Throughout the novel, Little Bee refers to anyone she feels she must hide from as “the men.” The men are the embodiment of Little Bee’s fear, representing any person who would wish to do her or people like her harm. After witnessing so much horror and pain, Little Bee feels as if the men could come to take her away at any moment, in any place. Although the men are a constant presence in Little Bee’s mind, they refer to different people at different times including immigration authorities, the oil companies’ mercenaries, the police, or even sexual predators. Regardless of who “the men” refers to at any given time, they always represent a clear threat to Little Bee’s safety and agency, from which she must hide herself or kill herself before they can touch her.
The Men Quotes in Little Bee
They told us we must be disciplined to overcome our fears. This is the discipline I learned: whenever I go into a new place, I work out how I would kill myself there. In case the men come suddenly, I make sure I am ready.
Then I listened to my sister’s bones being broken one by one. That is how my sister died. […] When the men and the dogs were finished with my sister, the only parts of her that they threw into the sea were the parts that could not be eaten.
I smiled and watched Charlie running away with the children , with his head down and his happy arms spinning like propellers, and I cried with joy when the children all began to play together in the sparkling foam of the waves that broke between worlds at the point. It was beautiful […] and that is a word I do not need to explain to you, because now we are all speaking the same language.
The Men Symbol Timeline in Little Bee
