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May Boatwright
A handsome, intelligent teenager who works for the Boatwrights. Zach is ambitious, and he plans to become a successful lawyer one day (even though he’s black, and so has many more obstacles to face in achieving this goal). He wants to use his legal training to fight racism in the U.S. During the course of the book, Zach and Lily fall for one another, though as Zach explains, they can’t be boyfriend and girlfriend yet, for fear that they’ll be attacked by the racist townspeople.
Zachary Taylor / Zach Quotes in The Secret Life of Bees
The The Secret Life of Bees quotes below are all either spoken by Zachary Taylor / Zach or refer to Zachary Taylor / Zach. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
At my school they made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself had laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in. Now I wished I could pen a letter to my school to be read at an opening assembly that would tell them how wrong we’d all been. You should see Zachary Taylor, I’d say.
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“Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.”
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Chapter 9
Quotes
Outside, the night sky was moving over us. I was aware of it, aware of the way Clayton had said he seemed all right, as if we all understood he wasn’t but would pretend otherwise. August closed her eyes, used her fingers to smooth out the skin on her forehead. I saw a shiny film on her eyes—the beginning of tears. Looking at her eyes, I could see a fire inside them.
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Get the entire Secret Life LitChart as a printable PDF.
Zachary Taylor / Zach Quotes in The Secret Life of Bees
The The Secret Life of Bees quotes below are all either spoken by Zachary Taylor / Zach or refer to Zachary Taylor / Zach. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
At my school they made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself had laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in. Now I wished I could pen a letter to my school to be read at an opening assembly that would tell them how wrong we’d all been. You should see Zachary Taylor, I’d say.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.”
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Chapter 9
Quotes
Outside, the night sky was moving over us. I was aware of it, aware of the way Clayton had said he seemed all right, as if we all understood he wasn’t but would pretend otherwise. August closed her eyes, used her fingers to smooth out the skin on her forehead. I saw a shiny film on her eyes—the beginning of tears. Looking at her eyes, I could see a fire inside them.
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