The Secret Life of Bees Characters

Lily Owens is just about to turn 14 when the story opens. She grapples with a lot of the stuff that most teenagers do: identity, popularity, self-consciousness regarding her appearance, and parenta...

When the novel opens, Rosaleen takes care of Lily and helps around their house. Despite trying to maintain a tough exterior, Rosaleen is a big softie underneath, in Lily's view: I was the only one...

August lives in Tiburon, South Carolina, where she makes a living beekeeping and selling honey-based products. She is originally from Richmond, Virginia, where worked as a housekeeper for Lily's mo...

June is the first Boatwright sister we meet. Lily and June get off to a shaky start, as June is pretty resistant to Lily's presence in the house, but it's pretty clear June has a heart of gold. In...

Lily describes May as one of the sweetest and gentlest women you could ever hope to meet, and certainly one of the most empathetic. Lily notices immediately that May is a bit unusual, remarking tha...

April is May's late twin sister. After a run-in with a racist shopkeeper when she was 11, her eyes were opened to the world's injustices, and she found it hard to swallow. She subsequently develope...

T. Ray is Lily's father. He's unpleasant and abusive to Lily, something she mentions early on: I had asked God repeatedly to do something about T. Ray. He'd gone to church for forty years and was...

Deborah was Lily's mother. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and is buried there. She moved down to South Carolina to be near August, her family's former housekeeper, after her mother passed. She...

Neil is June's boyfriend and, apparently, a very patient man. He's also quite tall.

Zach works in the honey house with August and Lily, and he's August's godson. He is an impressive kid; as Lily remarks when she meets him: He was about to be a junior at the black high school, wher...

She is a teacher at Lily's school in Sylvan. She encouraged Lily to think big (i.e., beyond beauty school) in terms of her education/future.

She is a neighbor from the farm next door to T. Ray and Lily in Sylvan. She helped take care of Lily when her mother left.

He is a deacon at the church Lily and T. Ray attend in Sylvan.

He is the minister at the church Lily and T. Ray attend in Sylvan. He is also racist, apparently, and gets very agitated when he finds Rosaleen resting in his church.

Shoe is the policeman who brings Rosaleen and Lily to jail. He allows Rosaleen's attackers to continue to harass her while in police custody, so he's probably not the nicest guy.

He is one of the men with whom Rosaleen fights when she gets to Sylvan. T. Ray notes he is exceptionally hostile toward African Americans. Like Avery Gaston, probably not the nicest guy.

He is the man at the general store who serves Lily when she first arrives in Tiburon. He provides her with information about August's family and her business.

The Daughters of Mary (which includes a son, Otis, who is Sugar-Girl's husband) participate in a Catholic-inspired form of worship focused on the Virgin Mary. They are friends of the Boatwrights, w...

He is a local lawyer who is friendly with the Boatwrights and Zach. He ultimately helps Rosaleen get out of her legal troubles back in Sylvan. He seems non-racist and generally pleasant.

She is Clayton Forrest's receptionist. She rats out Lily's whereabouts to T. Ray when he comes looking for her, so Lily doesn't really have nice things to say about her.

He is one of Zach's friends. He shouts an insult at the white men guarding the local Tiburon movie theater from integration and then throws a bottle at one of them, which results in Zach and all th...

He is the cop August and Lily deal with when they go to visit Zach in jail. He also comes to the house to ask questions when May dies. Like Shoe (the cop from Sylvan), he's not the most progressive...