The Secret Life of Bees Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—The Gun:

In this moment the author uses situational irony and a flashback to show how Lily remembers about her mother’s death and her own heartbreaking part in it. As she recalls accidentally shooting her mother with T. Ray’s gun as a child, Lily tries to make sense of the pieces that never form a full picture:

Time folded in on itself then. What is left lies in clear yet disjointed pieces in my head. The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away.

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Explanation and Analysis—Mud and Peaches:

Lily holds on to her one meager memory of her mother as tightly as she can. Here, Kidd uses a flashback and imagery that calls forth all the senses to show how Lily clings to a part that brings her comfort:

I followed her into the closet and scooted beneath dress hems and pant legs, into darkness and wisps of dust and little dead moths, back where orchard mud and the moldy smell of peaches clung to T. Ray’s boots. I stuck my hands inside a pair of white high heels and clapped them together.

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Explanation and Analysis—Ranger 7:

In this passage from Chapter 6, Kidd uses an allusion, hyperbole, and a flashback to show how Lily begins to intertwine the scientific ideas she hears in the news with her own hopes. She stays outside in the garden after August and Rosaleen leave to go to bed and lets her thoughts drift toward the sky:

August disappeared into the house, and Rosaleen headed for her cot in the honey house, but I stayed on and stared at the sky, imagining Ranger 7 blasting away for it. I knew one day I would go back into the parlor when no one was around and touch the Lady’s heart. Then I would show August the picture of my mother and see if the moon broke loose and fell out of the sky.

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The Secret Life of Bees: Flashbacks 3 key examples