43 pages • 1 hour read
The Honey Bus
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Symbols & Motifs
Honey Bees
Throughout The Honey Bus, Meredith sees her grandfather’s honey bees as a symbol of the family she wishes that she had. Meredith identifies traits such as sacrifice and cooperation in the honey beehives and imagines the hive as a family united by these ideals. In Chapter 7, when Meredith and Grandpa accidentally expose a hive to rain during an inspection, the bees organize themselves “as precisely as a battalion, all facing the same direction with their heads north and their wings interlocked, forming a tarp over their precious eggs” (152). Meredith explicitly identifies this as a “sacrifice” and an act of “unconditional love” (153), despite the fact that these bees, as nurse bees, are not the biological parents of the eggs they protect. They represent the love that she wish that she had from her mother but ultimately receives from her grandparents, as well as the love that she gives to her brother. The loving nature of the bees’ sacrifices makes them a symbol of The Importance of Family Support for Meredith.
Later, Meredith learns how hives find new spaces to live: After visiting potential sites, bees “make their decision and return to the hive to dance with the scout whose home they prefer” (274). When “a consensus is reached” (275), the hive moves. Meredith identifies this process as “democratic” cooperation and admires the bees for removing their families from “unsafe” spaces. Because Meredith is living in an unsafe space, she takes the bees as a welcome symbol of how families should behave.
Plants and Animals of the California Coast
Throughout the memoir, descriptions of plant and animal life along the California coast appear as a motif related to the theme of The Interconnectedness of Plant, Animal, and Human Lives. Meredith is shocked by the biodiversity of Big Sur when she first arrives from Rhode Island, and the memoir’s descriptions of the area highlight the wide variety of species native to the California coast. At the entrance to Grandpa’s bee yards, “a eucalyptus grove gave way to a cathedral of redwood trees” (95), and the path to the hives was covered by “ivy-choked coyote brush and manzanita branches” (95). She describes Big Sur as “an all-you-can-eat buffet for bees, offering them a year-round menu of sage, eucalyptus and horsemint” (91). These repeated references to Californian species highlight the biodiversity of the region. They also point to the memoir’s thematic interest the interconnectedness of life on Earth: the bees benefit from biodiversity while contributing to the propagation of species.
The memoir’s epilogue also features animal life native to the California coast. As Meredith releases Grandpa’s ashes, she notices “the smell of wild Mexican sage blowing in the wind, and the cries of a baby sea otter that was bobbing in the waves and calling for its mother each time she dove in search of food” (313). Later, Meredith and Matthew wait for the sea otter mother to return before leaving. The explicit connection between humans and animals in this passage points to the interconnectedness of life.
The Beatles
Music by The Beatles symbolizes nostalgia for better times in The Honey Bus. They are first mentioned in Chapter 1 when Meredith recalls her father listening to them alone in their house amid her mother’s mental health crises. It is 1975 at the beginning of the novel, and by this point, The Beatles had officially broken up (they informally split in 1970 and announced it formally in 1974). As a hugely successful band who then experienced major internal animosity, they reflect the rise and fall of Meredith’s parents’ relationship. Meredith’s father listening to them suggests that he yearns for better times when there was unity between him and his wife. The fact that he turns up the music to drown out Sally’s shouting represents his denial of the present and desire to return to the past.
Later, Meredith cries when listening to a Beatles song in class. While the music literally reminds her of her father, her emotional reaction also suggests her nostalgia and her desire for harmony once again in her family.
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