What are two examples of figurative language in Chapter 2 of The Secret Life of Bees?

Figurative language means using words in a creative way to make comparisons, describe vivid details, present symbols, and express deep meanings. Sue Monk Kidd uses plenty of figurative language in The Secret Life of Bees. Let's look at a couple examples in the second chapter to help you get started on this assignment.

Right in the very first paragraph there is a simile. See if you can pick it out. Think in terms of ears. A simile is a comparison between two objects or ideas that are quite dissimilar yet connected in some way. The simile uses the words “like” or “as” to bring out a deeper meaning and help us better understand an unknown quantity through something that we do know.

In the second paragraph, there is an example of personification. Take a look at how the heat is described. Personification happens when an inanimate object or quality is given some kind of human trait or action.

We can see yet another example of figurative language in the chapter's third paragraph. Notice how Rosaleen regards the men. She acts like they are not at all important to her, and the author uses a metaphor to express that. A metaphor is comparison between two dissimilar things that does not use “like” or “as” the way a simile does.

What are two examples of figurative language in Chapter 3 of The Secret Life of Bees?

Sue Monk Kidd uses plenty of figurative language in her novel The Secret Life of Bees. Figurative language helps an author express deep meanings through comparisons, vivid language, personification, and other fun tricks with words. Let's look at a couple examples from chapter 3 to help you get started on this assignment.

We can start in the second paragraph. Pay attention to what the dragonflies are described as doing. This is a prime example of personification, attributing human qualities or actions to non-human things.

Look, too, at the chapter's fourth paragraph. A ladybug crawls up the picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the author uses a metaphor to describe what it looks like. A metaphor is a comparison between two things that are not alike but that share some kind of quality. This comparison helps us better understand something we do not know through something we do know.

A little further into the chapter, in the paragraph that begins “We drifted by gray barns,” we have some very vivid language that helps us imagine the scene. Notice what the author says about windmills. There is an indirect metaphor here. The author is comparing the windmills to something else based on the verb she uses to describe them. They “sprouted up.” See if you can figure out the comparison here.

What is an example of figurative language in Chapter 4 of The Secret Life of Bees?

In Chapter 4 of The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd continues to use figurative language in order to create a compelling narrative. Let's look at a couple of examples from this chapter.

In the second paragraph of the chapter, there is a simile. A simile is a type of metaphor that compares two things that are not alike, using the words "like" or "as" to make the comparison.

Twice she disapeared in the fogged billows, then gradually reemerged like a dream rising up from the bottom of night.

In this instance, the narrator is using the figurative language of a simile to set the scene and give it an ethereal dreamlike quality.

Later in the chapter, Lily describes the scene of seeing all the beehives in the distance. She called them "postage stamps of white shine". This is a metaphor that helps the reader imagine what the scene must have looked like. A metaphor creates a comparison by stating that one thing is another thing, even though they are not literally the same. Although the beehives really have nothing to do with postage stamps, we can picture small white squares scattered around in the distance as if they were stamps.

What are some metaphors in The Secret Life of Bees?

I am assuming you want to know about some of the metaphors used in The Secret Life of Bees. A metaphor is a way of explaining something in terms of something else, so if I say "Her smile was sunshine," my listener understands that someone's smile is not actual sunshine, but that it shared some attribute that sunshine has, for example, warmth.  The book is filled with many metaphors, so I am going to offer just a sampling of them. 

In Chapter One, we see Lily described metaphorically as she describes the relationship she has with Rosaleen. She says that Rosaleen has never had her own children so Lily is "her pet guinea pig" (2).  This is a metaphor.  Of course Lily is not a guinea pig!  What she wants to convey is that Rosaleen is experimenting on her, since she has no experience raising children. 

Also in Chapter One, Lily shares a conversation with her father, T. Ray, in which she tells him about the bees she has heard. His response is to say they must have flown out of "that cuckoo clock you call a brain"(5). This is a metaphor, since Lily's brain is hardly a cuckoo clock. This is meant to tell us that T. Ray thinks Lily is insane.  

In Chapter Four, when Lily and Rosaleen get settled in with the Boatwright sisters, Lily goes off on her own to explore a bit, and describes beehives off in the distance, "the tops of them postage stamps of white shine" (79). She finds ferns in the woods, with "blue-green feathers" (80).  For these metaphors, we are meant to understand that the beehives resembled postage stamps and that the leaves of the ferns looked like feathers.

I do not think there is one chapter in this book that does not have at least one metaphor.  See if you can find another chapter and pick out a few, too.