<p>Any constructive comment would be much appreciated. Thank you very much for your time in advance! 
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<p>PROMPT: Do we need others to understand ourselves?</p>
<p>Besides wealth, power, success, and many other ideals, one thing that human kind thrives to attain is self-acknowledgement, or, in other words, the understanding of oneself. The journey to self-acknowledgement, however, is very unlikely to head in the right direction if one is to travel alone. To reach the desired destination, which is the most inner part of the soul, invisible even to oneself, one would need the help of others as well.</p>
<p>In the acclaimed novel by Sue Monk Kidd, “The Secret Life of Bees”, Kidd’s young protagonist – Lily Owens, found herself set out on a journey that, although was initiated by the desire to be closer to her deceased mother, would eventually lead her back to her own self, and free her from the guilt and sorrow that had been haunting ever since her mother’s death. However, she couldn’t have accomplished so without the help of several other characters. The detainment of Rosaleen, Lily’s black housekeeper, for standing up against racist white men who were abusing her, helped fuel Lily’s desire to escape from her tyrannical father, as busting Rosaleen out of jail became Lily’s excuse to run away from town and embark on a journey to retrace the past of her beloved mother Deborah. The fortunate encounter with August Boatwright, who used to be the caretaker of her mother as an adolescent, helped Lily learn more about her mother, whose maternal love she was denied and had always wanted. However, she also discovered two painful truths: that Deborah had abandoned her before her death, and that Lily herself was responsible for that very tragedy. These newly found truth along with her father treating her as no more than an indebted burden, Lily became much deterred and developed the idea that she was “unloveable”. Over the course of the novel, however, several people came along and helped save her from such a dark misconception. August and the Boatwright sisters not only provided Lily, who belonged to the race that had treated theirs as inferior beings, with a shelter, but also gifted her with a second family, with whom she could laugh while eating dinner, who made her sandwiches for lunch, who sang and danced with her in the water splash, and who, above all, told her she was loved. If it were not for Rosaleen, August, and the Boatwrights, Lily Owens would have probably never been able to overcome her guilt, but instead would have lived her entire life not knowing how to accept her flawed mother and father, and, above all, how to forgive herself and understand her own beauty.</p>
<p>As people interact with one another, brush each other both on the surface and the inside, they understand one another more and simultaneously understand their own inner selves. In other words, the understanding of others is essential and correspond to the understanding of oneself. While one is unable to see one’s flaws and virtues, others around him probably can. Therefore, an exchange of understanding with others would enable one access to such a view as well.</p>