The Secret Life of Bees
Chapter 2 Questions
Use the entire chapter to answer the following:
1. Lily doesn’t understand why the men from the gas station call the
policeman “Shoe.” How would you explain the implications of this
nickname to her?
2. Contrast Lily’s expectations of the policeman to how he actually
does his job. Be sure to cite examples. What kind of conflict is this?
3. What did T. Ray know about the men at the gas station that Lily
and Rosaleen didn’t know? What does this imply about T. Ray’s
character?
4. Lily’s decision to leave home is a turning point. Has the author
justified this transition on a rational or emotional basis?
5.What does Lily’s decision to leave home and rescue Rosaleen
reveal about her character?
6. How has Rosaleen changed, and how does this impact Lily?
Carefully read the passage from Chapter 2 of Sue Monk Kidd’s The
Secret Life of Bees, beginning: “We stood on the side of Highway 40,”
and ending: “And for your information, I don’t exactly have a plan.”
Then, select the best answers to the following multiple-choice
questions.
7. “I wanted her to pat life back into place, but her hands lay still in
her lap” suggests a mood of
A. comfort.
B. loneliness.
C. love.
D. tension.
E. regret.
8. The narrator’s sense of self-reliance is most apparent in the line:
A. “everything precious can slip from the hinges where you’ve
hung it.”
B. “we waited till his taillights turned to specks no bigger than
lightning bugs.”
C. “every cell in my body had a little flame in it.”
D.
“I stepped into the pages of fairy tales where unthinkable
things were likely.”
E. “my voice rising like something had seized it from below.”
9 .In paragraph 21, Rosaleen and the narrator think of the black Virgin
Mary as being
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
implausible
emblematic
absurd
Ironic
anachronistic.
10.The narrator’s refusal to believe that her mother left her is
A. justified
B. logical
C. contradictory
D. anecdotal
E. unreliable
11.Rosaleen’s conclusion takes the form of
a. ironic diction.
b. persuasive argument
c. internal conflict
d. rhetorical question
e. internal monologue