Part 1: Epigraph Paragraph

Each chapter of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees opens with an epigraph. An epigraph is a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter intended to set its theme. In chapter five of the Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd utilizes a quote from Exploring the World of Social Insects to foreshadow what will happen in that chapter. This quote is "Let's imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee into a hive. Usually the first thing we would have to get used to is the darkness." There are many aspects of these two sentences that correlate with The Secret life of Bees. The first one is the symbolism of a hive and life with the Calendar sisters. When Lily and Rosaleen start their new life in the pink house, they are immediately put to work; they have a specific job like everyone else there, similar to bees in a hive. The next sentence mentions "having to get used to the darkness." This hints that adapting will not be as easy for Lily as the reader thought. She will have to get used to living with four "dark" colored women, and they will have to get used to her. June exclaims on page 87, "But she's white August." after getting into an argument on whether or not to let Lily stay. The last piece of darkness Lily had to get used to was her constant worry and questioning spirit about her mother's past. This is shown when Lily narrates on page 101, "I sat there and studied the darkness, trying to see through it to some sliver of light." Maybe if ever faced with the darkness of a beehive, we should, like Lily, not get used to it, but find light.

Chapter Five