In the novel, the color gray symbolizes the lifelessness, fatigue, and numbness which Little Bee and Sarah both feel throughout the story. Little Bee thinks that if she designed a flag for refugees, it would be gray, the color of worn-out clothing, to describe the sense of exhaustion she feels after running for so long. After the girl with green trainers hangs herself, Little Bee walks to London in the gray pre-dawn morning, suggesting that her world feels lifeless and alone. However, as she nears London and the sun rises, the world turns from gray to gold, suggesting that Little Bee begins to feel hope and potential for her life. Similarly, Sarah describes the morning that she begins her affair with Lawrence as “gray, ominous” which represents her world’s unhappiness at that stage of her life, which leads her to start an affair.
The Color Gray Symbol Timeline in Little Bee
