How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I had asked God repeatedly to do something about T. Ray. He'd gone to church for forty years and was only getting worse (1.11).
Early on, Lily indicates that she has been communicating with God. As far as T. Ray is concerned, however, it doesn't appear that she's gotten an answer. In contrast to the alternative forms of spirituality that Kidd showcases later, here it appears that T. Ray and Lily are more traditional churchgoers when the novel opens.
Quote #2
What I needed was a sign. I needed a voice speaking to me like I'd heard yesterday in my room saying, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open.
I'll take nine steps and look up. Whatever my eyes light on, that's my sign. When I looked up, I saw a crop duster plunging his little plane over a field of growing things, behind him a cloud of pesticides parachuting out. I couldn't decide what part of this scene I represented: the plants about to be rescued from the bugs or the bugs about to be murdered by the spray. There was an off chance I was really the airplane zipping over the earth creating rescue and doom everywhere I went (3.25).
Even before she meets the Daughters of Mary, Lily seems to be at least somewhat spiritual. As she mentions, she left home after feeling that a voice from beyond had spoken to her, telling her to get out of dodge, and here she's on the hunt for another "sign" for what to do. Despite the regular church attendance, she doesn't seem particularly religious, in the traditional sense, so it's no wonder she feels right at home with August's alternative Christianity-infused spirituality later in the novel.
Quote #3
My breath came faster, and something coiled around my chest and squeezed tighter and tighter, until suddenly, like somebody had snapped off the panic switch, I felt myself go limp. My mind became unnaturally calm, as if part of me had lifted right up out of my body and was sitting on a tree limb watching the spectacle from a safe distance. The other part of me danced with the bees. I wasn't moving a lick, but in my mind I was spinning through the air with them. I had joined the bee conga line (8.110).
It's kind of like Lily trances out here and connects with something within herself. Given that August later emphasizes looking within yourself for spiritual guidance and strength, rather than to gods, this might be an early example of what that "going inside" looks like.
Quote #4
'When a bee flies, a soul will rise,' he said (10.138).
You may have noticed that the novel frequently associates flight/the act of rising with references to rebirth and resurrection. In repeating this saying, Zach clarifies this connection. This moment connects spirituality with the central symbol of bees, suggesting that maybe there's a link between the two . . .
Quote #5
That night, in my bed, when I closed my eyes, bee hum ran through my body. Ran through the whole earth. It was the oldest sound there was. Souls flying away (10.195).
Lily has this thought the night after May is buried. Again, the bees are associated with spirituality, with Lily comparing the sound of souls flying away to bee hum.
Quote #6
'Today we're celebrating the Assumption of Mary,' August said. 'We're celebrating how she woke from her sleep and rose into heaven. And we're here to remember the story of Our Lady of Chains, to remind ourselves that those chains could never keep her down. Our Lady broke free of them every time' (13.82).
August is explaining the origins of Mary Day, their ritual for celebrating Mary's rise to heaven. In addition to being important to them in the religious sense, Mary's ability to "rise" is symbolic of Our Lady of Chains' ability to escape the chains/confinement forced upon her by the slave master. So, here spirituality is associated with the novel's flight motif and its focus on the issues of prejudice and slavery.
Quote #7
The Daughters stayed with their arms reaching into the air, giving off the feeling they were rising with Mary. Then August picked up a jar of Black Madonna Honey from behind June's chair, and what she did with it brought everybody back to earth. She opened the lid and tuned it upside down over Our Lady's head (13.87).
Once again, the image of Mary/Our Lady is associated with the act of rising. In fact, the Daughters' worship of Mary makes them, too, feel like they can rise—which is the effect worshiping Our Lady of Chains had on the slaves, according to August's story. This brand of spiritualism and ritual seems to strengthen the Daughters.
Quote #8
I feel her in unexpected moments, her Assumption into heaven happening in places inside me. She will suddenly rise, and when she does, she does not go up, up into the sky, but further and further inside me. August says she goes into the holes life has gouged out of us (14.226)
Through her own worship of Our Lady of Chains, Lily, too, begins to feel like she is empowered to "rise," metaphorically speaking, having started to heal from the "holes" that life has made in her.
Quote #9
'You don't have to put your hand on Mary's heart to get strength and consolation and rescue, and all the other things we need to get through life,' she said. 'You can place it right here on your own heart. Your own heart' (14.101).
These are August's words to Lily toward the end of the novel. As we mentioned elsewhere, despite all her reverence for Our Lady, August drives home here that, in her view, Our Lady is just a symbol of strength that comes from within.
Quote #10
'And whatever it is that keeps widening your heart, that's Mary, too, not only the power inside you but the love. And when you get down to it, Lily, that's the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love—but to persist in love.'
She paused. Bees drummed their sound into the air. August removed her hands from the pile on my chest, but I left mine there.
'This Mary I'm talking about sits in your heart all day long, saying, 'Lily, you are my everlasting home. Don't you ever be afraid. I am enough. We are enough' (14.105-107).
August now goes even further with her thoughts about Our Lady, asserting that this "thing" inside Lily that OL represents is not just about power, but also love. So, it seems that, for August, spirituality, love, and power are all threads in the same fabric. Also, didya notice that there are bees buzzing around the ladies as they talk? Maybe that's a hint that nature is included in this fabric as well . . .