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*

“Sometimes that you want to fall on your knees and than God in heaven for all the poor news reporting that goes on in the world” (Kidd 66). *Irony*

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*