The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd- Racism portrayal

            In the ‘Secret Life of Bees’, there are many societal issues, mostly revolving around racism. The Secret life of bees is set in a time, where racism was at its highest and that was the major social issue then. The book is about white and black runaways, who come across a farm, run by African-Americans. The book is mainly about the journey of how these two runaways have to fit into society, due to their race. It is hard for both of them because in the town, many different races portray ideas and interpretations differently.  The author portrays these events really well because she links racism to other events that are occurring in the story.

            One way, in which the author portrays racism, is by using people’s thoughts to portray the racist thoughts of whites from blacks. “’But she’s white.’ This was a great revelation- not that I was white but that it seems like June might not want me here because of my skin colour.” The societal issue here is racism from the black race toward the white race. This novel was written in a time where blacks and whites were segregated. The issue revolves around how the world was segregated and how each race took the issue in a different perspective. I can infer, whilst reading, that we as a generation always hear about the racism of whites towards blacks. This is because they were the victors during the Civil War and as we all know, the victors write history. But here in the story, we are shown how blacks were racist toward whites, which was an interesting manner and how whites took to themselves as the ‘enemies.’ It teaches us as readers that, people can be rude and mean, but as soon as they are backfired by their insults, they realize all of their rudeness actually hurts.

            Another way that racism is shown is by using religion to portray the issues of racism in the world. “’Well, if you ain’t noticed, she’s colored,’ said Rosaleen, and I could tell it was having an effect on her by the way she kept gazing at it with her mouth parted. I could read her though: If Jesus’ mother is black, how come we only know about the white Mary?” The issue here is an underlining issue of racism but due to that, it is also about religion, and how religion is portrayed as being racist. It shows that practically all religions are revolved around white portrayals and this shows racism. Many people acknowledge this and some may take it differently than others, but it still makes the situation seem racist and I wonder how far it can go without everybody realizing that the main portrayals in every religion are white. I can infer, whilst reading, that people can infer religion differently nowadays. Even if things may be true, we do start to think: why is one of the most popular religions, Christianity, only a portrayal of white men or women?

In conclusion, there are many ways that racism is portrayed in the story. In The Secret Life of Bees, there are many ways that life revolves around racism. This societal issue, really fits into the novel, because as a major social issue in the society at that time, it needs to be portrayed and wouldn’t gain success if this issue hadn’t occurred. The Secret Life of Bees is a great novel for the portrayal of racism, because not only does it include this issue, but it is discreetly stated and you have to work out the text, in order to realize what the author is symbolizing. Overall, this book was very good and the way that the racism sector was portrayed was very intriguing because it wasn’t ‘too in your face’ and more a thorough excerpt of life in the 20’s.