Vickey Meyer
Christine Specht
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
25 July 2008
“The Moon is Always Female”*
Christine Specht
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
25 July 2008
“The Moon is Always Female”*
Every time I read Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, I am reminded of why I loved it the first time I read it and why I love it still. Kidd beautifully crafts this coming of age story of Lily, a narrator reminiscent of Twain’s Huck Finn or Lee’s Scout, who searches for the maternal, the religious, the answer to a past mystery, love, and healing. Every human being is searching for some type of healing, some place of belonging in the world, and we identify with Lily because she embodies that search, and she finds her place within the Boatwright family and within the feminine/maternal divine. One of the many reasons I love this novel is Kidd’s honest and poetic portrayal of her flawed narrator.
Kidd’s use of language astounds me each time I pick up one of her books. Her vivid diction opens Bees with a sensory paragraph that “splits my heart down its seam” (Kidd 1). The similes and metaphors combine with poetic imagery to give Kidd’s language a “perfect crispness” (7) that often leaves me with the thought “I wish I had written that.” Kidd’s language so often rings true to my ears. I share in Lily’s incredulous thought about T. Ray when she wonders “What kind of person is against reading?” (Kidd 15) and agree that “Sunset is the saddest light there is” (Kidd 50). Kidd’s verb choice is exquisite and surprising as demonstrated by Lily’s remembrances of May and “the blaze of love and anguish that had come so often into her face. In the end it had burned her up” (199).
Even though Lily faces misfortune again and again, she does find a home with Black Mary and the Daughters. I love how the characters in this novel make their own religion. Lily grew up with Brother Gerald who claimed that “hell was nothing but a bonfire for Catholics” (Kidd 58), yet Lily finds her spiritual self within an invented religion with very Catholic roots. Being Catholic myself, the Daughters of Mary with their storytelling, rosary like mantras, and elaborate ceremonies, really appeal to me, and Lily slowly learns that “her [Mary’s] spirit is everywhere” (Kidd 141). The connection between the spiritual world, the natural world, and the maternal world all makes a whole lot of sense.
The symbol of the moon as the feminine divine illustrates that connection. Black Mary carries a yellow crescent moon, and the moon waxes and wanes in the novel just as the comfort Lily discovers waxes and wanes. When Lily visits her special spot in the orchard where she remembers her mother, she loses “her boundaries, feeling like the sky was my own skin and the moon was my heart beating up there in the dark” (Kidd 23). When Lily wades naked in the creek with Rosaleen, she gives thanks to the moon, and when she walks through the bee hives with August, Lily feels like a drifting moon. The moon is linked directly to the feminine divine through Black Mary. August says her mother claimed “Our Lady lived on the moon” (Kidd 113).
The joy in The Secret Life of Bees is that Lily finds healing, finds love, finds the maternal and feminine divine within herself and within the Daughters of Mary who are “the moons shining over me” (Kidd 302).
*The title for this journal is taken from a book of poetry by Marge Piercy.
Kidd’s use of language astounds me each time I pick up one of her books. Her vivid diction opens Bees with a sensory paragraph that “splits my heart down its seam” (Kidd 1). The similes and metaphors combine with poetic imagery to give Kidd’s language a “perfect crispness” (7) that often leaves me with the thought “I wish I had written that.” Kidd’s language so often rings true to my ears. I share in Lily’s incredulous thought about T. Ray when she wonders “What kind of person is against reading?” (Kidd 15) and agree that “Sunset is the saddest light there is” (Kidd 50). Kidd’s verb choice is exquisite and surprising as demonstrated by Lily’s remembrances of May and “the blaze of love and anguish that had come so often into her face. In the end it had burned her up” (199).
Even though Lily faces misfortune again and again, she does find a home with Black Mary and the Daughters. I love how the characters in this novel make their own religion. Lily grew up with Brother Gerald who claimed that “hell was nothing but a bonfire for Catholics” (Kidd 58), yet Lily finds her spiritual self within an invented religion with very Catholic roots. Being Catholic myself, the Daughters of Mary with their storytelling, rosary like mantras, and elaborate ceremonies, really appeal to me, and Lily slowly learns that “her [Mary’s] spirit is everywhere” (Kidd 141). The connection between the spiritual world, the natural world, and the maternal world all makes a whole lot of sense.
The symbol of the moon as the feminine divine illustrates that connection. Black Mary carries a yellow crescent moon, and the moon waxes and wanes in the novel just as the comfort Lily discovers waxes and wanes. When Lily visits her special spot in the orchard where she remembers her mother, she loses “her boundaries, feeling like the sky was my own skin and the moon was my heart beating up there in the dark” (Kidd 23). When Lily wades naked in the creek with Rosaleen, she gives thanks to the moon, and when she walks through the bee hives with August, Lily feels like a drifting moon. The moon is linked directly to the feminine divine through Black Mary. August says her mother claimed “Our Lady lived on the moon” (Kidd 113).
The joy in The Secret Life of Bees is that Lily finds healing, finds love, finds the maternal and feminine divine within herself and within the Daughters of Mary who are “the moons shining over me” (Kidd 302).
*The title for this journal is taken from a book of poetry by Marge Piercy.
6 comments:
I enjoyed your post. I too think that Kidd has a lyrical quality to her writing. Having grown up in the South, I can assure you her voice is so true to the location and time. She makes me think of Harper Lee, my idol, who wrote about some of the same subject matter in Too Kill A Mockingbird. Kidd, as well as Lee, is able to shine a light on the world's darkness and illuminate it with love and acceptance.
I enjoyed Kidd's writing as well. She creates beautiful images for the reader. I hadn't picked up on the many moon references, you're right..it does symoblize feminity.
Thank you for bringing together the importance of the moon in ees. I remember the different scenes that focus around the moon but had tied together the importance. The more I think about it there are so many occurrences in life that relate to the moon; planting of crops, ocean tides and religious rituals. It is interesting to think about the connection the moon has to different events in Bees.
Like you, this was not my first reading. I think I could easily read it again and still enjoy it just as you have. I underlined lots of the dialogue and descriptions because each word seemed so perfectly chosen. My gold standard for a book is that I am so taken aback by the beauty or the "rightness" of the language that I catch myself stopping over and over to reread phrases or passages. This book was one of those books.
I loved the way you discussed Kidd's language. I still remember sitting on a plane, opening the book, and realizing I was reading beautifully crafted sentences. It would be impossible for me to read this without a highlighter! This is my third trip to Tiburon, and I find new insights each time.
Very cool insight about the moon. It is so chilling the way that August describes the whole 'space race' that was going on at the time. I had never thought about it like that. How we really destroyed a lot of the mystique and beauty of the moon by trodding all over it with our big machines and moon suits.
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