Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Little Bee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Refugee Experience
Cross-Cultural Relationships
Horror and Trauma
Moral Compromise and Self-Interest
Identity and Fear
Summary
Analysis
Sarah thinks back to the beginning of “serious times,” when Charlie is not quite two years old and she finally fits back into her pre-pregnancy skirts. Sarah decides to do some actual reporting herself, in part to inspire her magazine staff, but mostly to spite Andrew and write something uplifting, since his column is always so pessimistic. They’ve been fighting recently; Andrew had sharply implied that her work at the fashion magazine was meaningless. Sarah goes to the Home Office to interview department heads, hoping to come out with an optimistic piece on the government. She does not feel like a journalist anymore, however, and the men she sees while she waits in the lobby look “limp and hypoxic—half-garroted by their ties.”
Although hurtful, Andrew’s accusation foreshadows Sarah’s eventual realization that in light of events going on in the world, the fashion magazine truly doesn’t matter. Sarah’s hope that she will find an uplifting story in the work of the Home Office immediately contrasts with the weak, lifeless men she sees running the place. This description of the people running the government suggests that Sarah—and perhaps the author himself—is generally cynical about the government’s operation.
Themes
Lawrence Osborn, from the press office, meets Sarah in the lobby. Sarah finds Lawrence’s easy self-deprecation and distaste for not only his job, but the entire system, instantly arresting. She quickly realizes that the “payback” she will inflict on Andrew is “not necessarily going to be an editorial one.” Lawrence announces that he’s arranged several interviews with department heads for Sarah, but Sarah states that she enjoys talking to him. As Lawrence leads Sarah through a crowd of Home Office workers gathered around a TV screen, he places his hand on the small of her back. She finds herself leaning into the pressure. The TV reports that the home secretary just resigned in a scandal, and Lawrence cynically notes that all anyone cares about is whether the vacancy will mean a promotion for themselves.
The image of government workers crowding around a TV screen, hoping a colleague’s fall will grant them a promotion, cynically suggests that the people who operate government institutions are less concerned with the public good and more interested in advancing their own careers. Although Lawrence obviously has low self-esteem, his character embodies this cynicism, representing blatant self-interest at the expense of other people throughout the story for the sake of minimizing his own suffering.
Themes
Lawrence leads Sarah to his office so he can check his emails. He tells her that with the home secretary’s resignation, the Home Office is in chaos. He’ll need to reschedule Sarah’s interviews. Lawrence’s superiors assigned him the task of writing the goodbye letter to the home secretary, but Lawrence feels like the task is too difficult even though it’s only a few sentences. Sarah stays in Lawrence’s office and they talk vaguely about the letter. Both can feel the sexual tension rising between them. Sarah states she’ll write her article about Lawrence instead, and they begin to flirt more openly. They both admit they’re unhappy.
Sarah and Lawrence’s admitted unhappiness suggests that their affair is aimed more at mitigating their own personal pain than forming any positive bond. Sarah uses Lawrence to hide from unhappiness, which suggests that her affair with Lawrence contributes to her sense of numbness, even before she cuts her finger off in Nigeria.
Themes
Sarah stands behind Lawrence at his desk to see the single sentence he’s typed for his letter. They suddenly start to kiss and have sex in Lawrence’s office. As Sarah is getting dressed, Andrew calls her and excitedly tells her that he’s just been assigned to research the home secretary’s scandal. The project will take weeks of work and lots of nights at the office, but it will pays well. Sarah hangs up and tells Lawrence she’d like to see him again, knowing that her marriage is now “mortally wounded.”
Andrew’s excitement about the home secretary’s demise is just as cynical as the other workers in the home office, since he celebrates his personal benefit while downplaying the ruin of a human being. Andrew and Sarah’s behavior parallels each other. Andrew prioritizes money over their marriage in the same way that Sarah prioritizes her new affair and desire to run from unhappiness.
Themes
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While Andrew throws himself into his new assignment, Sarah and Lawrence carry on their affair during lunch hours, afternoon getaways, occasionally in the evenings. For both of them, the affair provides an escape from their respectively “tragedies.” Sarah feels alive when she’s with Lawrence, though she never completely trusts him. Even so, for six months Sarah is able to feel “less serious.” Sarah successfully keeps their affair separate from her real life until she attends a media party with Lawrence, which Andrew also happens to attend. Lawrence, unaware of who Andrew is, introduces Sarah to Andrew with his hand suggestively holding the small of her back.
Again, Sarah and Lawrence’s affair is depicted primarily as an escape, a way for both of them to feel less unhappy and less burdened by the world’s horrors. This depiction of their affair is significant, since in later chapters, when Sarah continues to hold onto the affair, it will suggest that although Sarah is learning to face many of the issues in her life, she is also still compromising and using Lawrence to hide from unhappiness.
Themes
That night in their garden, Sarah and Andrew fight about the affair. When Sarah throws a flower pot at Andrew, he gets in his car and disappears for six days to get “properly drunk with his brother.” During that week, late at night, Sarah bakes a cake for Charlie to celebrate his first day at nursery. While she carefully decorates it, she thinks about how much she loves being a mother. Lawrence calls her and asks if he can come over for the night. Sarah refuses him; she wants to keep the affair separate from her real life. When she hangs up the phone, however, her “body aches” for Lawrence so much that she smashes her phone into the cake over and over again. She takes a deep breath, turns the oven on, and bakes another.
