Don't you hate being asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" There's barely any people in the world that actually know the answer to that question or at least live up to what they said they wanted to be. The thing is you don't always get everything you want, and this is a big issue in my book, The Secret Life of Bees.
That is a big issue in my book because the main character Lily Owens was always forced to be something she's not or something she doesn't want to be. Going to school, her teacher would always try to tell Lily that she can become a writer. She would give her extra assignments and summer reading lists that can improve the chance of her being a writer. Unlike the teacher, Lily's dad T-ray tried to make Lily less confident and he would remind her that she will become nothing in life. This helped me get a vision of who Lily is as a person. I was stuck on making the decision of which personality Lily has. Is it the shy and confused personality or the fun and outgoing because she represented both throughout times in her book.
Zachary Taylor is also another character is my book that faces similar issues that Lily faces. Zach being black, limits his job offers. He's put out to be this football player and that's no even what he wants to do in life. Race, religion and gender definitely plays a huge role in career, not only back then but believe it or not now a days too. Zach really wants to be a lawyer and because of his race and skin color, he probably won't/can't be one. After Lily told Zach that "I don't think I have much of a future now, being an orphan". Zach said "Me either" and after Lily asked him why, his excuse was "I'm a negro".
Lily has many bumps in her life, but no matter what, she never seems to fall. No matter how badly her father treats her or the memories she has in her head of her mother that taunt her, she never seems to give up. You can't see Lily's internal conflicts unless you pay close attention to the character she is. Without Rosaleen Lily would be a wreck. Even though at many times of the book there are moments when Lily says I hate you to Rosaleen, she really doesn't. Rosaleen is the only one that can pull Lily back to reality instead of this "dreamland" Lily is living in. Even though Rosaleen is happy in the house she knows that it won't last forever and she knows that she has to show Lily this too. Rosaleen, August and Zach are very big influence on Lily because she has different loves for each of them. The love she has for Rosaleen is a motherly love, for August it's this substituted love and she's just in love with Zach. All three characters have a huge effect on Lily in different ways.
There are some people in our lives that can show us the right path and there's some that won't. Nobody can choose who you will be and nobody can prevent you from being the person you want to be. If you are one of those lucky people that know what they are going to be and they are going in the right path, congrats but for other like me, well you can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it. What do you want to be when you grow up? If you're even ready to answer that question.
