The Secret Life of Bees

“Oh, but ain’t that America for you and me / Ain’t that America somethin’ to see, baby / Ain’t that America, home of the free / Little pink houses for you and me.” These well known lyric from John Cougar Mellencamp’s song, “Pink Houses,” relate to more than the pink house in The Secret Life of Bees. The pink house in this novel represents freedom for Lily and Rosaleen just as America symbolizes freedom for all. The pink houses in Mellencamp’s song represent the American dream and the home of the free. Rosaleen dreams of racial equality and the right to vote, and she risks her life for her conviction. Lily dreams of freedom from cruelty and a life of love, and she risks being “half killed” by T. Ray for the one person she loves, Rosaleen. Lily chases the dream of her mother as she leads Rosaleen to safety. The bright pink house is filled with the love of the “Calendar Sisters” and the Daughters of Mary, and in that home Lily learns what matters most.

“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” (147). August explains to Lily that the bright pink color brings joy to May, and feelings matter more than anything else. Even though August prefers the more subtle tan, and even though the townspeople might talk, August chooses to please May because she knows, “The problem is [people] know what matters, but they don’t choose it…The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters” (147). August chooses what matters when she allows the runaways, Lily and Rosaleen, to stay at her house. Rosaleen has obviously been beaten and could be in trouble, and a white girl in a black home could jeopardize the simple sweetness of life on the honeybee farm. August chooses what matters, people in need, even though the racial unrest makes the decision difficult.

Lily, like August, values people over social norms. Despite the words of T. Ray and Brother Gerald, Lily has learned color blindness because she learned the meaning of love from Rosaleen. Rosaleen nurtures Lily after T. Ray’s abuse and works side by side in silence with Lily to clean the honey house after Lily’s angry outburst of throwing the honey jars. Rosaleen loves Lily with the unconditional love of a mother. August teaches Lily that love is patient as she waits for Lily to feel ready to talk about her mother. As Lily works and talks with August, she finds someone who cares about her favorite color and her favorite dessert. Lily grows to love August as she grows to love Zach, never thinking of their race, but only of the people they really are. Zach loves Lily, too, but without the luxury of forgetting her race. He promises that one day he will find her when they are free to love one another, but he also understands reality: “We can’t think of changing our skin…Change the world –that’s how we gotta think” (216). Lily represents that change by helping Rosaleen escape injustice and by loving people for who they are.

Lily loves others with the love she desires for herself. Her longing for love and her yearning for her mother are fulfilled by the “Calendar Sisters” and the Daughters of Mary. August, June, and May, named for the months of spring that their mother loved, symbolize the new life of spring and the new life that Lily seeks. Being in the pink house transforms Lily because she finds the nurturing that she has always craved. The universal need for a mother figure is apparent for all the females in the adoration of Our Lady of Chains, which also signifies the need for the Daughters of Mary to break free from oppression. Lily breaks free from her father’s abuse just as the circle of black women see the foundation of Civil Rights being built. The women come together to form a sisterhood that breaks the barriers of race, and the inclusion of Otis, Neil, and Zach breaks the barriers of gender as well. The unity of the Daughters of Mary proves the power of love to prevail in the face of any kind of struggle, and Lily begins to heal in that circle of love.

After Lily frees the bees in her bedroom at T. Ray’s house, she hears a voice saying, “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). She flies to the safe haven of the pink house in Tiburon. Rosaleen’s jar is open, too, and she proudly registers to vote, but as her beating implies, she is not truly free to fly as she wants. The unwarranted incarceration of Zach reiterates this injustice and contradicts John Cougar Mellencamp’s lyrics: “Oh, but ain’t that America for you and me.” However, the little pink house in The Secret Life of Bees and in the song represents the dream. Lily’s dream of love is fulfilled as she turns to see her mothers, the Daughters of Mary, standing by her as T. Ray leaves the pink house.

August loves Lily and offers her a new home and a new life. August’s words of inspiration to Lily apply to the young girl and to anyone who has been oppressed: “All those times your father treated you mean, Our Lady was the voice in you that said, ‘No, I will not bow down to this. I am Lily Melissa Owens, I will not bow down’” (289). Lily does not bow down to her father just as Rosaleen does not bow down the white men who are beating her. As August explains, “Whatever it is that keeps widening your heart, that’s Mary, too, not only the power inside you but the love. And when you get down to it, Lily, that’s the only purpose grand enough for human life. Not just to love –but to persist in love” (289). Love heals all wounds and breaks all barriers. Lily is healed by love and the freedom from cruelty; on a grander scale, an entire people can be healed by love and freedom from cruelty. Isn’t that the American dream? “Ain’t that America, home of the free / Little pink houses for you and me.” Sometimes choosing what matters is difficult, but uplifting people is the only way to live and love.