At several writers’ conferences, I’ve been told to study published books to find nuggets of writing wisdom. My husband and I watched The Secret Life of Bees on television
this weekend and I was really surprised that he enjoyed it (maybe it’s because
he’s a beekeeper.) But I have a feeling that the real reason that he liked it
so much is because it was a great example of literary fiction. I’ve read the
book several times and the movie stayed fairly true to the novel. So, I decided to glean what I could from this New York Times bestseller.
The Secret Life of Bees is about a young white girl and her black caretaker
who flee their 60’s era small Southern town to stay with three black sisters
who have an apiary (that’s a bee farm to those of you from the city) in the fictional town of Tiburon, South
Carolina. The young girl, Lily, is desperate to learn more about her mother,
especially after her abusive father tells her that her mother abandoned her. Lily
helps her nanny, Rosaleen, escape after she was arrested and beaten for
insulting a white man.
Opening line. I’ve always
heard that you want to have a killer first line in your book. The opening line
of this movie is, “I killed my mama when I was four years old.” Wow! Talk about
a breath-taker. I immediately wanted to know more about the narrator and her
situation. The opening line of the book is a little tamer, but it still piqued
my interest.
Theme. Theme ties the book
together and gives it resonance – something I’ll talk about later. In this
case, each chapter of the book featured a quote from a beekeeping book that
focused on the theme of the chapter. For example, the first chapter started
with a quote about the queen bee and how the hive reacts when the queen is
gone. That chapter tells how Lily and her father have coped – or tried to –
since Lily’s mother’s death ten years ago.
Plot. Although literary
fiction is considered to be character-driven – as opposed to plot-driven – it
still has to have a plot. Here are a few plot points from the book (without giving
too much away):
Lily is on a quest to find
out more about her mother. She has two mentors, Rosaleen and August, the eldest
beekeeping sister. One “inciting incident” is when Rosaleen pours tobacco
juice on the bigoted white man’s shoes and she is beaten. The “door of no
return” is when they escape from the hospital where Rosaleen is being treated
under guard. At that point they can’t return to their town because T. Ray
(Lily’s father) is becoming increasingly abusive and Rosaleen could be lynched
if she returns to jail.
The sisters, August, June
and May, seem to live in their own special world. But Lily and Rosaleen’s
entrance brings the outside world inside with all it racism and hatred. August
is the steadfast one, taking all the trouble in stride, but June resents Lily’s
presence. May is the special one who feels all the troubles of
the world down to her soul. The trials affect each one differently, and the climax contains plot twists that I definitely didn’t see coming.
Resonance. Resonance has
been explained as the thing that makes you go, “ah” at the end of a book. As I
mentioned earlier, it could be a recurring theme, a twist, or a satisfying
ending. This book has a wonderfully satisfying ending. Let’s just say that the
heroine finds the object of her quest.
So, what do you think? Did it have something to offer those of us who are aspiring authors?
