May‟s habit happened for years and it is the only way for her to struggle in life. The most difficult thing in her life is the time when she hears that one of
black people named Zach who works for them in the honey house was put in the jail because he had a fight with white men. It makes May prones to depression and
even going to the wall of lamentation cannot make her calm. She becomes desperate and cannot control her sadness. Finally, she commits suicide by sank
her body in the river. Although May is very sensitive and emotional, she is a friendly person.
The first time Lily and Rosaleen come to their house, May is the most friendliest to welcome them and without a doubt introduce herself to them. From her speech,
the writer sees that May is warm person. “I‟m May Boatwright,” she said. “I‟m August‟s sister, too.” She smiled at us, one of those odd grins that let you know
she was not an altogether normal person” Kidd, 2002: 113.
Another proof that May is a friendly person is when she becomes close to Rosaleen without difficulty. This is because May is like an innocent child with
open mind. The writer finds it from Lily words. May and
Rosaleen hit it off right away. May was simpleminded. I don‟t mean retarded, because she was smart in some ways and read cookbook
nonstop. I mean she was naive and unassuming, a grown-up and a child at the same time, she was a touch crazy Kidd, 2002: 114.
From the sentences above, it is clear that May is a friendly person. She
accepts everyone whoever they are and without making a boundary. She accepts Lily to live at their house although Lily is white. The writer also finds that May
treats everything with heart and she does not want to hurt others.
5. April Boatwright
In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd , April‟s
characteristic is not deeply discussed. The writer concludes this from August speech “May had a twin. Our sister April. The two of them were like one soul
sharing two bodies “Kidd, 2002: 157. Her physical appearance is not really
clear. Different from May, April
is a stubborn person. Murphy‟s theory about characterization is one of the ways to know person‟s characteristics is by seeing
her or his past life. By using the medium of another character that is August as her sister, the writer can see that April is a stubborn person and does not like to be
discriminated against white kids. She also finds it hard to accept the disc rimination.
“Well, when April and May were eleven, they walked to the market with a nickel each to buy an ice cream. They‟d seen the white children in there
licking their cones and looking at cartoon books. The man who owned the market gave them the cones but said they had to go outside to eat them.
April was headstrong and told him she wanted to look at the cartoon books. She argued with the man for her own way, like she used to do with
Father, and finally the man took her arm and pulled her to the door, and her ice cream dropped to the floor. She came home screaming that it
wasn‟t fair. Our father was the only colored dentist in Richmond, and he‟d seen more than his share of unfairness. He told April, „Nothing‟s fair in
this world. You might as well get that stra ight right now” Kidd, 2002:
158- 159. April‟s past life that is told by August is the proof that she is a stubborn
person. What April has done is normal because she was a child at that time and she did not understand about the difference and the problem between white people
and black people in society. Although it puts her into the trouble that she cannot accept that way.
“She got deflated about life, I suppose you‟d say. It opened her eyes to things she might not have noticed, being so young. She started having
stretches when she didn‟t want to go to school or do anything. By the time she was thirteen, she was having terrible depressions, and of course the
whole time, whatever she was feeling, May was feeling. And then, when
April was fifteen, she took our father‟s shotgun and killed herself” Kidd, 2002: 159.
From the quotation above, the way she cannot accept the thing like racial
discrimination drives her to be a desperate person. It makes her does not want to go to school and then kill herself because her terrible depressions. Her desperation
happened for years because she cannot accept the condition about the racial discrimination around her. She struggle to face this desperation but she finally
give up.
B. The Practices of Racial Discrimination
The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd tells about racial discrimination against African American women. Lois Tyson 2011: 211 in his
book Using Critical Theory states that Racism is the oppression of individuals or groups based on the race.
Racism can be happen in many aspects including economic, political, social, or psychological. Racism is the myth or the belief that oppressed
race is inferior to the “ dominant” race. Lois Tyson wants to say that racism happens in various aspect of minority
‟s life. Racism results in different treatments to different people. Racism makes the
oppressed race have limitation to live as normal as the dominant race. The first practice of racial discrimination in the novel The Secret Life of
Bees is negative stereotyping about African American people. In the story, Lily is fourteen years old but has prejudice to African American women, that they are not
as knowledgable as the white women. She realizes that she has this prejudice
within herself when she meets an educated, smart, and well-behaved black woman.
T. Ray did not think colored women were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst parts, I thought they could smart, but
not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I
was surprised by this. That‟s what let me know I had some prejudice buried inside me Kidd, 2002: 129.
It can be said even Lily just turns into fourteen years old but she has prejudice to African American women. Her father tells her that colored women
are not smart like white people. It makes her also think that all African American women are not smart too. Therefore, prejudice happens hereditary in
white‟s society and makes the problem of racial discrimination between white and black
people is difficult to end. Aguirre and Turner said that prejudice refers to negative belief, concepts
and stereotypes about people 2011: 29. Frazier also says the object of racial prejudice is not only for individual with certain observable characteristics but an
individual who is identified as a member of racial group 1957: 275. As written, Lily has had a bad judgment about colored women from beginning that they are
not as smart as herself who is white. She thinks that just because she is white she is smarter than colored women. Without realizing it, she discriminates August
based on her skin color. In other words, she has racial prejudice toward August and other African American women.
August moves to Tiburon after she taught history for six years. In Tiburon she works as a beekeeper. As written in the novel, August puts the black Madonna
Virgin Mary label on honey jars but some people do not want to buy the honey
