Lilly Character Analysis

When I was little, I wanted to run away. I packed my little hello-kitty bag with some chips, my blanket and a toy, then walked out the front door. Of course I wasn’t serious though; I got to the corner, then turned around and went home. I realized that my life wasn’t really that bad. Lilly from The Secret Life of Bees also ran away from home. The only difference is that she didn’t turn around. Her life really was that bad.

To begin with, Lilly accidentally killed her mother. She was only four and picked up a gun, accidentally pulling the trigger. Lilly has had to live with this one regret all her life. It has made her miserably sad almost all the time.  A common thing that Lilly does is picture what an excellent, enjoyable life she could have had if only she hadn’t picked up that gun off the bedroom floor. Her thinking is that even if T-Ray (her dad) had picked it up, he still wouldn’t have shot her.

While living with the fact that she killed her mother, at many points in her life it takes a backseat to the terrible abuse that T-Ray gives her. When she kneels on grits it makes her knees look like Swiss cheese there are so many marks. Kneeling on grits is just one of the horrible things T-Ray makes her do. He constantly abuses her making her life miserable is various ways. Another example is that he makes her sit by the peach stand all by herself in scorching heat without doing anything. She can’t even read for fear that T-Ray will find out about it. T-Ray’s constant abuse makes Lilly angry and sad.

Another reason why Lilly’s life might be bad is because of the segregation. Her nanny and closest companions August, May and June are black and she is white. I don’t think she realizes it, but there are various points in the book where she mentions things like that, For example, Lilly gets upset when her black friend Zack gets put in jail for something he didn’t do just because of his race. Lilly just doesn’t get the way things are between white and black people and it makes her angry.

Lilly escaped from a life of terror, pain, and sadness. She didn’t take a hello-kitty bag with her, but instead her closest companion and her strong mind. Lilly’s life was terrible, but her will to not turn around at the corner made it great.

Black Madonna Symbolism

What is the most important thing to you? Is it family or maybe something you’ve had since birth? For Lilly Owens in the Secret Life of Bees it is a picture of Black Madonna that belongs to her dead mother; to us it is just a picture, but to Lilly, it is much more than that. To Lilly this picture has a deeper meaning. It could be the key to finding out more about her mother. It is what she goes to when her no-good father abuses her. It is her one comfort object. It is what causes her to run away.

The picture of Black Madonna belonged to Lilly’s dead mother; on the back it has a note saying From August. Tiburon, South Carolina. She thinks that this could be a major key because her mother might have been there once. She thinks that some people might know about her; especially this August person. The note on the back of the picture leads me to my next point.

Black Madonna is part of the reason Lilly ran away with Rosaleen. There were other factors like Rosaleen going to jail and Lilly trying to break her out, her dad T-Ray getting mad at her, and just T-Ray's overall meanness in general, but it was mostly because of the picture. In my opinion the picture is the reason the whole story is alive. Black Madonna gave Lilly the motivation to learn more about her long lost mother and flee.

If it wasn’t for Black Madonna, Lilly would never be in the situation she is now. She would have never met August, May, or June. She would never experience the joys of honey, and she would never leave the wrath of the horrible, terrible, T-Ray. That is why the picture of Black Madonna has a deeper meaning than it appears.

               

Rosaleen's Point of View (Secret Life of Bees)

I think that Rosaleen's fenlings are mixed between pain, anger, and surprize. Maybe even a little revenge. Pain, because of the white men in the village who beat her up for pouring her spit on their shoes. Anger, one, at the white men for beating her up. Two, at Lilly, who dragged her away on an adventure I am not sure she even wants to take. Three, also at Lilly, for keeping lots of secrets from  her like why she won't tell August about her dead mom.Rosaleen might be experiencing surprize because of August, who took them in, total strangers. Not knowing what they were up to and obviously suspicious.
     The revenge part, I am not so sure about. She may want to get back at those mean men who caused her so much pain and put her in jail. (That sounds alot like her to me.) But she may want nothing to do with them what-so-ever. She might never want to see those awful men again.

If I Ruled the World

                What if you could rule the world? What if the fate of billions lay in your hands? Would you crack under the pressure? Well, I had the chance to try 4 years ago in 2007. I was 10 years old, barely starting 5^th grade. My teacher told us to write a short poem about whatever we wanted most in life. I thought long and hard about that question. And finally it was decided that I would really love to rule the world. My poem went like this:   What if I got the chance to rule the world?

                Of course it would be so great.

                Rising higher and higher until almost touching the sky.

                Loving every moment of it

                Doing what you know is right

It was nothing special, just an acrostic that I threw together, but Mrs. Wright loved it. I mean really loved it. She loved it so much that she entered it into a writing contest.

Am I Proud of my Country?

        I am proud of my country because of how much we have accomplished. We were found by Christopher Columbus when we were nothing. Now we have 50 states, a president, a government, And millions of citizens. It takes a lot to get to that point. We have also come across some big problems that we have worked out. Like slavery and civil rights. Also terrorist attacks like 9/11. How can you not be proud of America when we have accomplished this much. 

