Monday, May 5, 2014

Secret Life of Bees Journal Prompts

1.  As you read chapter one you find that Lily pays close attention to the bees that come into her room.  Bees become central to the story she tells in this book.  Think of a time in your life when you noticed something about animals or developed a significant relationship with an animal.  This could be a family pet, or an animal you encountered in the wild, or just an animal you like to read about or watch on t.v. What is it about this animal that makes it interesting to you (you should say something about the animal and yourself here)?  What does it do?  How does it live? When did you become acquainted with the animal? How does it fit into your life right now?

2.  Lily and Rosaleen have gotten into a difficult situation.  Think about a time in your life when you were in a tough spot.  How did you get into that situation?  What did it feel like?  What were your options for getting out of the situation?   What happened?  Who else was affected/involved?  What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

3.  "...I dropped the Red Rose snuff in my bag and zipped it up.  Rosaleen had been beaten up, gone without food, slept on the hard ground, and who could say how long before she'd be back in jail or even killed?  She deserved her snuff." (page 63)  Lily is caught between feeling the guilt of breaking the law and Rosaleen's need for snuff.  What is a time you have been caught between two different kinds of guilt?

4.  "I just want to be normal for a little while-not a refugee girl looking for her mother, but a regular girl paying a summer visit to Tiburon, South Carolina." (page 79) Lily doesn't want to be considered a girl in a special circumstance, even though she is.  What is a time you were in a special circumstance? Did you have special needs during this time?  Did you accept help or decline help?  What were your reasons for this?

5.  August tells a story about a nun who runs away from a convent because "she was sick and tired of all the rules and chores..." (p. 91). When the nun returns, disguised, she notices that Mary has taken her place?  Have you ever run away?  From your family, a major responsibility, your friends?  Describe the circumstances, and why you felt like you needed to do it?  What happened when you returned?

7.  "Why is it sports is the only thing white people see us being successful at?  I don't want to play football, he said.  "I wanna be a lawyer...You gotta imagine what's never been."  What do you imagine for yourself that others scoff at?  What do you hope for that seems impossible because it has never been?  Will you get there?   How?

8.  "You know some things don't matter that much, Lily.  Like the color of a house.  How big is that in the overall scheme of life?  But lifting a person's heart - now that matters.  The whole problem with people is-- The problems is they know what matters, but they don't choose it...The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."  What is a time when you knew what you should choose, but didn't?  Why didn't you choose it?  What kept you from the right choice?  Would you change it if you could?

9.  "I'll write this all down for you," I said.  "I'll put it in a story."  "I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants, for someone to see the hurt that's done to them and set it down like it matters." (185)  Write about an injustice that you have suffered from the hands of others and wanted to have set down or expressed.

10. "They didn't think of me being different."  (209) Lily reflects on this idea as the sisters finally include her in the spiritual group.  Think and write of a time when you felt like a stranger in a group or organization and how you eventually fit in or became accepted by the group.

11.  Zach tells Lily, "We can't think of changing our skin...Change the world - That's how we gotta think."  What are you doing now, or hope to do in the future, to change the world.