Just as Sarah runs from her unhappiness by having an affair with Lawrence, Andrew runs from his failing marriage and wife’s infidelity by leaving and getting drunk for a week. Andrew and Sarah’s methods take different forms, but parallel each other, suggesting that as a couple, they are ill-equipped to directly confront and handle any of their marital problems.
Themes
The next day, Sarah shows Charlie the cake. When she asks him to make a wish, his bright face darkens and he says he wants his father back. After Charlie is asleep, Sarah calls Andrew and tells him what Charlie said. When Andrew asks if Sarah wants him back, she can only say she wants what’s best for Charlie. Andrew calls her a “slut”; Sarah argues it was “just sex.” They argue until Sarah asks if they can take a holiday together and try to reset their marriage. The next day she calls him from work and suggests they go to Nigeria. After they return from Africa, Andrew goes through “shock, then recrimination, and then two awful years of Andrew’s deepening depression.” Sarah continues her affair with Lawrence.
Andrew and Sarah’s conversation on the phone again suggests that they are highly dysfunctional as a couple and unable to solve any issues between them. Andrew immediately insults Sarah and Sarah tries to minimize her betrayal, though neither of them address any underlying issues or admit their own culpability. Although Sarah claims she wants what is best for Charlie, her continued affair with Lawrence while Charlie’s father sinks into depression suggests that Sarah is mainly self-interested.
Themes
Back in the present, drinking tea in the kitchen, Sarah tells Little Bee it’s time they help each other “move on” from their pain. Sarah lists steps she can take to help Little Bee fight for legal citizenship, though she’s distracted by Charlie making a mess while he eats. While Charlie hugs her leg, crying, Sarah apologizes to Little Bee for being “a mess at the moment,” but Little Bee comforts her.
Although Sarah means well, her initial approach to helping Little Bee is to take action and try to fix the situation. The fact that she is immediately overwhelmed suggests that trying to fix everything at once for someone else is not the best approach.
Themes
In the evening, Lawrence arrives at Sarah’s door. He told his wife he’s on a three-day trip in Birmingham and plans to stay over, but Sarah does not want him to be there. Lawrence frets about Little Bee, since he could lose his job at the Home Office for not reporting an illegal immigrant. Sarah tells him to leave, but once Lawrence starts demeaning himself, she pities him and invites him in.
Sarah only accepts Lawrence once he demeans himself, which suggests that her attraction to him is mixed with pity. This is perhaps because such a pitiable figure makes her feel slightly better about herself, relieved of guilt over her own moral compromises.
Themes
Charlie eyes Lawrence skeptically and asks if he’s a “goody” or a “baddy.” Lawrence says that he’s neither, only an “innocent bystander.” Sarah puts Charlie to bed and starts making dinner for Lawrence—thinking of Andrew while she does—while Lawrence and Little Bee sit awkwardly at the table. After dinner, Little Bee goes to bed. Sarah is pointedly irritated at Andrew for not even trying to be polite to Little Bee. Lawrence thinks Little Bee’s presence is unhealthy for Sarah, a drain on her energy and a reminder of a traumatic time.
Although Lawrence claims that he’s an “innocent bystander,” his conduct in the next several chapters places him in the antagonist’s role, since he selfishly wants to get rid of Little Bee. Lawrence’s claim that he’s only an “innocent bystander” suggests that in a self-interested society, no one can truly be innocent. Either one helps those who need it, like Sarah, or submits to their own self-interest and fails to, like Andrew and Lawrence. Lawrence’s comment is largely reminiscent of Andrew’s earlier claim that Little Bee’s safety is not his business.
Themes
When Lawrence implies that Sarah must choose between him and Little Bee, Sarah tells him that if she already cut off a finger to save Little Bee, she’ll certainly cut Lawrence off too. Lawrence rises to leave, gathers his things, and makes it partway down the path the street before Sarah stops him and apologizes. She strokes his face and tells him she doesn’t want to lose him. They go back inside and start to have sex on Sarah and Andrew’s bed. However, Sarah can’t lose herself in the act like she once could. Part of her feels guilty for so quickly having Lawrence in Andrew’s place on the bed, another part is distracted by all the steps she needs to take for Little Bee’s immigration fight.
Sarah constantly moves back and forth, from moral resolution to compromise. This suggests that even for someone with strong convictions and the desire to help others, indecision and the desire to run from unhappiness can still cause them to compromise those convictions. Rather than Charlie’s simple classification of everyone as “goodies” or “baddies,” the novel suggests that human beings are far more dynamic and complex.
Themes
Lawrence senses Sarah’s disconnectedness and rolls off of her, frustrated. She tells him that he’s not losing her, though he may have to share her with Little Bee for a while; Little Bee’s situation is so urgent. Lawrence sadly half-jokes about immigrants coming into their country and stealing their women, but Sarah wonders how much of a joke it truly is in his mind. Sarah can tell her is guarding part of himself from her, but she realizes this is the first time she’s ever asked Lawrence to do anything complex or difficult. Lawrence tells Sarah that this situation is “hard” for him, whether she realizes it or not.
Although Little Bee is literally in a life-or-death predicament, Lawrence still bemoans and the fact she interrupts his affair with Sarah. This casts Lawrence as a shallow person; he’s not evil, but weighed down by his own self-interest and inability to see Little Bee as an equal human being to himself. Lawrence’s shallowness thus works as a foil to Sarah and Little Bee’s moral development and character growth.
Themes
