The Music of Bees

Another of the three protagonists is Jacob (“Jake”) Stevenson. He’s 18 years old and was recently paralyzed from the waist down following an accident at a party. He’s having difficulty adjusting to his disability. Many unspoken questions arise for him and his mother: “What kind of life could he have? Could he take care of himself? Could he get a job? Go to college someday?” (147). He spends some months overcome by depression. However, Jake’s recovery, once it starts, goes quite smoothly. As he learns about the bees, they fill him with a sense of beauty, capturing his heart, and he feels joy again. He loves to hear the sounds of the bees. To him, their “golden anthem, the song” carries great significance (145). The “musical droning” says to him, “We are here and all is well. […] We are home” (145). His words about the bees also apply to Jake. All is well with him when he’s caring for, observing, and listening to the bees, and he also has a sense of being at home on Alice’s farm in a way that he’d never had in his family home. Even a simple thing like learning to cook gives him a sense of empowerment.

In addition, Jake is thrilled to have found a vocation that is feasible with his newfound need for a wheelchair. Sometimes, when for some reason he’s reminded of his disability, “[a] knot [arises] in his throat, and a weight settle[s] on his heart,” but when he thinks of the apiary and the beauty he observes in it, “the weight shift[s], and a spark of joy bloom[s] in the heart. This new thing, this wonder” (153). He happens to be very good at beekeeping, and his ability to discern the G-sharp note of the queen bee is something most beekeepers cannot do.

The third main protagonist in the novel is Harry Stokes. He shows significant development during the course of the novel. Harry, whose father left his family when he was little, is 24 years old and feels like he hasn’t done well in his life so far. The biggest strike against him is that he’s a convicted felon, having served two years in prison for taking part in a robbery attempt. He thinks he always leaves a poor impression on people and that they think he isn’t very bright—a “dumbass” (76), in fact. Harry has social anxiety and “never [knows] what to say to people” (159). He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life, and he moves from Long Island, New York, out west, eventually staying with his uncle in BZ Corner. He lacks a plan for his life.

At his uncle’s place, he decides to make a fresh start: He updates his résumé and seeks work. He does have some work skills, including carpentry, and he’s a good handyman, which serves him well when he works for Alice. She tries to help him by telling him to “stop apologizing every time he open[s] his mouth” (225). Before long, Harry realizes that Alice respects his skill and also cares for him, and he can’t remember the last time that anyone was so concerned about his well-being.

Additionally, Harry makes friends with Jake and Yogi, the kiteboarding expert, and he’s thrilled when Yogi praises his aptitude for kiteboarding and his growing skill. Kiteboarding gives Harry new confidence in himself, and when he talks enthusiastically about the sport at the dinner table, Alice notices that “his customary reticence and stammering ha[ve] disappeared” (254). At the end of the novel, Harry is teaching kiteboarding in Texas but looks forward to returning to Alice’s farm in Oregon. Everything there “call[s] him home” (320). Harry develops over the course of the novel from a self-conscious person hesitant to interact with the world into a person confident of his own abilities and the love of his found family.

Alice’s brother-in-law, Ron Ryan, is six years older than Alice and is the sheriff of Hood River County. He’s married to Evangelina. He’s estranged from Alice, blaming her for the death of her husband, his brother. Near the end of the novel, however, he and Alice reconcile, and he apologizes for the unkind things he said to her at the time.

Ron’s wife, Evangelina Ryan, is originally from Mexico and owns a Mexican restaurant. Rich Carlson falsely asserts that she employs people who don’t have work permits.

Ron and Evangelina’s son, Ronnie Ryan is short and dark-skinned. He has just started as a sheriff’s deputy. He lacks confidence and makes some blunders, including accidentally firing his gun when he’s at Harry’s trailer. He helps Harry out of a tight situation after Harry commandeers the SupraGro pesticide spray truck.

Jake meets Amri, short for Amrita, at the beach. She has short black hair and green eyes. Jake is drawn to her, and they embark on a romantic relationship. Jake teaches her about the bees, and she’s a willing learner.

A flat, one-dimensional character, Bill Chenowith is the director of the Hood County Planning Department. He does little work at the office, coming in late and leaving early, and denies the hardworking Alice a raise, claiming that the budget is frozen. Bill retires and plans to work as an outside consultant for SupraGro, but the novel later reveals that he has been skimming money off the county for many years, and he’s sentenced to a long prison term.

