Racism in Othello Relating to Racial Hatred in Elizabethan England

The Secret Lives of Bees

Within the novel, The Secret Lives of Bees, every character develops different stages in

their personality. T.Ray’s personality isn’t easy to interpret considering he doesn’t change a lot

throughout the novel. T.Ray demonstrates anger, abuse, and a little bit of caring.

In the beginning of the novel, T.Ray was very rude and sometimes had an abusive way of

speaking, sometimes acting. He cursed and yelled at everything she did. To state another

example, “you wake me up again, Lily, and I’ll get out the Martha Whites, you hear me?” (pg. 5).

He would us vulgar language towards Lily, for example, “you act no better than a slut,” (pg. 24).

Lily’s passion was reading and writing, but T.Ray refused to allow her to pursue it (pg. 15,16).

He would punish Lily and force her to kneel on grits, which was known as Martha Whites

(pg 24).

Towards the middle, T.Ray still hasn’t chanced too much. Although, he hasn’t been so

aggressive with his actions, just words. Lily left T.Ray and called him collect to tell him she was

all right, but he was mad that she made a collect call. He doesn’t care that Lily’s getting older,

he’s still strict with her. “You tell me where you are right now, do you hear me?” (pg. 159). He

doesn’t know anything about her. He ignores Lily’s question when she asked, “I was just

wondering, do you know what my favorite color is?” (pg. 160). I believe at this time T.Ray cares,

but he has trouble confessing it and expresses his