Religion, Guilt, and Forgiveness Theme Analysis

It’s easy to see that The Secret Life of Bees is a religious novel, even an explicitly Christian novel. The characters gain wisdom and happiness by gathering together to worship Christian figures like the Virgin Mary, and Lily Owens, the protagonist, has some of her most important insights while she’s praying. And yet none of the characters have much respect for churches (indeed, the only priest in the book is portrayed as being foolish at best and racist at worst). This points to the fact that the characters believe in building a personal relationship with the Virgin Mary and the transcendent, outside of the tenets of organized religion. Most importantly, the characters use their religious faith to confront their own guilt, and learn how to forgive themselves and each other.

The Secret Life of Bees begins with a quintessential Christian concept: sin. Lily hates herself because she believes that she was responsible for accidentally killing her own mother, Deborah. For most of the novel, Lily has a conflicted relationship with her mother: she wants to know more about her, but she’s also terrified of what she might learn (for example, that she really did kill her mother). With August Boatwright’s help, Lily learns about specific religious rituals and ceremonies (see the Ceremony and Ritual theme), but even more importantly, she learns how to use religion to address her own sense of guilt.

August teaches Lily to accept tragedy and imperfection, both in herself and in other people. For Lily, this process must begin with accepting the love of other people. In an emotional scene, Lily repeats, “I am unlovable,” only to hear August correct her: everyone loves her. By accepting that she’s loved, Lily learns to love herself, including her own sins and mistakes. With this knowledge, Lily gains the courage to accept other people’s sins. The big test of Lily’s moral progress comes at the end of the book, when T. Ray comes to the Boatwright house to take Lily home. Instead of yelling or fighting back, Lily calmly apologizes to her father for running away, and feels sorry for him. Thanks to August’s help, Lily has learned to be sympathetic, even to highly unsympathetic people: because she forgives herself for her own sins, she can forgive other people, too.

Ultimately, sin, guilt, and forgiveness are parts of an ongoing process. Perhaps August’s most important lesson for Lily is also her most explicitly Christian: although we’ll never be perfect, the Virgin Mary is “inside” us all, helping us come to grips with our own mistakes. Faith and religion don’t provide a one-time solution to Lily’s problems—rather, they help her understand the complexities of life as she grows up.