The Music of Bees

Music is a recurring motif in Jake’s life. He’d always had a gift for it. Before his accident, he played trumpet in the high school band, performed a solo at the state jazz band competition, and hoped to attend music school in Seattle. However, the accident changed everything: His mood dropped, and he no longer wants to play his instrument. Music returns to his life in a most unexpected way when he hears the music of bees, a phrase that gives the novel its title.

As he listens to the sound of the buzzing mass of bees, “[h]e [can] feel the resonance in his chest, like when he had played the trumpet” (111). The sound travels up to his heart as a “vibration of happiness and contentment. It ma[kes] him want to sing” (111). Later, he describes the hum of the bees as a “musical droning” (145), which calms him. In addition, he’s able to determine that the sound emanating from the queen bee is a G-sharp. Listening to the music of the bees helps lift Jake’s spirits, and toward the end of the novel, he’s happily playing his trumpet again. He jokes with Harry that he plans to start a marching band.