"I joined the army to avenge the deaths of my family..

...and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end.." (Beah 199).

Throughout Ishmael's struggles and horrific views of the war, he learned a valuable lesson about killing with the intention of revenge. Ishmael Beah explains in his quote about what he learned by joining the army and how big of an impact it had on him. When Ishmael's family was separated from him, he was on his own to survive. His family was killed by the rebels and he had every right to be extremely angry and seek for revenge. At first he didn't know it, but when he was picked up by the army, he was given a break. He realized that he could finally get the revenge that he always wanted on the rebels, and kill every single one of them.

Although he felt good after killing the rebels who killed his family, he didn't feel the satisfaction that he really wanted. When he was released from the army and sent to a rehabilitation center, he refused to get better. After a while, he quoted this sentence and he realized that he didn't do any good killing all of those people. He may have gotten his revenge, but in the end he still was left alone and without his family. He had just killed many people to come to that realization.

Throughout this story, the quote teaches a valuable lesson to the readers. Ishmael finally began to understand what he had done, but he was only human and it wasn't his fault. He was just a kid and he was influenced by people of higher authority. The most important thing about this quote is that it was spoken by Ismael himself. He knew that killing people never truly helped anything, but he learned this, and can now teach it to the world. This book helps people understand the dangers of the war, and the sick and cruel events that take place.

"Honeybees are social insects and live in colonies...

...Each colony is a family unit, comprising a single, egg-laying female or queen and her many sterile daughters called workers. The workers cooperate in the food-gathering, nest-building and rearing the offspring. Males are reared only at the times of year when their presence is required" (Kidd 67).

*Reared and rearing means to nurture, take care of, and look after.*

Before each chapter, Sue Monk Kidd adds quotes taken from separate books. The quotes she uses are all about the lives of bees and they fit into The Secret Life of Bees well. The quote that I chose simply says that females can live by themselves and men are only needed in their lives when it is time to reproduce. That being said, the quote is appropriate in this story because it is all about the power of women.

This quote was added into the book before chapter four, and this is where I began to see the power and independence of women. After Lily and Rosaleen ran away, they stopped at a house where three colored women lived. The three ladies were sisters and not one of them had married once; they did not have the need to. Day by day these women worked and lived and overcame the struggles that each day could bring. They could do work as well as any man could and they did it for each other.

Outside of this book, the quote says a lot about the world. Women are often looked down upon simply because it is not believed that woman can live up to the expectations of men. However, a woman can do just as much as a man can. It is not necessary for women to have men in their lives.

"How was I going to get the clothes for college? How was I going to get clothes for Kennyso he would stay in school?(pg.14, Walter Dean Myers)

I find this quote to be a little close to the heart because a lot of people join the army for lack of money. I also think that he had to be pretty brave for him to join so that he could help his brother go through school.

Do you think that Lily ran away from home in order to get away from her father or to free Rosaleen from jail?

"I get it. You ran off 'cause of what your daddy said about your mother. It didn't have nothing to do with me in jail. And here you got me worrying myself sick about you running away and getting in trouble over me, and you would've run off anyway" (Kidd 53) is what Rosaleen says to Lily after Lily frees her from jail. Lily says that she ditches home because of a rude comment from her dad, T.Ray, but I think that Lily was thinking more about Rosaleen than herself.
If I were in Lily's shoes and my father made a rude comment saying that my mother avoided me when I was little, I would more than want to run away. However, T.Ray says and does more awful things to Lily than that. Between strict boundaries and hateful punishments, I do not think that T.Ray telling Lily about her mother would push her over the edge and make Lily leave. I think what finally made Lily leave was that her father was cruel and Rosaleen was not there to comfort her and the fact that T.Ray did nothing to save Rosaleen.
Most importantly, Lily can not stand to see Rosaleen in jail. T.Ray says to Lily, "He's the meanest nigger-hater in Sylvan. He'd as soon kill her as look at her" (Kidd 38) and this worries Lily to the point where she has to leave to save her. Rosaleen gets Lily through hard times with her father and Lily was not about to give up on her. I believe that Lily could have cared less about her own feelings and was more worried whether Rosaleen was dead or alive. I am sure that Lily ran away just to save Rosaleen.

The Secret Life of Bees: Advice to Lily

In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens is the protagonist. She is a teenage girl who lost her mother when she was only four years old and is stuck living with her temperamental father and her kind housekeeper, Rosaleen. Lily comes from a white family, but living with them is Rosaleen. She is colored woman and tends to not use her manners. It is because of her lack of manners that Rosaleen gets thrown in jail. Lily has to lie to escape the many questions regarding her travel after freeing Rosaleen from her imprisonment.
If I could, I would tell Lily to be honest with the information she gives to people. Lily thinks the same thing herself when she thought, "That's the other secret to lying-you have to keep your stories straight" (Kidd 76). This is when Lily gives May, June, and August fake last names. Lily almost forgets the names that she gives these three women. Despite her quick thought, Lily continues to lie.
Another lie that Lily tells is to a store keeper. She claims that she is visiting her grandmother in Virginia, although the store keeper knows the old lady and knows that she only has grandsons. Lily tells the store keeper that he is wrong and that her "grandmother" also has a granddaughter.
If I could give Lily advice against lying, I would tell her that lying will only make things harder. I believe that if Lily tells the truth to everyone she talks to, then her traveling would be easier for both her and Rosaleen. Telling people the truth makes people have more sympathy, and Lily can get a lot of sympathy because she is just a little girl . However, Lily just lies. Lying does help her because it gets her and Rosaleen what they need, but I think that being honest could get Lily and Rosaleen farther than they are now.