Secret Life of Bees

Last week, I saw Secret Life of Bees the movie. It blew me away. The movie was slightly different, but it also included many similarities. The differences in the movie compared to the book I noticed was the way Zach went to jail, the relationship between the Bees and the Black Mary, and how May died

The first big difference I noticed in The Secret Life of Bees movie was when Zach went to jail. In the book on page 179 to page 180, it explains how one of Zachs friends throws a bottle at a mans head and they police takes Zach and his friends away because none of them would admit who through the bottle. In the movie, Lily and Zach go see a movie together. There were two separate theaters that were for white and colored. Zach and Lily both go into the colored theater and a group of white men beat up Zach because he was watching a movie with a white (Lily). I was a little confused during that part of the movie, but I believe that Zach was kidnapped by those men and the police didn't want to do anything to help them.

The relationship between the bees and the Black Mary between Lily isn't very strong in the movie compared to the book. The only time you really see Lily interacting and deeply feeling connected to the Black Mary is when she touches her heart and when she is learning about the story of the Black Mary. But, a similarity that occurred was when Lily approached the Black Mary statue and fainted (page 111). Also, Lily didn't seem very connected with the bees either. Immediately as she is learning about how to bee keep, she says "I love you, I love you" in the movie. In the book, she keeps on saying "I love you, I love you" in her head as the queen bee lands on her forehead.

The part everyone started to tear up and snort big sniffles during the movie was Mays . Yes, in the movie May does by drowning herself just like she did in the book (page 192-193) but the events leading up to it was different. Instead of May finding out about how Zach was in jail from the Boatwrights, Zachs mom tells her instead. May does freeze up like she did in the book and collapse, but when she said she was going to the wall, August didn't argue with her about someone going with her. Instead it just flips to a screen of May walking out of the house.

Other minor differences was when T-Ray finds Lily. In the movie, Lily never called T-Ray to ask him what was her favorite color, instead he was staring at the wall were the map of South Carolina was. He notices there was a bump where the city "Tiburon" is. Also, when Rosaleen and Lily run away and they sleep across from each other from the river like in the book, when Lily wakes up, she is walking with Rosaleen. In the book, she wakes up and freaks out because Rosaleen isn't there.

I truly enjoyed this movie. It was very powerful, even if it was confusing for some people if you didn't read it. I actually liked some of the changes they did in the movie, for example, the issue with Zach. It was heart warming and a great reminder of the book by the wonderful author Sue Monk Kidd.