“The Secret Life of Bees” Review
Growing up, my grandparents had shelves full of movies and at age thirteen, when I was deep into my preteen Dakota Fanning phase, I found a movie that would change my life.
I watched “The Secret Life of Bees” for the first time as a thirteen-year-old white girl with a broken family. At age sixteen I watched it again, this time as a white teenage girl with only herself on her mind. As I watch it again at 21, I realize it is so much more than a little white girl escaping her abusive father.
As an adult, I realize the movie is not about Dakota Fanning’s character, Lily Owens, but about the Black women that risked everything for her, even their lives; it’s about the Black women who gained nothing by taking her in and loving her, but loved her anyway.
The movie itself is about Lily Owens and her Black caregiver, Rosaleen Daise, played by Jennifer Hudson, escaping from 1964 South Carolina.
The two flee to a honey farm that Lily’s late mother had the picture of: the Black Madonna, which was on the honey jars, owned by three sisters: August, June, and May Boatwright, respectively played by Queen Latifa, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo.
It is revealed that Lily’s mother knew the Boatwright sisters and that the eldest, August, was once her caregiver. It is also revealed that ten years before her death, Lily’s mother had planned to flee to the honey farm with a young Lily.
The Boatwright sisters suffered their own tragedy with the loss of one of their sisters, April, years prior, and suffer further tragedy with the loss of May later in the movie. Despite being Black female business owners in the south with their own burdens to bear, August and May welcome Lily and Rosaleen with open arms.
Although June is resistant at first, she grows to love Lily and Rosaleen as family. Rosaleen even gains a new name, July, which cements her place in the family.
Despite all the danger that came with taking in Lily and her mother, the Boatwright sisters were more than happy to help this woman escape her dangerous situation because that is who these women were. They loved and they protected, much like the label of their honey, the Black Madonna.
Even when Lily’s father finds them, all three Boatwright sisters, now consisting of August, June, and July, refuse to let him take Lily. They put their lives on the line to protect a white girl, because they love her like their child and see it as their duty to.
The movie is truly about the now five Boatwright sisters, August, June, July, April, and May, and their love for a child that was not theirs to protect. They chose to protect her anyway, because they loved her and they knew no one else would protect her.
The women together are a metaphor for the Black Madonna, which is a crucial piece of imagery throughout the movie. They are a protector of a child that cannot protect themselves, and although Lily is not their actual child, their love for her echoes the love of Mary for baby Jesus.