Hour of the Bees

Carol’s half-sister, Alta, is Patricia’s daughter; she has a different father than Carol (whose father is Raúl). For much of the novel, Alta is characterized as self-centered, such as when she leaves the overwhelmed Carol to watch both Serge and Lu so that she can secretly spend the day with her boyfriend. Alta conforms to the character trope of the selfish and moody teen. Alta’s self-serving behavior is contextualized at the end of the novel when she admits to Carol that she found the summer emotionally challenging because she felt excluded from the platonic family group of Patricia, Raúl, Carol, and Lu; she was uncomfortably aware of their being at Carol’s grandfather’s home, not her own grandfather’s home, and therefore felt on the periphery of the family dynamic, causing her to be moody and withdrawn: “I was miserable out here at the ranch, okay? Stuck here for a whole summer, with Mom on my case about every little thing. Plus you and Raúl and Mom and Lu—you’re, like, the perfect little family” (309).

When Alta clarified that Carol was her half-sister, not her full sister, it upset Carol. Carol tells Alta this, and Alta vows to change her behavior, hugging Carol lovingly, reassuring her of their loving connection regardless of the specifics of their relationship: “I’m sorry if it hurt you. But Carol, you’re my sister—half or step—or whatever you want to call it” (309).

Serge seems to recognize Alta’s feeling of exclusion; he carves her a bracelet that matches Carol’s: “Caro-leeen-a has one. Now you’ll have one, too” (314). He reassures Alta that “surely you know…you’re our granddaughter…whether our blood courses through your veins or not” (314-15). The text implies that Alta will behave more lovingly to her family in the future, having expressed her insecurity and received reassurance of her place.

Carol’s father and the only son of Serge (Sergio) and Rosa, Raúl is under immense emotional stress during the story’s events. He returns to his childhood home, the ranch, which he hated as a boy, and must navigate his emotionally fraught relationship with his aging father, Serge, who has dementia. As a teen, Serge insisted that Raúl stay on the ranch, which pushed the restless and frustrated Raúl away from Serge and the ranch in rebellion: “He hated this place, his dry, boring home. He hated his father” (260). Raúl left home at 17: “‘No! You can’t keep me here!’ Raúl’s own yell tasted like rotten bell peppers and bleach,” and doesn’t return until the summer in which the story is set in (262).

Raúl has an explosive temper, which his father particularly brings out. Even when they’re not arguing, Carol feels the tension between them, metaphorically comparing them to circling cats: “They’re like neighboring cats who are both fiercely territorial, but must live with each other somehow. They circle, they growl in their throats, but the claws stay retracted” (126).

Raúl’s hatred of the ranch and the pressure he’s under to prepare it for sale lead him to act harshly, such as when he burns down the barn, devastating Serge and causing Carol to admonish him: “You really hurt him, Dad” (204). On Serge’s deathbed, Raúl apologizes to his father; Carol learns that the source of tension between them was that Raúl thought Serge kept his wife, Rosa, on the ranch rather than allowing her to get medical care for the cancer, but Serge explains that Rosa insisted on staying and dying on the ranch. This revelation allows Raúl to make peace with Serge, and they repair their relationship just before Serge dies.

Raúl decides that they should keep the ranch in the family; he comes to appreciate what Serge has been trying to tell him for years: that the ranch is the family’s heritage. Raúl’s newfound respect for the property is evident in his reluctant destruction of the ranch house, which contrasts his earlier, indifferent setting fire to the barn: “Reluctantly, like he was giving orders to take a loved one off life support, the dad had demolished it, but he was going to build a new house” (327). Raúl’s mood is significantly lighter at the novel’s close, as he plays with his children: “‘Carol!’ The dad set the baby, Luis, down on his chubby legs and swung onto a low-hanging branch. ‘Beat you to the top!’” (326).

Carol’s grandfather, Serge, is revealed to be the same person as the boy Sergio in the story Serge tells to Carol. Serge is cautious as a boy and as a man: He believes that the villagers, especially Rosa, should remain safely in the enchanted village around the tree, which protects them from injury or death. Serge isn’t interested in traveling the world, like Rosa is, believing that they have everything they could possibly need in the village. His appeal to Rosa characterizes his adoration of the village’s simple pleasures: “‘What about everything else we have here?’ Sergio tried to say to Rosa now. ‘What about the lake? And the stars? This tree gives the perfect shade, and the flowers make the village smell so nice, and the bees’” (92-93). Serge, terrified that Rosa will get hurt while traveling, carves her a bracelet from the enchanted tree, which protects her.

Ironically, Serge’s act leads to the destruction of the tree and the land he holds dear. The tree is destroyed when the other villagers learn that creating amulets or other items from it protects them outside the village; Serge, a talented woodworker, is reluctantly commissioned to fashion items for the villagers using lumber from the enchanted tree. Raúl stays at the ranch every time Rosa travels, even when the area becomes arid and deserted.

Serge becomes even more fearful when the magic of the tree leaves the villagers, meaning that they can die as regular people do. In wanting to protect his only son, Raúl, by keeping him on the ranch, Serge instead smothers Raúl and causes him to leave angrily. Serge is heartbroken when Rosa dies of cancer. In a reversal of their usual roles, Serge begs Rosa to leave the ranch to seek medical care, but Rosa insists on staying.

As an old man, Serge is cantankerous and difficult, particularly with Raúl, upset by Raúl’s decision to sell the ranch. Serge has dementia, which leads him to act irrationally or become disoriented, as when he mistakes Carol, his granddaughter, for Rosa, his deceased wife: “‘A bee, Rosa!’ he says. ‘Not Rosa,’ I say quickly. ‘I’m Carol. Remember?’” (38). Serge, who has spent his life terrified of death coming to himself or his family, finally welcomes death when Carol takes him back to see the rejuvenated ranch after the drought breaks. He realizes the logic in Rosa’s preference for living fully and dying, advising Carol: “Do not be afraid to live…and you will not be afraid to die” (316).