Monday, June 1, 2015

In The Secret Life of Bees, page 73, why does May begin to sing, "Oh Susanna" ?Chapter 5

At this point in the story, the significance of May's
immediate outburst into song is somewhat unknown, but certainly brings up alarm and the
question of what this might be foreshadowing.


What is known
in this scene is that May is giving a brief explanation of the "Calendar names" of the
sisters.  She mentions, "We had an April, too, but..."  From this quote it can be
assumed that April is now dead.


What will later be revealed
is that April was May's twin sister, who committed suicide.  May is a particularly
sensitive character, who sings whenever she is faced with something particularly
emotional or difficult.  In chapter 5, Lily gives credit to Rosaleen for figuring this
out:



She said
if you kept things on a happy note, May did fine, but bring up an unpleasant
subject...It seemed to be her personal way of warding off
crying.


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