Little Bee: Chapter Five Summary & Analysis

Little Bee wakes on Sarah’s sofa, though it takes her a moment to remember where she is. As she looks around the lavish house, she thinks it would be impossible to describe to “the girls back home.” Little Bee decides that this story is not for such girls, but for “sophisticated people.” Sarah offers her some tea. The flavor reminds Little Bee of the cargo ship she stowed away on. When she revealed herself to the captain, he locked her away from the crew and gave her the book Great Expectations to read for the three-week voyage. When she arrived in the detention center an officer gave her a cup of tea as well, but the taste only made her want to get back in the ship and sail home.

Sarah asks Little Bee to tell her what happened after the hunters took them away. Little Bee’s eyes wander around the kitchen and settle on the icemaker. Its ability to turn liquids into solids entrances Little Bee. She thinks that if this is possible, then perhaps the things in her life that are always flowing away might become solid as well. Sarah asks Little Bee again and insists that she must know what happened.

Little Bee is inwardly angry, since she does not want to relive the experience, but she decides that if Sarah is going to press, she “would not spare her.” She picks up her story: the hunters march her and Kindness down the beach until they reach an overturned boat in the sand. The men shove Little Bee under the boat and tell her to listen; she can leave once they’re finished. Little Bee listens as the hunters rape Nkiruka for hours. Through a crack in the boat’s hull, Little Bee can see the killer standing by the waterline, far from his men and the assault, gazing out over the ocean “as if he was carrying a weight.” In the kitchen, both Little Bee and Sarah shake so hard the table rattles.

Little Bee does not want to hurt Sarah, but now that she’s started the story, she must finish it. She continues: Nkiruka begs the hunters to kill her. The hunters laugh and Little Bee hears them break Nkiruka’s bones “one by one.” The hunters and their dogs eat whatever they can of Nkiruka’s body and throw the rest into the sea. In the afternoon the sun grows hot, so the hunters go to the shade of the jungle to sleep. The killer, however, marches straight into the sea and swims until his head sinks beneath the surface.

Now that she is alone, Little Bee runs back down the beach, toward the place where she met Andrew and Sarah. She finds the guard’s body and Andrew’s wallet lying in the sand. Little Bee takes his business card and driver’s license from it, then hides herself in the jungle. In the evening, a truck full of soldiers come to retrieve the guard’s body, but Little Bee is too afraid to reveal herself. She waits until they leave and the sun goes down, then travels up the beach for two days until she reaches a port. Little Bee sees a ship with a British flag on it, so she climbs onto it and hides herself in the cargo hold.

Back in the present, Sarah rises from her side of the table and hugs Little Bee for a long time while they sit and cry together. Charlie wanders into the kitchen, still wearing his Batman costume though missing the mask and tool belt. He asks Sarah why she is crying. Sarah takes him onto her lap and says that she doesn’t feel emotions very often anymore; sometimes they take her by surprise. Little Bee senses that she should let Sarah and Charlie have this moment alone, so she steps out to the garden.

Little Bee sits in the garden until Sarah comes out to meet her, after dropping Charlie off at nursery. Now that Little Bee has told her story, neither of them know what to do. Little Bee frets about being an illegal immigrant and knows the men could take her at any moment, but Sarah doesn’t believe this. She thinks she could leverage her power as an important magazine editor to come to Little Bee’s defense; she doesn’t think that immigration will simply take Little Bee and send her away as if they’re in “Nazi Germany.” Little Bee looks around the garden for a way to kill herself, just in case.

Charlie’s nursery calls Sarah and asks her to come get him—he is acting unusually aggressive towards the other kids. Sarah hangs up and dial another number, and a cell phone rings inside the house. Sarah realizes what she’s done and starts to shudder; she called Andrew. In tears, Sarah asks Little Bee to delete his contact information from her phone, since Sarah cannot bear to do it herself. Little Bee imagines that it is a difficult thing to remove someone from a phone, but when she takes Sarah’s phone she realizes it only takes pressing two buttons. Just like everything in the modern world, it is easy to “delete” a person. Sarah tells Little Bee that without Andrew’s sensibility, she is frightened. She does not know how she will go on.

Sarah gives Little Bee a pink summer dress to wear—the nicest thing she’s ever worn—and Little Bee feels “like the Queen of England.” They go to the nursery together to take Charlie home. The shape and smell of the nursery reminds Little Bee of the therapy room in the detention center, where a therapist was disturbed by Little Bee’s trauma and told her to “move on,” as if such a thing were possible. Earlier, the nursery leader took Charlie’s Batman costume after he urinated in it, and now he bites and kicks and screams whenever anyone comes close to him. He screams that he wants Andrew back. When Sarah tries to approach him, Charlie hides his face in a corner of the room.

Realizing that Sarah is overwhelmed, Little Bee walks to the corner and stands next to Charlie, staring at the wall just like he does. While she waits silently for him, Little Bee imagines how she would kill herself in the nursery, though it’s a difficult task since there are no sharp objects, just safety scissors. Charlie asks what she is thinking about, and she tells him she is planning her escape from the nursery. Little Bee explains that she spent two years in a place like this, so she understands why Charlie is upset without his Batman costume.

When Charlie mentions his father, Little Bee reminds Charlie that Andrew is “dead,” just like all of her family is dead. Charlie asks if she is sad, but Little Bee kneels down and tickles him until he giggles and says that he does not need to be sad when he has a good mother. Little Bee gives Charlie a gentle push toward Sarah and Charlie runs to hug her. While Sarah holds Charlie and they cry together, she silently thanks Little Bee. As the three of them walk home together, Little Bee thinks that the world is bright and beautiful and feels “full of hope.”

Little Bee and Sarah chat about Little Bee’s home village, and Sarah begins spontaneously crying once again. Sarah tries to apologize, but Little Bee assures her that it took a full year after Nkiruka died before she could even think clearly. The detention center didn’t help. Little Bee tells Sarah she will help her cope with her pain, but Sarah thinks this is too great a burden to lay on a 16-year-old girl; it should be Sarah helping Little Bee. Little Bee reminds her that Sarah already cut off her finger and saved Little Bee’s life, though Sarah feels like she should have done more.

Little Bee places her hand underneath Sarah’s and stretches them both out, aligned together so that the Little Bee’s finger fills the space where Sarah’s middle finger is missing. She tells Sarah that if she wants her to stay, Little Bee will love her as if she were Sarah’s daughter and Charlie’s sister. She will help Sarah survive. Sarah is overwhelmed, so Little Bee backtracks and says she will just leave instead. When they are back at Sarah’s house drinking tea, Sarah tells Little Bee that she thinks they should help each other and Little Bee should stay. Sarah thinks it is time to take life seriously.