The Role of Stories

The opening lines of The Secret Life of Bees signal a master storyteller at work. Lily, the first person narrator, describes the “way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam,” giving hints of exciting times and sorrows to come (1). Within the opening paragraphs, Sue Monk Kidd also adds the religious undertones, “I want to say they showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, setting events in motion I could never have guessed” that will permeate the novel’s themes (2). Many twists and turns later, after May’s death calls for discussion of the rituals honoring the dead, the bees’ purpose in Lily's room becomes known: August explains “having bees around was supposed to ensure that the dead person would live again” (205). Those bees at the beginning of the novel begin a tale that ends by bringing Lily’s mother's memory to life for her; along the way, the bees send Rosaleen and Lily on a journey to find new lives. Throughout their journey, Kidd portrays the need for and sustenance provided by the power of stories.

Not all of Lily’s stories are true. In fact, she finds it difficult to keep her lies straight. That becomes even more difficult in a small town like Tiburon. When Neil first meets Lily and asks where she is from, Lily share with the reader, “This is the number one most-asked question in all of South Carolina. We want to know if you are one of us....We are looking for ways our stories fit together” (105). Lily’s truism relates to all of humanity, not just people in the southern states. Lily looks for her own story, for the way her mother felt about her, and for how her mother died. While she does not travel a long, physical journey, she does find a sisterhood, a master storyteller, and archetypal religious beliefs that shape her into a confident young woman.
Lily fits her story together with August’s in order to find a way out of her terrible life into a story with a hopeful future.

August Boatwright runs her business, leads her family, and mothers Lily through her stories. Whether she is telling the story of Beatrix the nun and Virgin Mary who stands in for her or if she tells the story of the origin of Our Lady of Chains, August teaches many of the characters through her parables. Lily acknowledges, “August loved to tell a good story” and then offers August’s explanation, “‘Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here’” (107). Kidd's entire novel points to the truth of August's words.

August’s wisdom shines throughout the novel. She patiently waits for Lily to come to her to tell the truth, and she tries to reveal Deborah's story in small pieces in order to spare Lily more pain than she has to give her. She begins with small but important truths like why her house is painted such an awful color in deference to May’s wishes: “‘You know, some things don’t matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart—now, that matters. The whole problem with people is .... they know what matters, but they don’t choose it....The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters’” (147).

Later, when Lily chooses to forgive her mother and to understand her mother’s complicated
choices, August teaches her the most important life lesson: “‘Our Lady is not some magical being out there somewhere, like a fairy godmother. She’s not the statue in the parlor. She’s something inside of you’” (288). Lily has looked for a relationship with Our Lady. Beginning with fainting at the thought of touching her and continuing with Lily heaving jars of honey at the sacred statue, she has tried to understand her own connection with Our Lady. August now explains the important truth that some even older than Lily have never understood: “‘You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside’” (288). August plays a mothering role to many women, a couple of men, and at least one young boy; ultimatle she hopes they all become strong humans who can forgive themselves and others as they find their strength within. August achieves this through her own life’s example and through the examples of her stories.

Like the bees, the characters in this novel understand the importance of sharing stories.
One epigraph explains this about the bees: “The whole fabric of honey bee society depends on communication—on an innate ability to send and receive messages, to encode and decode information” (165). The bee’s swarming at the beginning sends the young girl on a journey. The journey leads her to important truths. In her search for her mother, she finds many surrogates, but most importantly, Lily finds herself.