Hood County’s human resources and finance manager, Rich Carlson is an unpleasant, one-dimensional character; almost every mention of him is negative in one way or another. Alice dislikes him, commenting on his “pointy face and mean smile” (177). Once, Rich tried to kiss her under the mistletoe at the office Christmas party, and whenever she’s around him, she remembers “his aftershave that smelled like car freshener” (102). Rich always wears a suit and tie, even at picnics, and he bombards his subordinates with constant emails. He hints to Alice that her pension may be revoked if she’s caught talking to the media about SupraGro, and he tries to get back at her after her resignation by targeting her sister-in law, Evangelina.

A colleague of Alice’s, Nancy Gates, like Alice, is an assistant to the director of the county’s planning department. However, Nancy and Alice, even though they’ve known each other since high school (where Nancy was a cheerleader), don’t get along. Alice calls her “Nosy Nancy.” Nancy is more interested in spreading office gossip than in contributing to the smooth running of the department, and she dumps much of her work on Alice. When Bill Chenowith retires, Alice (whom most assumed would succeed him) is passed over in favor of Nancy, revealing ugly internal politics within the department. Like Bill and Rich Carlson, she’s a one-dimensional figure; her characterization lacks subtlety.

The office manager in the county’s planning department, Debi Jeffreys isn’t very easy to get along with, and Alice regards her as passive aggressive. However, Debi is important to the plot development because she discovers, by reviewing the county’s financial records, that Bill Chenowith was embezzling money for years.

A staunch environmentalist, Stan Hinatsu is the executive director of the Hood River Watershed Alliance. He’s Japanese American and is about the same age as Alice. Stan is well informed about the latest research, and he tells the local beekeepers that he’s certain SupraGro pesticides are devastating bee populations. Stan and Alice work together to alert local orchardists to the danger of SupraGro’s products, and he’s one of the driving forces behind the protest march. Like many others in the novel, Stan is a one-dimensional, flat character.

A third-generation orchardist in Hood River, Fred Paris is a one-dimensional character who is one of the villains in the SupraGro episode. Alice thinks he’s arrogant, and her father never liked him. Paris despises the environmental movement and intends to use SupraGro in his orchard. He claims that scientific evidence shows that use of such products increases the yield by as much as 60%. Later, he leads a group of vigilantes armed with guns and baseball bats who attack the peaceful protesters as they block the road.

Jake’s mother, Tansy Stevenson, is trapped in a bad marriage but makes the best of it, aided by her Christian faith. She’s very protective of Jake, but she’s also ready to allow him to live an independent life at Alice’s. She sends him a document from the state of Oregon, in which she and her husband, Ed, remove themselves as his guardians. He’s now an adult and can receive disability checks directly. Tansy’s efficiency makes Jake think he has underestimated her, and he realizes that “[t]he flowery dresses, carefully curled hair, and polite Christian demeanor concealed a woman of action” (149).

Jake’s father and Tansy’s husband, Ed Stevenson is an angry, abusive man who insults and belittles his son. Calling him lazy, he says that when Jake turns 18, he’ll have to get out of the family house. When Jake grew a mohawk, his father stopped speaking to him. Ed appears not to have a single redeeming feature. He’s a stereotypical, one-dimensional figure. He was disappointed after he lost his job as a supervisor at a surveyors’ company, and since then, he has been taking out his anger on everyone else, including his wife and son. He’s useful for the plot because his presence in Jake’s life creates a very difficult home background, which makes his need to escape to Alice’s more urgent. However, Ed seems at times more of a caricature than a realistic character.

A loyal friend of Jake’s from high school, Noah Katz has been his friend since fifth grade. Like Jake, Noah, who has “big hair and a toothy smile” (117), played in the jazz band. His instrument is the trombone. Noah and his girlfriend, Celia (whom everyone calls Cece), help Jake out at Alice’s farm, rearranging the furniture.

Celia takes an interest in the bees. In addition, she teaches Jake how to cook. As the oldest girl in a large family, she’s an expert.

Alice’s psychotherapist, Dr. Zimmerman, has degrees from Harvard and Stanford and moved to Hood River for her semi-retirement. She encourages Alice to alter the pattern of thinking that underlies her anxiety. She thinks that with practice, the brain can be rewired. Since she and Alice eventually agree that she no longer needs treatment, it seems that she’s correct.