The Roles of the Mothers in the Book The Secret Life of Bees and Movie The Help

Mothers are a big part of every child’s life; they teach us everything from learning how to speak our first word, to learning how to make life long decisions for the future. Unfortunately In both the book and movie the characters Lily and Skater had to grow up without their real mother by their side. They also grew up in a town and time period where there was racism and discrimination was occurring towards African-Americans. Trough out their lives both characters being to understand that accepting who they are and the people around them is a very important factor in life.

Both the book “the secret life of bees” and the movie “The help” face similar problems of lack of mother figure, racism, and acceptance.

First of all in both the book and movie, Lily and skater face the problem of lacking a mother figure to encourage them and guide them through life. Both these girls have to grow up without having their real mother by their side and by having someone else take care of them.

In the help Skaters mom had hired someone else to raise her child for her, Instead of raising her child on her own. Her mother focused more on pleasing society than on her daughter. An example of this is when skater’s mom told Constantine to leave because of what society thought of her, even thought she knew how much Constantine meant to Skater. In the book Lily grows up in a similar environment where she doesn’t have a mother figure because she killed her mom in an accident when she was only four.

Get quality help now

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified

Proficient in: The Secret Life Of Bees

4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Lily has a hard because of this but fortunately she has Rosaline who is a mother figure that lily looks up to. Not only do both girls not have their real mother guide them through life but both girls also have another mother figure in their life. For lily this mother figure is Rosaline who has been with lily ever since she was little, and for Skater this mother figure is Constantine who has also taken care of her ever since she was a little baby.

In both the book and movie many of the characters who were African-American had to deal with the struggle of racism in their daily lives. They were not treated equally and were looked down upon which made things very hard for them. In the book Rosaline encounters racism when she goes to gain her right to vote and three white men end up discriminating and abusing her. Rosaline is treated very badly just because of the colour of her skin which is unfair. Another example of racism in the book is when Zach wants to go to a white school but he is not allowed to no matter how smart Zach was. Racism is also shown in the help when the maids are not allowed to use white people’s washroom, and they have to use a separate washroom outside because they think that they might be carrying diseases. This shows how badly they were treated just because of the colour of their skin. In both stories people had to face racism and discrimination in their daily lives which was very unfair.

Both the book and movie revolve around the topic of accepting who you are and accepting others as well. First of all in the secret life of bees Lily learns trough her journey that she needs to accept that she killed her mother and that there are people surrounding her that love her. Once lily realizes and accepts the things around her for what they are life becomes a lot easier for her. Her father also learns to accept that Lily is her own person and that she is not her mother. He learns to accept that lily is his daughter which ends up making the relationship between Lily and him a lot stronger and better. Acceptance is also shown in The Help when Skater and the maids write the novel together. Both skater and the maids learn to accept each other’s similarities and differences.

In conclusion both books show the impact of motherhood in a child’s life, as well as the struggle of dealing with racism at the time period. Both books also show that it is very important to accept yourself and others around you.