An Interpretation Of Su Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life Of Bees From The Perspective Of Myth And Archetypal Criticism

Sue Monk Kidd, an African-American female writer, novelist and memoirist,plays a prominent role in American contemporary literary field. Her virgin novel, alsoher masterpiece, The Secret Life of Bees, has been listed in New York Times as abestseller for two and a half years. This novel, marking her turning point from writingmemoir to novel creation, has been nominated not only for the Orange Prize inEngland, but also for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The novel is afinalist of Boeke and winner of Book Sense. It attracts various media adaptations, too.It receives critics’ wide attentions from both abroad and China, which have paved wayfor doing further research on the novel.The Secret Life of Bees, a female bildungsroman, consists of fourteen chapters.Each chapter starts with an epigraph about the real life of bees and indicates theincidents in the novel. The novel depicts Lily, a fourteen years old girl’s story ofobtaining “transcendence of love” from black Madonna unexpectedly in her quest forher birth mother. Kidd sets the background in the1960s’ American South and theimportance of questing for mother love is highlighted by Lily’s narration. This novelis evidently manifested with elements of a myth and archetypal novel, such asarchetypal characters, archetypal motifs and archetypal images. This thesis aims toanalyze the myth and archetypal elements, further understand the author’s purpose ofwriting and good wish, and add a new approach for interpreting this novel, thusenriching research method for studying Kidd and her novel.This thesis includes five parts. Introduction covers literary review of both theauthor and the novel, critical reception of the novel, significance of this thesis andmyth and archetypal theory. It justifies in brief how myth and archetypal criticism isappropriate in approaching this novel. Chapter One elucidates the archetypalconnections of the main characters in the novel. The displacement of variouscharacters delivers the author’s expectation on eliminating racial prejudice and realizing race integration. Chapter Two focuses on the two archetypal motifs in thenovel. The recurrence of initiation motif and quest motif shows the author’s humancare to female’s growing up and highlights the importance of finding feminine love ina patriarchy society. Chapter Three dwells on the feminine archetypal imagery in thenovel. All the feminine imagery constructs an organic system and highlights thefeminine healing power for the wounded spiritually. It is concluded that the use ofmyths and archetypes in The Secret Life of Bees not only manifests Sue Monk Kidd’sdelicate writing skill, but also deepens its readability and artistic value with richconnotations.