Blog Post #7: The Secret Life of Bees

     


     The first significant element in my book, The Secret Life of Bees, is the setting of the story. "T.Ray and I lived just outside Sylvan, South Carolina, population 3,100. Peach stands and Baptist churches, that sums it up." (Monk Kidd, 8) This southern setting in 1964 was a time where there were many racial issues which creates the base of the novel. Black women and men were degraded and harassed often by whites even with the civil rights act coming into place. This made it a massive significant element of the story since if everyone was white in the story, many different problems and dilemmas would not have arose. We can tell this southern setting is significant through the line, "But she's white, August.", so we know that the colour of your skin in this setting is very significant. Also, this setting element effected the character's personalities. Rosaleen, the black nanny of the Owens family, would likely not have such a rebellious personality if she didn't need to go against the stream by getting her voting card. All of these elements make the setting very significant to this incredible novel.


     

Blog Post #8: The Secret Life of Bees

1. What is the purpose of your poem? What mood, message or point are you trying to make?
     The purpose of my poem is to express the feelings the main character, Lily Owens, is feeling. Lily Owens is a young 14 year old girl who's very lost with the people who are in her life such as her father who has been physically and emotionally brutal to his child. Also, she doesn't have a mother figure because of previous issues within her mother's life. Added to her parents, the few motherly influences she has on her are, as stated in the novel, Negroes. She doesn't exactly fit in with them at first glance especially in the 60s where there was huge racial tension. Many things are going through Lily Owens mind during the novel and this wordle illustrates these things.


2. What did you do to create this purpose? Discuss your word choice and your decision on the size of particular words in comparison to other words.
     To create this purpose, I put myself in Lily Owens shoes. I thought of what she would be thinking and the different influences she has. I decided that racism, Negroes and whites should all be larger then the other words because those are 3 things that are consistently throughout the novel, running through her head. Whether she wants to think of the racism of her setting or not, the world around her is trying to drill into her head that the Negroes are a lower class and she shouldn't be interacting with them. Then I wanted to add a few smaller words such as controversy, rights and sisterhood since these are a few more influences of the setting she's in that have effected her. 


3. Did you like using Wordle? Come up with other possible uses of Wordle inside and outside of English class.
     Yes, I really did like using Wordle! Personally, I'm a very visual learner and I've always liked organizing things in different ways with colour choices and different layouts. The wordle fits my learning style perfectly since I can layout all the words of my poem in an order that suits and I can also choose colours that change the mood and look appealing. Other ways a wordle could be used could be for a movie poster or team shirt! I thought maybe a movie poster could be cool since you could have the title of the movie in a bigger font then have many different aspects of the movie in smaller texts around the title. A wordle would make a team shirt pretty well too! You could have the team name, then everyone's name around the name with different parts of the sport included as well. Wordle's overall an unreal site!