A Pretty Perfect Open-ended response (in case you're not reading the responses on the blog to compare)

The gun goes off with a bang, and it vibrates throughout the walls in the house, through her frail bones, shaking even her insides. Lily’s mother was dead. The quote is extremely relevant to the first chapter because of its connections to Lily. A beehive is like it’s own little utopia; simply a small world living within a much larger one. The queen plays a similar role to a mother in the hive, just like we might say “Mother Nature” is Earth’s queen (or of course, mother!) The Queen Bee is the one who looks over all the other bees in the hive, like a mother looks over her children. A loving, caring mother is important to all developing living things and their well being. “She would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years.” Those were Lily’s thoughts on what she’d e doing with her mother if they were reunited together in Heaven. She’s noticed the “queenlessness.” She’s noticed the lack of warm arms to run into.

Lily’s small frame bashed into the wall of the hallway, and she fell, first onto bruised knees, and next onto shaky wrists, like a house of cards falling to pieces. Pictures on the walls seemed to stare, accusing, accusing. When her mother was gone, she was left in the “care” of an abusive father. “My daddy—who I called T. Ray because ‘Daddy’ never fit him…” One of the biggest challenges for Lily that came along with the absence of her mother was dealing with her poor excuse for a father. She had Rosaleen, of course, but how could she truly fill the empty hole in Lily’s life? An abused child, or a child that grows up without genuinely knowing the idea of love, will undoubtedly have severe problems later on in life. Mental problems and disorders, lack of trust, constant emotional pain, and the list goes on. Will Lily really be able to pull through without her mother by her side? Will Rosaleen’s fill-in be enough in the end?