Why

            Sitting in the dark night staring up at Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, tears running down my cheeks, frozen with anger I yelled out, “I am so stupid!” The sound sliced into the piercing, freezing air. “You Amber Wichock are the stupidest person that ever lived!”  Standing, I looked around. There should have been nobody for miles, but then a figure lurking behind the trees caught my eye. Just as I was about to yell, it came out into the open. Only its outline was visible in the dark, but darkness doesn’t affect your hearing. “What is the matter?” It asked, it sounded like a girl. This person was a stranger to me, and you know, stranger danger. But I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I answered her with a squeaking voice, “I killed my parents.”
            I had expected her to shriek and then start criticizing me like crazy like everyone else, but instead she just looked at me. She looked at me like she was confused, scared, and just plain regretful. Probably for asking the question whose answer was now clouding her mind. “Why?” The girl asked me in a whisper, her hands now shaking slightly.
            “That’s just it!” Yelling, I suddenly lose it in front of this girl whose identity was unknown to me. “I have no idea! Absolutely, positively…” It was impossible to go on. Too hard, too painful, too terrible. Try as I may, I just couldn’t do it. Seeing this, the girl urged me on, no longer trembling, curiosity written all over her face.
            “Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning.”
           “First tell me your name.” The last thing I wanted to do was tell this girl my story without even knowing her name.
            “No problem.” She said. “Hope.”
            “Ok Hope, here it goes. I was at a party with all my friends. This really cute and nice guy had invited everyone in our grade over to his house for a pool party. It was promised there would be pizza, snacks, and drinks. Sounds pretty fun right?” Pausing I waited for her to answer.
            “Yeah, seems like fun to me.”
            “You would think so, but you’re wrong. When he said he invited everyone, he meant everyone. The hobo living under the bridge, the guy from Dos Hardware, and oh, no one special except for ALL our parents! Yeah, Hope, you heard right, all of them. And mine came.”
            “They came!” Hope said. “If my parents went to one of my parties I would be pretty upset about it.”
            “That’s what I’m saying.” Relieved that someone finally understood, I was compelled to continue. “With one intention in mind, they showed up at my high school party.”
           “What was the intention?”
            “Well I was getting to that, it was teasing, and in my opinion, the worst kind.”  Looking down at my knees, I remembered the first in the series of horrifying events that day.
           “What did they do?” I couldn’t blame her for asking, but I had been trying to avoid saying it. Sucking it up, I did anyway.
            “They showed everyone at the party, so basically half the town, my baby pictures. And I was not a cute baby. 10.8 pounds, fat as an ogre, as bald as my 98 year old great grandpa, and darker skin than a roasted marshmallow gone bad. The whole town was laughing at me for it, giggling it up like a storm. And the wind blew hard, the rain fell hard, and the lightning struck hard." Knowing what part was next, I stopped, not wanting to recall the second horrifying, part accidental, moment of that day.
            “That’s when you did it isn’t it,” She said. Surprised, I looked up. “I can tell by your face.”
           “Oh.” I said. “Well yes, it is. You see, I was so mad at them, that I pushed them both as hard as I could into the pool and stormed away. Since I left so quickly, I didn’t see all of the water basketball hoops that were in the pool for our amusement.” This is it I thought; I have to say it now. No turning back. “As I am told, their bodies got intertwined with each other and the hoops, causing them to get into a twisted knot, unable to move. You can guess what happened next.”
            “They drowned.” She said.
             Looking at her, I said, “It was a rhetorical question, but yes that is correct.” I stifled a sob but then changed my mind. I let it all out. Hope came over and hugged me, tears in her own eyes. We sat there in silence until the morning light, and then I asked her. “Why did you take the time to listen?”
             “My parents are dead too.”     

Giver Essay

      The Giver is a very unrealistic story. In their Community, there is no love, no color, and everyone is the same. How realistic it that? Is it even possible?
      In The Giver there is no color; no color at all. The apples aren't red. The sky isn't blue. The grass isn't green. Lois Lowry describes an apple as the same "nondescript shade" as the characters shirt. Can you imagine our world without color; a dull lifeless shade of gray everywhere you look? It would also stink that you wouldn't be able to ask anybody their favorite color. I think the Community was wrong to abolish all color, but not only that. How do you rid the world of color? It's easy, you can't.
      The Community in The Giver has no love. Everyone in their Community takes a pill that eliminates their affection for someone. The people that run the Community feel that love is bad. That it makes people different and has complications. This is true, but is it worth is to take away the one thing that makes life worth living? I don't think so.
      In The Giver everyone born within the same year has the same birthday, December. The kids, every year, get one thing for their birthday. When you are 9, you get a bike. When you are 10, almost all of your hair gets cut off. When you are 12, you start the work the Elders have assigned you. You don't get to pick.
      When you are in the Community, you don't get to choose anything. Everything gets chosen for you. Your spouse, your child, your stuffed animal. The Giver is unrealistic because no community is really like that.

Story Hook- Why

            I was sitting in the dark night staring up at Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, tears running down my cheeks, frozen with anger. “I am so stupid!” I yelled out, the sound piercing the freezing air. “You Amber Wichock are the stupidest person that ever lived!” I stood and looked around.  I thought there was nobody for miles, but then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure lurking behind the trees. They came out into the open, I could only see their outline in the dark but I could certainly hear them. “What is the matter?” They asked, it sounded like a girl. I didn’t know this person, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I answered her with a squeaking voice, “I killed my parents.”

The Importance of Color

I think that color is important. Color is one of the things that make people different. Of course the Elders wouldn't want that though.

I think that the elders decided to abolish it because it makes everybody different. It could make someone jealous because they have a black shirt and another person has a blue one. Also, it could make people different because they could all have a different favorite color. People would miss a lot though. They would never know the blue sky, the green grass, and the colors of a rainbow.

People deserve to know what color is. The Elders shouldn't have made it go away no matter how different it made them.