The Secret Life of Bees

       I finished the secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd. in the story, the main character Lily Owens has a really complicated relationship with her mom who died. The way she feels about her mom and her mom's death is constantly changing.



       At the beginning of the book, Lily completely idolizes her mom. Like when she saw a picture of her, she kept saying to herself how beautiful her mom was, and how she wanted to be just like her. She also imagined all the things her and her mom did together, even though she really has no idea because she was only 4 when her mom died. One of the things Lily says is "My mother's name was Deborah. I thought that was the prettiest name I'd ever heard...". She basically just paints this picture of her mom being perfect and caring and loving and amazing.



       Towards the end of the book however, Lily's feelings totally change when she finds out something. Lily finds out that she was unplanned, and that the day her mom died she was actually going to leave her and her dad. "" I hate her. She wasn't anything like I thought she was". I'd spent my life imagining all the ways she'd loved me, what a perfecft specimen of a mother she was. And all of it was lies. I had completely made her up"". Lily even says that she wished her mother had rotted in the mental institution that she was briefly in. I found this so shocking because it was such a drastic change in tone from the way she usually talked about her mother. It was almost like Lily had become another person.



        In the end, something I also find interesting was that the house Lily was staying in was full of women. So in a way it was like even though she lost her one birth mother, she gained 4 new "mothers" that loved her in the same way and cared about her.