African American women there who also experienced racial discrimination. One of them was August that showed her struggle of racial discrimination wisely
through making a black madonna label on her honey in order for colored men and also women could think that Mary could also in the form of dark skin.
B. Approach of the Study
This part is about the approach of this study. This study uses socio-cultural historical approach that covering theories that were chosen. Mary Rohrberger and
Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature state that the sociocultural-historical approach is the only way to locate the real work is in
reference to the civilization that produce it. Civilization itself as the attitudes and actions as its subject matter. They also add that this approach leads us to ethnical
judgment concerning the truth ot the author’s statement 1971: 9-10. In brief, by learning history background of the novel, the reader can relate
it to the situation that happened in history depends on the time that the author uses in novel. It can be said that society and culture in story also reflect to the society
and culture in history. The application of this approach is to discuss the novel in the social
condition, culture and historical context. The purpose of applying this approach is to know about the social condition, culture and historical context in novel,
especially about African American women struggle against racial discrimination in United States. Racial discrimination that Black people got is closely relate to
the social and the culture that practiced in the society in the novel.
C. Method of the Study
This part is about the procedures that were taken in analyzing the work. First is this study uses library research because most of data include theories and
information that the writer use to support the analysis was taken from library. Second is about the primary and the secondary sources.
The primary source was from the novel written by Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Then, the secondary sources were from some books. They
were A Glossary of Literary Terms by Abram, Understanding Unseen by M.J. Murphy, A Shining Thread of Hope: A History of Black women in America by
Hine and Thompson, American Ethnicity: The Dynamics and Consequences of Discrimination by Aguirre and Turner, Race and Culture Contacs in the Modern
World by Frazier, Race and Culture by Thomas Sowell, Reading and Writing about Literature by Rohrberger and Woods, Theory of Literature by Wellek And
Warren. Third is about the steps which were taken in the analysis. First was by
reading over and over again the novel in order to understand more about the story of the novel. After the writer understood the novel, the writer chose the most
interesting part of the novel that the writer was curious about and chose the topic. After choosing the topic, the writer started to find the background of the study and
also the problems that related to the topic. To discover the topic the writer started to find related studies and related theories that could support the analysis.
Approach that is used in this study is socio-cultural historical approach.
