CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This
chapter deals with the background of the study, the problems of the study, the objectives of the study, scope and
limitation, significance of the study definition
of the key terms, and research method.
1.1 Background of the Study There
are many literary works whose idea called for equality of Blacks and Whites Americans and the exception
ofracism are written by Blacks from 1700s
up to this period. Most of their works are admitted of having great contribution to the Black Americans struggle
to establish the new future which are free
from enslavement, oppression, injustice, inequality, discrimination, exploitation, and racism (Karenga, 1993:416).
One of the great writers whose idea
called for equality between Black Americans and Whites is Sue Monk Kidd.
She is a White writer who opposed
the racism faced by Black Americans through her works that become exciting phenomenon.
This phenomenon proves that literary works can
be the mirror of our social life. Fowter
(1987:135-136) argued that although literature is presented in an imaginative way, it usually imitates,
reflects,or at least describes the condition of the society in which it is produced. So,
literature and socio-cultural has a close relation. No wonder if many social phenomena
can be reflected in literary works.
And one of the social phenomena
that are often reflected in literary works is racism, the values, norms, and beliefs
thatallege the superiority of some people and legalize the domination upon the inferior
minority. This assumption, according to
Horton (1991:303) is perceived and passed uncritically from generation to generation.
Sue Monk Kidd was born and raised in the tiny town
of Sylvester, Georgia, which is tucked
among the pinelands and red fields of Southwest Georgia. Kidd serves on the board of advisor
for poet & writers, Inc. and works to support their efforts for the literary artsand
their advocacy for emerging writers.
She is a writer in Residence at
Phoebe Pember House in Charleston. Today, Kidd lives beside a salt marsh near Charleston,
South Carolina. Her writing has deeply been
influenced by place, and she mined her experiences of growing up in Sylvester as she wrote The Secret Life of
Beeswhich was written in1997 and she worked
on it for the next three and a half years. It was published by Viking in 2002, which became a genuine literary
phenomenon (http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=820)
The main reasons why the researcher
chooses Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life
of Beesas her object in her thesis is because Kidd’s The Secret Life of Beeshas a powerful story of the coming age,the
race relations, the ability of love to
transform our lives. It is also because Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees
gives unacknowledged longing for Sue’s universal feminine divine and the novel tells the story of fourteen years old Lily,
who runs away with her black housekeeper
in 1964 in South Carolina and the sanctuary they both find in the home of three eccentric beekeeping sisters.
Another reason is The Secret Life of Beeshas
been sold more than 3,5 million copies, spent over eighty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and been
published in more than 20 languages. It also
was awarded the 2004 Book Sense Paperback book of the Year, nominated for the Orange Prize in England and chosen as
Good morning America’s read This! Book
Club pick and it got 2003 SEBA(Southern Book Association) Award for Best Fiction Novel. Now, in college and
high school class rooms, The Secret Life
of Beesis fast becoming a modern classic.It has been produced on stage in New York by The American Theater and is being
adapted into a movie by Focus Films
(http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=820) The Secret Life of Beesby Sue Monk Kidd has
unique characteristics especially in its
theme that includes the civil rights and irrationality of racism in the American South during the 1960s, the power
of female community and the importance
of storytelling. Itcovers the plot, a brief analysis of the main character, Lily’s growth throughout the book.
The novel set in 1964, during the civil
right movement, in South Carolina where was horrific and it makes us really think about the color of our skin. The Secret
Life of Beesalso has unique motif, bees.
Bees serve as Lily’s unspoken guides throughout the novel. In the beginning, bees come to Lily’s room to relay
the message that she should head out on
her own and leave T. Ray’s house. Lily follows the trail ofthe honey label to Tiburon where she meets the three beekeeping
sisters and lives together with them.
Lily even finds the “secret life ofbees” similar to her own life. Their industrious care for their mother, their
continuous ability to keep going in work and their ability to survive inspire Lily.
Finally, their reliance on a female community
resembles Lily’s reliance, and the bees’ community helps Lily understand the power of the human community.
For these reasons, bees are the central
motif of The Secret Life of Bees. The Secret Life of Bees also contents some symbolism such as “bees” symbolize of
rebirth, exploration, sexual maturation,
and personal growth. The second symbolism in The Secret Life of Beesis “beehives” serve as symbolic parallel
to the community August has created in
the pink house. Bees live, work, and produce honey in beehives. As in August’s community, female bees dominatethe
beehive and the queen bee rules over
everything. The queen of bees is the mother of every single other bee. And according to August, the Virgin Mary is the
mother of all the women whom she calls
the Daughters of Mary. The beehive also has a symbolic function in The Secret Life of Beesbecause when Lily learns
about August’s community, she also learns
about the mechanics of the beehive and becomes familiar with August’s community. Other (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secretbees/themes.html)
Another reason that makes the researcher
interested in discussing The Secret Life
of Beesby Sue Monk Kidd is because it has strong and willful characters and gives more understanding for
the researcher about the relationship.
Furthermore, there are some
positive comments about The Secret Life of Beesby Sue Monk Kidd such as a comment from Daily
Telegraph saying that “This is a wonderful
book, by turns funny, sad, full of incident and shot through with grownup magic
reminiscent”. The Times also said that The Secret Life of Beesby Sue Monk Kidd is a charming, funny and moving
novel.
(http://www.recordonline.com/epps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20060903/LIFE/
317/-1/LIFE04) Based on those
characteristics of The Secret Life of Beesabove, the researcher is very interested in racism that
was described by Sue Monk Kidd in The
Secret Life of Bees. The researcher thinks that racism is an interesting topic
to be analyzed because racism is an
ancient problem but there is no solution to avoid and reduce it. Although in this modern era,
racism can also be found in some aspects
in our life and it becomes more complicated. Because of that, racism has been discussed by some anthropologists and
sociologists who try to get a brief description
and solution to reduce it.
The Secret Life of Bees
demonstrates the irrationality of racism not only by portraying Black and White characters with
dignity and humanity but also by demonstrating
how the main character, Lily, struggles to overcome her own problem dealing with racism (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secretbees/themes.html)
The information above supports the
researcher to analyze The Secret Life of Bees.
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