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Ryan Chen
Mr. Hogan
Period 5
3 November 2014
The Archetypal Hero in the Secret Life of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the portrayal of an unlikely heroine in the
South during the 1960s. Lily, the protagonist, discovers her identity through a journey that shows
her archetypal heroism through a departure, initiation, and a return. She journeys away from her
home and finds herself caught up within a rapidly changing world in which she adapts to and
learns to grow in.
Lily starts off living in a peach farm on the outskirts of Sylvan, a small town, far away
everyone. She has no friends but Rosaleen, her caretaker and the archetypal earth mother, and
cannot follow the trends at school. She is unloved by her father and has accidently murdered her
mother, an unhealable wound. Her departure begins as an escape from her status quo and an
attempt to search for her mothers history. Due to Rosaleens incarceration, Lily takes advantage
of the situation to escape, urged on by a supernatural guiding force that whispers that [her] jar
was open; that she was free to leave if she chose to (41). She breaks Rosaleen out of prison, an
irreversible event that begins Lilys apotheosis into a hero. As night dawns on the first night of
her journey, Lily bathes in a stream that symbolizes her baptism and her passageway into a new
world.
In the new world of Tiburon, Lily begins her search for love and knowledge. Through the
supernatural guide that is Black Mary, Lily follows her to the Boatwright house, and enters the
special world of the archetypal journey. Thus begins her search to find herself, as she performs

elaborate trials that challenge her to question herself. She lies to the Boatwrights as she tries to
muster up the confidence to approach the truth, and is tested along her journey. The first trial
Lily faces is beekeeping, in which she learns certain truths of life. Lily learns that the queen bee
is the mother of thousands and attributes the symbol of the queen bee to Black Mary, and calls
her her mother (269). This desire for a mother symbolizes how the unhealable wound that she
carries is soothed by the presence of a mother figure, such as Black Mary, and shows how Lily is
searching for her identity through the relationships of bees. Another trial that Lily faces is her
relationship with Zach. As archetypal star-crossed lovers, Lily and Zach find love but are
destined to be unable to continue it as society stands at that point. Lily finds that she is willing to
bear the burden that is love as she takes Zachs dog tag, and wades up to her neck so that their
love will persist despite the impossibility and sheer absurdness, much like keeping a dying fish
necklace alive in the water (231). It is at this point that Lily discovers what can be considered
true love, and has learned how to give her love away, something she had not known how to do
before.
The return process occurs not as a physical journey homeward, but rather a return to a
new home that she had always desired and had lived before. Simply put, Lily finds herself
returning to a home characterized by the mother she has always wanted. Although not her
biological mother, she thinks of the Boatwrights, Black Mary, and Rosaleen as the moons
shining above her, as mothers that watch over her and guide her (302). Lily has come to realize
that she is surrounded by the love and returns to school to find her place in to her world,
returning once again to the archetypal status quo. However this time, she is no longer alone, as
she has Zach and Becca as friends and is now willing to stand up against the conformity that
society tries to put her through. No longer does she follow the words and trends of the kids

around her, rather, she considers her reputation as a nigger lover [as no] big deal and cares
not for the thoughts of those who demean her, unlike the thoughts of others in Sylvan (301). Lily
has realized that she does not have to conform to others and copy an identity, and instead finds
her own identity that she stands by.
Lily shows her growth throughout the archetypal journey. At first, an outcast searching
for love, she finds herself journeying through her mothers footprints to find herself returning
home, bathed in the love of the mothers she had found along the way. She has become the
archetypal hero that has found herself, and has grown past the childhood navet and finds
herself among the adults with minds freed by love and unbound by hate.