English Literature 3: The Secret Life Of Bees
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English Literature 4: The Secret Life of Bees Name: Final Paper
At the beginning of each chapter in the book The Secret Life of Bees , there is a quote relating to bees and beekeeping. Choose three of the chapters and the quotes for those chapters. Explain the significance of the quote at the beginning of the chapter to the events that occur in that chapter. In addition, look at all the quotes and think about the various characters in the book. In the final section of your paper answer the following questions:
1. Who is the missing queen in the book? 2. What are the signs of queenlessness in Lily’s life? 3. How does Lily find a new “hive”. 4. Who is the queen of the new hive? 5. Who are the queen’s attendants? 6. What is the role of males in the hive? 7. What is the heavy load that Lily carries throughout the book? 8. What do you think really happened to Lily’s mother? 9. What do you think is going to happen with Lily and Zach?
Chapter One
The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness. – Man and Insects
Chapter Two
On leaving the old nest, the swarm normally flies only a few meters and settles. Scout bees look for a suitable place to start the new colony. Eventually, one location wins favor and the whole swarm takes to the air. – Bees of the World
Chapter Three
New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first locating her circle of attendants. – The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men
Chapter Four
Honeybees are social insects and live in colonies. Each colony is a family unit, comprising of a single, egg-laying female or queen and her many sterile daughters called workers. The workers co-operate in the food-gathering, nest-building, and rearing the off-spring. Males are reared only at the times of year when their presence is required. – Bees of the World Chapter Five
Let’s imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee hive. Usually the first thing we would have to get used to is the darkness … -- Exploring the World of Social Insects
Chapter Six
The queen must produce some substance that attracts the workers and can be obtained from her only by direct contact. This substance evidently stimulates the normal working behavior in the hive. This chemical messenger has been called “queen substance”. Experiments have shown that the bees obtain it directly from the body of the queen. – Man and Insects
Chapter Seven
How did bees ever become equated with sex? They do not live a riotous sex themselves. A hive suggests cloister more than bordello. – The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men
Chapter Eight
Honeybees depend not only on the physical contact with the colony, but also require its social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die. – The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men
Chapter Nine
The whole fabric of honeybee society depends on communication – on an innate ability to send and receive messages, to encode and decode information. – The Honey Bee
Chapter Ten
A bee’s life is but short. During spring and summer – the most strenuous periods of foraging – a worker bee, as a rule, does not live more than four or five weeks… Threatened by all kinds of dangers during their foraging flights, many workers die before they have reached even that age. – The Dancing Bees
Chapter Eleven
It takes honeybee workers ten million foraging trips to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey. – Bees of the World Chapter Twelve
If the queen were smarter, she would probably be hopelessly neurotic. As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor … Her true role is less that of a queen than a mother of the hive, a title often accorded her. And yet, this is something of a mockery because of her lack of maternal instincts or the ability to care for her young. – The Queen Must Die: And other Affairs of Bees and Men
Chapter Thirteen
A worker [bee] is just over a centimeter long and weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself. – The Honey Bee
Chapter Fourteen
A queenless colony is a pitiful and melancholy community; there may be a mournful wail or lament from within … Without intervention, the colony will die. But introduce a new queen and the most extravagant change takes place. – The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men.