Secret Life of Bees Literary Devices
Chapter 1
“The queen for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness” (Kidd 1). *Symbolism*
"...a high pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin" (Kidd 1). *Onomatopoeia*
"...looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam" (Kidd 1). *Hyperbole*
"I had asked God repeatedly to do something about T. Ray. He’d gone to church for forty years and was only getting worse" (Kidd 3). *Biblical Allusion*
“…that despite her sharp ways, her heart was more tender than a flower skin and she loved me beyond reason” (Kidd 11). *Hyperbole*
“President Johnson faded in and out, lost in the blizzard” (Kidd 19). *Political Allusion*
“…and glided past T. Ray’s room in silence, sliding my arms and legs like a skater on ice” (Kidd 22). *Simile*
“Rosaleen climbed in, sliding over on the seat. I moved after her, sliding as she slid, sitting as she sat” (Kidd 33). *Alliteration*
Chapter 2
“A tiny woman was perched in the bed, old and birdlike, with a blackberry face” (Kidd 48). *Metaphor*
“…gazed out at the peach trees stretching halfway to North Carolina, the way they held up their leafy arms in gestures of pure beseeching” (Kidd 40). *Personification*
“He lunged toward the bed then, pressing his fists into the mattress, bringing his face so close I could see the tiny holes where his whiskers grew” (Kidd 39). *Vivid Verbs*
"I fixed my eyes on them from the backseat and wondered why people didn't call him Ears" (Kidd 34). *Synecdoche*
Chapter 3
“In my mind she looked like Eleanor Roosevelt” (Kidd 51). *Political Allusion*
“Next to Shakespeare I love Thoreau best. Mrs. Henry made us read portions of Walden Pond…” (Kidd 57). *Classical Allusion*
“I drew a big blank, probably due to my ignorance about Mary, who never got much attention at our church” (Kidd 58). *Biblical Allusion*
Chapter 4
“Silence had hovered over my head, beauty multiplying in the air, the trees so transparent I felt I could…” (Kidd 71). *Hyperbole*
“I was unable to take my eyes off her, the Mistress of Bees, the portal into my mother’s life” (Kidd 68). *Appositive*
“She wore a green-and-white sleeveless gingham dress and short braids that stuck straight out all over her head” (Kidd 69). *Imagery*
Chapter 5
“…May did fine, but bring up an unpleasant subject—like Rosaleen’s head full of stitches or the tomatoes…” (Kidd 85). *Chiasmus*
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women…” (Kidd 90). *Biblical Allusion*
“Our mother said she was like Mary, with her heart on the outside of her chest” (Kidd 97). *Idiom*
Chapter 7
“Miles Davis….But he’s the best trumpet player in the world” (Kidd 117). *Cultural Allusion*
“…sleeping with our bodies twined together to get warm, our arms and legs like black-and-white braids” (Kidd 124). *Simile*
"Zach pulled over on the side of the road, saying, "Holy moly..." (Kidd 128). *Internal Rhyme*
"The more my head slammed against the truck, the worse it got, till I was having one big, hilarious seizure" (Kidd 125). *Paradox*
"...What's wrong with living in a dream world? And she'd say, You have to wake up" (Kidd 121). *Antithesis*
"...a sound that no longer registered as danger. Danger, I realized, was a thing you got used to" (Kidd 126). *Repetition*
Chapter 8
“We had our ears pressed to a giant music box” (Kidd 148). *Hyperbole*
“…make the pharaoh change his mind and let Moses take the people out of Egypt” (Kidd 151). *Historical Allusion*
“I loved the idea of the bees having a secret life, just like the one I was living” (Kidd 148). *Metaphor*
“…telephone table where you have peeled a peach on top of it, and the skin and pit are stuck to the paper” (Kidd 162). *Consonance*
“I am sick to death of you yelling at me. I am not deaf” (Kidd 161). *Assonance* *Tone*
“I’d seen the plague of locusts at the movies, the sky filled with hordes of insects…” (Kidd 151). *Medical Allusion*
"I love you, I love you, I said in my head. I LOVE YOU" (Kidd 149). *Parallel Structure*
"That's how I found out about the Black Madonna of Breznichar in Bohemia" (Kidd 139). *Consonance*
Chapter 9
“What was wrong with me that I was living here as if I had nothing to hide?” (Kidd 171). *Rhetorical Question*
“…all the way to Columbia asking the governor to enforce the Civil Rights Act” (Kidd 166). *Historical Allusion*
"D-Despicable A-Angry D-Dud of a father D-Disappointment..." (Kidd 162). *Restatement*
Chapter 10
“…along the tree branches, hitting our faces like an oven blast, like the sudden breezes of hell” (Kidd 192). *Simile*
"Even the humming turned gloomy under the black drapes, low and long like foghorns must sound going across the sea at night" (Kidd 205). *Hyperbole*
“Aristaeus was the first keeper of the bees” (Kidd 206). *Mythological Allusion*
“I hate you being sad, but think how happy I’ll be with April, Papa, and Big Mama” (Kidd 210). *Connotative Diction*
Chapter 11
“Here was the menu: smother chicken, rice and gravy, butter beans, sliced tomatoes, biscuits, and candlelight” (Kidd 117). *Cataloging*
“Did you see the look on Neil’s face?…Can you believe that kiss?” (Kidd 223). *Chiasmus*
“It had me in a girls’ prison camp in the Florida Everglades” (Kidd 219). *Geographical Allusion*
“I’d spent over a month here dillydallying around, refusing to tell August about my mother…” (Kidd 214). *Colloquial Diction*
Chapter 12
“…hiding up there so she wouldn’t have to memorize a poem by Robert Frost” (Kidd 237). *Literary Allusion*
“Your mother loved Shirley Temple” (Kidd 246). *Pop Culture Allusion*
Chapter 13
“I could hear my heart thudding. I wondered if August could hear it over there across the room. Boom-boom. Boom-boom” (Kidd 272). *Onomatopoeia*
“…pencil marks in the margins, not words, but strange little doodles, spiraling tornadoes, a flock of V’s, squiggles with eyes, pots with lids, pots with faces...” (Kidd 274). *Cataloging*
“I knew that no matter how hard you tried, no matter how many jars of honey you threw, no matter how much…” (Kidd 273). *Anaphora*
Chapter 14
“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds” (Kidd 278). *Oxymoron*
“President Johnson and Mr. Hubert Humphrey, that’s who” (Kidd 283). *Political Allusion*
