The Secret Life of Bees

Detailed Summary & Analysis

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Themes

All Themes Race, America, and the 1960s Mothers and Daughters Religion, Guilt, and Forgiveness Lying, Storytelling, and Confession Ceremony and Ritual

Quotes

Characters

All Characters Lily Owens August Boatwright Rosaleen Deborah Fontanel Owens T. Ray Owens May Boatwright Zachary Taylor / Zach June Boatwright

Symbols

All Symbols Bees The Black Virgin Mary The Color Blue The Stone Wall The Moon

Upgrade to LitCharts A⁺

Instant downloads of all 1180 LitChart PDFs (including The Secret Life of Bees).

LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does.

Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.

The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.

LitCharts From the creators of SparkNotes, something better.

Shakespeare Translations

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

Upgrade to A⁺

Download this LitChart! (PDF)

Introduction

Plot Summary

Detailed Summary
& Analysis

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14

Themes

All Themes
Race, America, and the 1960s
Mothers and Daughters
Religion, Guilt, and Forgiveness
Lying, Storytelling, and Confession
Ceremony and Ritual

Quotes

Characters

All Characters
Lily Owens
August Boatwright
Rosaleen
Deborah Fontanel Owens
T. Ray Owens
May Boatwright
Zachary Taylor / Zach
June Boatwright

Symbols

All Symbols
Bees
The Black Virgin Mary
The Color Blue
The Stone Wall
The Moon

Theme Wheel

The Secret Life of Bees Study Guide

It's easy to cite LitCharts for use in academic papers and reports.

MLA

Arn, Jackson. "The Secret Life of Bees." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 28 Mar 2016. Web. 16 Dec 2019.

Chicago

Arn, Jackson. "The Secret Life of Bees." LitCharts LLC, March 28, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2019. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-secret-life-of-bees.

Download this Chart (PDF)

The printed PDF version of the LitChart on The Secret Life of Bees

“Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”

Download!

Get the Teacher Edition

The Teacher Edition of the LitChart on The Secret Life of Bees

“This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”

Get it!

Which guides should we add? Request one!

How can we improve? Tell us!

LitCharts is hiring.

Company

About Us Our Story Jobs

Connect

Help Contact Blog Facebook Twitter

Mobile Apps

iOS Android

Legal

Home About Story Contact Help

LitCharts is hiring!

Terms Privacy GDPR

LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.