A Separate Peace and The Secret Life of Bees

1
A Separate Peace and The Secret Life of Bees

• A boy and a girl searching for peace and a place
  to fit in and answers to the unanswered questions
  part of life.

2
A Separate Peace

• Gene Forrester returns to visit the campus of
  Devon School, an all-boys preparatory school in
  rural New Hampshire, which he attended fifteen
  years prior.
• Two locations bear a mysterious significance to
  him, the first being a marble staircase inside a
  classroom building. The second is beneath a tree
  growing near Devon River.

3
A Separate Peace

• As Gene remembers the past, readers learn of
  his relationship with his best friend, Finny, how
  the relationship failed and what Gene learned
  during that tough year at Devon.

4
The Secret Life of Bees

• Lily Owens does not have the best home life.
• The only person she really loves is her black
  housekeeper, Rosaleen.
• To protect herself and Rosaleen Lily makes the
  decision that she must run away and takes
  Rosaleen with her.
• As Lily tries to find a place for herself in
  society, she learns the importance of equality
  and truth.

5
Some similarities

• Both stories are about a young person trying to
  find his/her place in the world and struggling
  with the stereotypes created by society.
• Both stories take place during a war
• A Separate Peace- WWII
• The Secret Life of Bees- Vietnam War/Civil Rights
  Movement
• What issues come about when a country goes to
  war?

6
Similarities

• In both stories the main character must dig
  him/herself out of the situation they have put
  themselves in.
• This means coming to terms with their faults.
• Both main characters lack the self-esteem to
  believe in themselves.
• Envy often overcomes each character to the point
  where rationale though no longer exists.

7
Elements of the novel

• Plot
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

8
Elements of the novel

• Conflict
• Voice
• Theme
• Character development
• Antagonist
• Protagonist

9
Gender Roles of Women

• Many women were torn between desire to start a
  family and the fact that they had liked working
  during WWII, although women were encouraged by
  many to return to the kitchen
• Women were encouraged to be busy
  housewivesperfect at everything
• Many women went to college to find husbands and
  dropped out when they did
• Women expected to marry young, have children
  early, and support their husbands careers
• Working women considered to be a menace
• Also reinforced by Benjamin Spock in Baby and
  Child Care, in which he argued that women working
  outside the home would jeopardize their
  childrens mental and emotional health

10
Gender Roles of Men

• Men expected to go to school and then find jobs
  to support their families
•  
• They viewed themselves as the primary
  breadwinners and wanted to have their jobs
  waiting for them when they returned from the war
•  
• Men wanted things to go back to the way they were
  before the war

11
Gender Roles from 1940-1960
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Labor Force in the 1950s and 60s

• Labor Force male/female 5/2
• In 1956, 35 percent of all adult women were
  members of the labor force, and nearly a quarter
  of all married women were working.
• Womens pay in the 1960s was 60 percent of the
  male rate. Though equal pay legislation passed in
  1963, that did not solve the problem of low pay
  in jobs that were classed as female.

13
Education
14
Feminism
"Women who failed to conform to the June
Cleaver/Margaret Anderson role of housewife and
mother were severely criticized. A 1947
bestselling book, The Modern Woman, called
feminism a "deep illness," labeled the idea of an
independent woman a "contradiction in terms," and
explained that women who wanted equal pay and
equal educational opportunities were engaged in a
"ritualistic castration" of men."
15
The Male Stigma
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A Separate Peace and The Secret Life of Bees

• The eras in which these novels were written
  reflect the social stigma put on men and women
  during that time period.
• As you read, think about
• Whether Genes struggles would have been
  different had the social setting allowed him more
  freedom of expression.
• Whether Lily would have found a place in society
  had she not had the social stigma to deal with.
• What social stigmas exist in American society
  today.