Unfortunately, most domestic violence cases are never reported, which is a big issue. As documented in the novel The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, 14-year-old Lily is haunted by the memory of her dead mother. To escape her lonely life and problematic relationship with her dad T-Ray, she runs away from home with her slave caregiver to a South Carolina town which holds a secret of her mothers past. The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd portrays the theme that domestic violence is a social issue that causes trauma for the victims and the witnesses of it.
The social issue of domestic violence is demonstrated when T-Ray pours grits on the floor. He abuses her physically and scares her by screaming, “COME AND KNEEL DOWN,”(Kidd 24), while pouring grits on the floor. Then Lily expressed how it felt as, “…pain cut deep into my skin.” (Kidd, 24). This illustrates how T-Ray punishes Lily for something she didn’t even do. For example here when T-Ray thought that she was meeting a boy. T-Ray also abuses Lily verbally in this scene by calling her horrible names. When Lily walks in her room T-Ray notices that her upper chest is slightly showing and T-Ray yells, “‘You act no better than a sl*t!” (Kidd 24). This illustrates how T-Ray screams at Lily aggressively. T-Ray is verbally abusing Lily for dressing with some chest showing, and putting bad thoughts about herself in her head. T-Ray’s domestic violence is  traumatizing Lily, and parents should be more supportive about their kids choices and not control them so much.                        
An additional way the social issue of domestic violence is represented in the novel, is the way Lily witnesses her own mother getting harshly mistreated by T-Ray. T-Ray physically abuses his wife (Lily’s mother) physically, along with mentally abusing Lily by doing it right in front of her. In this scene, Lily watched as T-Ray, “took her and slammed her against the wall as he shook her whole body aggressively,” (Kidd, 7). This caused Lily to feel fearful and angry, and it showed how Lily was greatly affected by just by being a witness of the abuse. This is significant because Lily can’t escape these negative feelings even if she isn’t the victim of the abuse. Another way Lily is abused by witnessing the domestic violence is when T-Ray got in a fatal argument with Lily’s mom. Lily was peeking out of a closet door and described how, “..the fury of their words made the air turn raw and full of welts.”(Kidd, 7). It created the image that Lily was becoming very fearful and the whole mood changed just because of the way T-Ray treated Lily’s mom. The way T-Ray was acting was abusing Lily’s emotions. These events summarize how domestic violence is abusing even the witnesses.
No matter if they’re the witness or the victim, domestic violence will negatively affect someone. Throughout the book, the main character Lily experienced abuse from domestic violence in the perspective of a victim and a witness. The message portrayed by the author is that someone has to break free from something that’s restraining them to live the best life possible. Domestic violence is a huge issue in todays society and it affects many who survive through it.
 
Works Cited
Kidd, S. M. (2021). The secret life of bees. Alternative Format Producer School Board Printshop (VSB). 
Facts about domestic violence. New Hope, Inc. (2019, June 20). Retrieved December 13, 2022, from new-hope.org/facts-about-domestic-violence/ 
Kidd, S. M. (2021). The secret life of bees. Alternative Format Producer School Board Printshop (VSB).