Name: Block: Date:
Secret Life of Bees Study Guide Part II
Directions: Answer each question in complete sentences and as fully as possible.
Chapter 7:
1. What book is August reading? Find a summary and explain why this book may be tied to Lily’s situation.
Chapter 8:
2. What does August mean when she says: “the hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters” (147).
3. Why does Lily call her father? Is she homesick? Worried about him? What did she expect to gain from talking to him? (159-160)
4. Though writing her letter to T. Ray brought Lily some relief, it didn’t bring her any joy. Sometimes writing a letter and not sending it can bring relief. Students can write letters to people or themselves and not send them but as a way to express feelings they can’t say.
Chapter 9:
5. Lily tells Zach: “I’ll put it in a story.” She shares her thoughts: “It’s something everybody wants, for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters” (185). What prompted her to say this? How are events in society affecting her personal life?
Chapter 10:
6. Why do they eat seeds during the vigil? (207) What can seeds be a symbol of?
7. On page 209 Lily decides “everybody being colorless” would be better than trying to have whites get along with blacks.” Discuss: at what age do children become aware of differences? Of races? Chapter 12:
8. On page 237, August tells Lily about her mother, who she took care of as a child. She mentions she hid in a tree to avoid having to memorize Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Lily remembers learning the same poem. How do this poem’s themes tie to the story? What is the rhyme scheme and meter? Answer on the right side of the page. “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost ----- 1 Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
4 To watch his woods fill up with snow. ----- My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake ----- 8 The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
12 Of easy wind and downy flake. -----
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
16 And miles to go before I sleep. 9. When Lily learns the truth about her mother, she thinks, “Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth…” (255). How is she coping with this knowledge? What is she feeling now?
10. August tells Lily, “There is nothing perfect, there is only life” (256). In a few sentences, explain what she means.
Chapter 13:
11. Describe the ritual of Mary Day (268-269). How does the ritual help Lily overcome her anger?
12. How does seeing the photograph of her mother holding her make Lily feel? (275) How is this a sign to Lily?
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