“Let's imagine for a moment that we are small enough to follow a bee into a hive. Usually the first thing we have to get used to is the darkness” (Kidd 82). The bee is an insect that spends all day working: creating a home, spreading pollen, and creating honey. The life of a bee and the society of bees can be closely related to the lives of humans. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the author conveys her lessons about human life through the imagery of bees. Bees need a queen to survive. While there are thousands of worker bees per thriving hive, the queen lays the eggs and the thousands of bees adore her; August teaches Lily, “…they all depend on her to keep [the system] running…they know the queen is their mother”” (Kidd 149). When the queen is kidnapped, “the workers very quickly feel her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness” (Kidd 1). Throughout the story, Lily struggles with her mother's absence and feels that she needs to know her more in order to move on. At the beginning of the story, Lily is not happy and longs for her mother's presence; “That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to heaven with my mother. I would meet her... and she would kiss my skin” (Kidd 3). It is clear that she is not able to function in an unhappy environment without her mother's support. Lily has lived without her queen bee (her mother) her entire life. She looked everywhere for this mother figure, just like bees without a queen. The life of a hive depends on bees knowing and executing their specialized roles. The queen lays the eggs and supervises all the bees, the drones serve the queen, and the worker bees are made up of many females who meet weekly. The women in the group are able to help and support each other without male involvement. Overall, the strong women in Lily's life teach her that, contrary to society's belief, men are not needed in the household to survive. In the manner noted above, the author has drawn parallels between the lives of bees and humans. . However, she clearly believes that humans are resilient, unlike bees. Bees are hampered by their rigid society and specific roles. Lily proves that this is not the case for humans as she is able to let go of her yearnings for her mother and accept August as a mother figure. Unlike bees, she is capable of choosing her role and her future. At the end of the book, she is happy in August's house, has resumed her studies, writes in her journal and continues the beekeeping she loves..