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Melinda Sanchez

White

AP Lang 4

February 10, 2020

Draft 1

In the Book Secret life of bees the character of Lily is seen to evolve when she is in

different settings. In the beginning of the book, she lives with her dad, who she refers to as T-ray.

During the time she lives with her dad, she does a lot of mischievous things that show her

immaturity. Later when Roselina and Lily stay with August, Lily has a shift of perspective and

begins to change as a person. In this section Lily has just learned from her father that her mother

was going to leave her before she died. Out of anger and disbelief, Lily runs off to the hospital

that Rosaleen is being contained at. She sneaks past the guard by pretending she was confused

about where she was at and enters Rosaleen's room. She tells Rosaleen that she is going to help

her escape and does so by calling the administration desk of the hospital and lying. “Part of me

was saying these actual words, and part of me was listening to myself say them, thinking how I

belonged in a reform school or juvenile delinquent home for girls, and would probably soon be

in one” (48). Characterization is present when Lily says “part of me was listening to myself say

them”. When Lily describes how she is easily coming up with lies and just going with what is

happening in the moment it shows how she is senselessly taking action due to the outrage she has

towards her father. She also adds how she ‘belonged in a juvenile delinquent home for girls’ as a

result of the actions she was taking. This shows that Lily knows what she is doing is wrong, but

she continues to do them anyway because she is so caught up with how she is feeling in the
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moment. Since Lily does not process her emotions in a healthy way, and insteads covers them up

with lies, she shows the immature side of herself. By doing this, Lily shows that she values lying

and acts on the principle of putting deception over telling the truth. During this time of Lily’s life

she is starting to experience a shift in her demeanor. In the beginning of the book Lily does not

stand up to her father and tends to keep quiet. In this section of the book we see Lily finally go

against her father due to him saying something that sparked her to run-away. We see a shift in

her attitude she turns to the more rebelling side of things and confides in lying. Although she is

accompanied by Rosaleen, Lily’s actions change when she leaves her father's house and becomes

independent. As Lily searches for a parental role in her life she begins to surround herself in a

pool of lies to escape her reality. As Lily does these things she tends to self- consciously think

about them because she has guilt for deceiving people.

Towards the end of the book, Lily begins to accept that deception is getting her nowhere in her

new environment and decides to come out with the truth. Doing this, Lily begins to show her

maturity and allows herself to move on from her past. In chapter 6, Lily takes part in dancing and

singing with the Daughters of Mary. She gets overwhelmed with being apart of a new

community and passes out. When she wakes up she is nurtured by the Boatwrights which is

something she feels she's never had before. As Lily and August watch Tv, Lily later begins to

think about coming clean.“I knew one day I would go back into the parlor when no one was

around and touch the Lady’s heart. Then I would show August the picture of my mother and see

if the moon broke loose and fell out of the sky” (114). In this quote Lily is seen thinking about

future actions she will take. She thinks about coming out with the truth about her mother to

August. This shows Lily's growth in characterization because Lily is now straying away from
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lying, as she feels guilty about it. Lily is now seen wanting to take responsibility for her actions

and come clean to August about everything. She knows that telling something like this should

take time to come out when it is right so she decided to wait a little longer. Although she has not

told August about everything, the fact that she is preparing to show her shift in values. She

values relationships, as she is seen idolizing August and the other female figures in her life. She

turns this into a principle by telling the truth in order to keep a good relationship with the people

she cares about. While being in a new surrounding Lily is seen to behave in a different manner

and make different actions than her past.These actions consist of coming out with the truth to

August after spending some time in the Boatwrights household and learning about their daily

routines. Due to Lily now having female figures in her life, she starts to see a different realm of

relationships. Lily takes comfort in the Boatwrights way of doing things and decides that she is

comfortable enough to tell August the truth. Now that she has seen a different perspective of

things through the way August and her sisters live their life, she sees that deception is not the

answer if she wants to move on.

Deception also has a large impact in Postmans ​Amusing Ourselves to Death. ​In his book

Postman describes how society has been prone to deception through media. In this part of the

book Postman gives an anecdote about a co anchor that was hired at a news channel but later

fired only because the viewers did not like her look. He claims how her look had nothing to do

with the news directly but indirectly people stopped watching the channel because based on the

perception of her look they did not believe what she was reporting on. “Hampered viewer

acceptance means the same thing for television news as it does for any television show: Viewers
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do not like looking at the performer. It also means that viewers do not believe the performer, that

she lacks credibility” (101). Postman gets his argument across to the readers by presenting

research. Postman explains to viewers the way television viewing works. He gives a definition of

hampered viewer acceptance by explaining how certain things like appearance affect the amount

of viewer a television show has. He also goes into his research when he talks about specific

situations where this has been seen. This reveals that through the way society perceives people

the begin to base the truth off of it. Since people think of credibility to look a certain way,

viewers of tv are more likely to believe someone who is nicely dressed rather than thinking about

the facts that are actually presented to them. Due to people discarding that people who look

truthful may not be they deceive themselves in what information they decided to take in.

Postman continues to enlighten viewers on the deceptions that media, such as television, presents

to viewers. In this section Postman talks about the show sesame street being used as a form of

educational teaching for children. He states that it is true that sesame teaches children, but not in

a way that a school system would. “Whereas a classroom is a place of social interaction, the

space in front of a television set is a private preserve. Whereas in a classroom, one may ask a

teacher questions, one can ask nothing of a television screen. Whereas school is centered on the

development of language, television demands attention to images.” (143) Postman gets his

argument by using deductive reasoning. He explains the ways that television gives information to

children and the way the school system teaches children. Due to the two different techniques of

education forms Postman concludes that gathering an education from the television and

schooling system are not the same thing. He makes it clear to the audience that entertainment has

a way of presenting itself as education. He talks about how society is often deceived by
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television as a way of being solely educational. Postman explains that television will give out

information that has been shaped solely to entertain its audience.