The internal conflict is Lily having to forgive herself for accidentally murdering her mother, and forgiving her mother for leaving her there with her father. Lily doesn't know how to do this, or isn't ready, until she tells August who she really is and finally begins the healing process. Through most of the book, Lily is holding on to an ideal that her mother loved her more than anything, that she would never have left her, that she didn't shoot her mother, that she and Rosaleen would never have to be found in Tiburon and return to their old lives, and that deep down her father still loves her. Lily struggles to hold on to this dream for the whole summer, and when she lets go, she realizes that she is happier without it.
"[Rosaleen] said I was living in a dream world. 'Dream world' became her favorite two words. It was living in a dream world to pretend we had a regular life when there was a manhunt going on, to think we could stay here forever, to believe I would find out anything worth knowing about my mother. Every time I shot back, What's wrong with living in a dream world? And she'd say, You have to wake up." The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd page 121.
The external conflicts were racism: Rosaleen being beaten and arrested, Zach being arrested and not being aloud to pursue his dream as a lawyer, and Zach and Lily not being aloud to be together. This also minutely causes a problem between Lily and June, since August had worked as a house-maid for Lily's mother which upset June greatly, which caused tension between her and Lily. The trauma of Lily's mother leaving caused problems between Lily and her father that often became abusive.
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