I think the heaviest burden of knowing is carried by Lily. The biggest burden is introducted in the beginning of the story as she reflects on her mother’s death as a young child. Her mother passed away when she was very young; however we learn the cause during this introduction of her deceased mother. Lily was told that during a fight between her father and mother, she accidently shot and ultimately killed her mother. She carries that burden with her throughout the story and eventually catches up to her when she ran away with Rosaleen to Tiburon, a city that knows of her mother and her passing. Knowing she would be banished from this town and not wanting to return home, she hides the fact that she killed her mother from those around her. I think this burden is incredible at this point in the story since there is so much riding on her keeping this secret to herself; if this burden of knowing is bestowed on the townspeople, her entire time there would fall apart and she would have no other choice other than to go back home with her abusive father.
The other smaller burden she carries is knowing about these bees that she says fly out of her wall and she struggles to catch them. As opposed to hiding this like she did about her secret behind her accidently killing her mom, she does try to tell her father about them and her trying o catch them in her jar, but he doesn’t believe her. Rosaleen does believe her, which relieves the burden of those around her not believing, however, she carries the burden of wanting to capture these bees which Rosaleen doesn’t quite approve of. I think this is a way to lighten this burden for her, having indefinite evidence that there are in fact bees in her walls. Although the burden may have hindered that aspect of her relationship with her father, it was these bees that inspired her to move away and start anew.
One burden that all of the characters here carry is the immense racial inequality within their living environment. Lily sees this inequality firsthand when she accompanies Rosaleen to go register to vote. They were harassed and Rosaleen was beaten so severely by the police officers that she ended up in the hospital. Although she was being harassed by exercising her right to vote and be a part of politics, she was beaten by those who were supposed be in a position to protect her. This inequality is seen throughout the story, including Lily’s relationship with Zach. She believed that African American men were never considered to be handsome, that seems to only correlate to Caucasian men. However, she grew close to Zach and began a romantic relationship with him. In this case, Zach lifted this burden about unattractive African American men that Lily carried to allow her to open up to have a healthy relationship with someone who did lift this burden and could potentially lift many others.
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I like all the different burdens you were able to come up with that Lily was carrying on her shoulders, I never would have thought of all of those. Of course the obvious burden of being the one to blame for her mothers death. Although it was an accident as a child you don’t understand that, and it doesn’t help to have a father you is abusive towards you and reminds you constantly of the awful thing that happened. I also like when you talked about the bees in her walls. It does make sense that she would want to capture one of those bees so that she could have some type of proof that they do exist there and that she was not fabricating the story. I love that she was able to open her heart to Zach even though she had the perception that only Caucasians could be handsome. I think that it truly shows how throughout the novel her mind expanded and she learned many new things. She was shielded from racism while she was at home and Rosaleen was her caregiver, but she was also shielded from knowledge. So she was almost ignorant to the differences in cultures and such. I liked your blog, good job.
ReplyDeleteI did not really think about how everyone could be carrying a burden just as heavy as Lily’s. Of course the burden of killing her mother is unspeakable burden but the other women in this story sure did carry their own burden as you mentioned. I think August might have carried the death of her sister April as a burden, because it put such a strain on her sister May. August mentioned that May was never the same after April died and that May held the world’s suffering on her shoulders. I would assume that May’s instability was also a burden on August and June, because they had to be so careful when it came to how much May was exposed to. I think Zach was carrying his own burden as well; he knew the fight that he would have to endure pursuing his dreams to becoming a lawyer. Your blog was excellent it actually provoked me to dig a little deeper and revisit the question.
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