52 pages • 1-hour read
Honey
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of parent death and childhood grief.
“You Are My Sunshine”
The song “You Are My Sunshine” is a motif in the novel, reflecting when a character is feeling or expressing love. “You Are My Sunshine” first comes up in Chapter 1, when Melody considers her father’s recent odd behavior: “He’d been whistling ‘You Are My Sunshine’ pretty much nonstop for weeks” (7). Melody later figures out he’s hiding a significant other, the titular “honey,” thus creating the link between the song and feelings of love.
The song comes up again in Chapter 9 when Melody catches Miss Hogan whistling the tune to “You Are My Sunshine” as she enters the Bee Hive. Miss Hogan later reveals that she’s getting married soon. Although this moment sets up Miss Hogan as the red herring in the novel’s main mystery, Miss Hogan’s excitement for her upcoming wedding is real, creating another link between the song and feelings of love.
This song is also significant to Mo, the dog. In Chapter 6, Mo recalls going home with his new family, “and the large woman was singing, ‘You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…’ in a high clear voice as they sped down the road toward a new chapter in Mo’s life” (41). The large woman, also known as Melody’s mother, expresses her love for her new puppy by singing this song to him. The song’s symbolism is given more weight in Chapter 20 when Melody asks her father about it. He explains, “It was one of your mother’s favorites […] She always sang it when she was happy” (128). The song returns in the final chapter when Mo reunites with his original family and goes home with them, and “the little girl sang, ‘You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…’ in a high clear voice as they headed down the road together toward home” (148). The song thus symbolizes love and interpersonal connection.
Bee-Bee’s Candy Bowl
Bee-Bee’s candy bowl symbolizes Melody’s mindset about her late mother and her father’s new partner. When she opens the Bee-Hive in Chapter 5, Bee-Bee’s candy bowl is a repurposed bowl for sprinkles from the building’s past life as the Frosty Boy ice cream parlor. Similar to how Melody feels about her late mother, the bowl is simply a relic of a time passed.
As Melody seeks answers to who her father is seeing and who her mother was, the novel creeps closer to the smashing of this candy bowl. Just before the bowl smashes in Chapter 11, Melody learns that Miss Hogan is getting secretly married and presumes that she’s the person her father is seeing. This creates feelings of hopelessness and turmoil within Melody—feelings that are exacerbated when Melody learns more about who her mother was. While the old bowl is in pieces, Melody confronts her grief about her own mother and Miss Hogan.
In Chapter 20, after Melody has worked through some of her grief about her mother with the help of Mrs. McKenna, she learns that her father is not seeing Miss Hogan, he’s seeing Mrs. McKenna. This joyous revelation is swiftly followed by Melody’s locating a replacement bowl in the garage—a new bowl that will be just as good as the one that shattered. This represents how Melody feels about Mrs. McKenna. Although Melody will never have her mother back, just like she can never fix the old bowl, she’s found a new person that can fill that role and help her in ways a mother might in Mrs. McKenna, just like she’s found a new bowl to replace the one that broke.
Mo’s Heart Pendant
Mo the dog’s heart pendant is a significant item to Mo throughout the novel, and he spends many chapters thinking about it and wondering where his family went. Mo’s pendant symbolizes belonging, reflecting The Problem of Family Secrets.
In Chapter 6, Mo recalls his earliest memories, going home with a new family, the thin man and the large woman, and how happy those days were. At his new home, “Mo finally knew what it felt like to be loved” (41). Mo remembers how “One day the large woman surprised Mo with a gift, a heart-shaped silver pendant with his name engraved on it” (41-42), and he “loved the way the pendant jingle-jangled when he moved and the way it made him feel like he belonged” (42). However, not long after Mo received his pendant, the large woman—Melody’s mother—died, and Mo’s life changed again. The thin man—Melody’s father—reclaimed the pendant before sending Mo away with a family friend.
Mo begins to catch glimpses of the pendant in his dreams about the yellow-haired girl, as the girl holds something shiny in her hand. When Mo is reunited with his pendant and his first family at the end of the novel, “Mo heard the jingle-jangle and knew where he was meant to be” (146). Mo’s sense of belonging returns as he’s finally back with his first family and has his pendant around his neck again.
The novel also develops the pendant as a symbol for The Problem of Family Secrets by having the pendant itself represent a secret. Melody’s father keeps the pendant hidden in the attic with the rest of the memorabilia of Melody’s mother. However, when he promises Melody, “No more secrets (129), he retrieves the pendant and tells Melody about Mo.
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