The Secret Life of Bees Lesson Plan

What is the significance of the bees is at this stage of the novel? They seem to be important, but how are they influencing Lily at this point in the story? Why is that influence important?

From the very beginning of the novel, when Lily keeps witnessing the bees coming into her room from the walls and doing a ritualistic swarming flight, it is clear that bees (and, later, all bee-related activities and items) will be very important. Initially, the bees seem to serve a sort of signpost, foreshadowing Lily's inevitable future and teaching her lessons about her own freedom that she cannot understand without their guidance. As a young woman yearning for a real mother and...