and receives a prize. The prize: a bee vest, was something that Peony
had longed to wear and own, where it would have shown she had finally accomplished
her dream. But with tough luck, this was not the case, making the reader wanting to
know if things went the way how Peony wanted it to be by the end of the book. The
introduction of the story shows what the theme of the story and events to come in the
book is based on, Peony’s passion to become a bee. The reader would most likely be a
little confused the first time they read this major event (from my experience) because of
the slight misunderstanding of what they are doing. The urge to become a bee might
have sounded literal at first, bringing more attention to the reader, wanting to fully
understand what the scene is about.

“Cha! I don’t wanna live in the city with those greedy urbs. I like it here. I’m gonna be a
bee soon, and one day I’ll be a foreman”. This is a quote by Peony explaining to her
mother why she doesn’t want to move to the city. The word ‘cha’ is a slang word which
may be used by farm people when they are surprised in various ways and ‘urbs’ is
shortened for ‘urbans. Typically, remote people living far away from cities or towns
would have a different language barrier than others, even if it’s just English like in the
book, but where words are shortened, the way of saying things in different situations
are distinguished, and slang words may be used. This gets the reader wondering what
the character is even talking about in different circumstances, such as the term ‘cockies’
mentioned in the book which seemingly referred to a type of bird but didn’t tell what the
bird actually is. I think that the use of different language barriers such as using slang
and mixing English and another language in one story adds colour to it and attracts the
reader into a book which may be unlike most other books they have read and sometimes
curious on how a character reacts to different situations and events with their own style
of language.

All coming from her mother, many conflicts between her and Peony were being triggered
and becoming harsher and more difficult to deal with. Not long after the introducing
chapters the antagonist, her mother, became present in the story, beginning with her
persuading Peony to move to the city for a ‘better’ future. As the novel reads on to even
more complex obstacles, it starts to make the reader think that her and Peony beginning
a new start in their life for a better future was mostly directly towards her own sake.
“It’s not fair that I’m the only one working in this family when Peony can earn money
as well.” It makes the reader feel that Peony’s mother is mostly using her daughter to
make her own life easier, excluding Magnolia who could have worked instead of Peony
who is at the age where should be enjoying her childhood. The fact that Peony’s mother
cannot see the happiness her own family, especially Peony, had at the farm greatly
saddens the reader (also from my experience) and feel heartbroken for Peony who, at a
very young age did not have a mother who could raise her well and joyfully like real
mothers should. Instead, she prioritizes money and more on her future where she could
have been better off at the farm. I think the problem kind of associates with the setting
for her mother mentions the joy she had in living in a place with real houses, other
people, shops and job opportunities, other than a shed and a cabin in a place where
there is nothing to buy.

All so quickly, Peony was eventually taken away for there was nothing else to do to
escape her fate, after all the attempts of running away from the car where the ‘gorilla’
and mother tried hard to settle Peony in. “Peony”, she whispers. “You might hate me
now, but it’s for the best. Your gonna love being part of our new family. You can help
me with the baby, and the housework. We’ll finally be happy”. This was just after
Peony was kidnapped and thrown into the car, screaming in shock and anger, making
the abusive ‘gorilla’ go mad. It was her mother who had planned to do this with her new
‘husband’ after she had enough of doing all the ‘beneficial’ hard work on her own. After
Peony’s mother explains the ‘good outcomes’ of their future in the city, she says to
Peony, “We’ll finally be happy”. This made me, as the reader, extremely mad at her.
Peony was already happy without her mother, disrupting her dream pursing and she
already happy with her own family and life back in the farm. Peony mentions before this
happened, “I don’t wanna wear red shoes and I don’t wanna be blapped across the
face.” The only reason her mother brought Peony instead was because she knew she
wouldn’t get blapped across the face by the house owners living in a fancy, ‘super
cherries’ house. But this was a whole lie. Instead, it was the ‘gorilla’, her husband, who
was injuring her all along, but in despite of that, Peony’s blind, selfish, lying mother
chooses him over Peony in the point of the story, just before Peony sneaks off with her
courageousness, back to her real home with real happiness.

‘How to Bee’ concluded with a happy and sad ending, with Peony who had accomplished
her dream to become bee but even better, she became a beekeeper but with her and her
friend’s family member being lost. As expected, Peony’s mother never ended up being in
a new happy family with an easier life, leaving her husband useless in take care of
Peony’s new sister, so was given to Peony instead.

Peony’s thrilling and courageous story really does influence people, especially young
ones, to be just like her with a strong, persevering mindset when bad things come along
in life, that can slow you down on accomplishing your biggest goals which may save you
from suffering in a position or place where never wanted to be.