I just started Little Bee by Chris Cleave this week and let me tell you... By the end of the very first sentence I was hooked and my heart was broken for the character who was narrating at that point in time. What was this miraculous first sentence that could cause me to have such a reaction you ask? Well here it is, "Most days I wish I was a British Pound coin instead of an African girl".
My first reaction was sadness, because I can relate on some levels. But then I got to thinking... why a British pound coin? Why not something else more...grand, something sprawling that everyone longs for rather than something fairly attainable? Of course Little Bee answered this in the very next paragraph but it still strikes me that it never even occurred to her to want to be something more, all she wants is to be free to come and go as she pleases.
(Mind you all of this takes place on only the first two pages)
Now halfway through the book, Little Bee's simplicity still astounds me. I understand her more now that I know how and why she had to come to Britain, seeing as shes's just grateful to simply be breathing. But I still am not sure as to how she maintains the likeness of a child while still being wise beyond her years. She is only sixteen, which was just mentioned in passing in some dialogue, yet she seems even more mature than the only leading adult in the book. Maybe it's because she has a morbid understanding of the world being an orphan with no family left to reach out for, or her entire village being killed. Even in the moment of her meeting Sarah (the woman whose perspective the book is shared with) she still seemed to be more mature than the editor/owner of her own publication and mother of a four year old.
I'd say exactly what makes Sarah seem...immature in the moment on the beach where she and Little Bee met. But that would take away from the build up for almost half of the book. I will however give an example of her not being able to handle her own child.
"'Oh god,' she said. 'Poor Charlie, I don't know what to do.'
Now, given her husband had committed suicide just a little over a week before this and her son is crying for his father...well she does have some space to not know how to handle things. Sarah does however know what doesn't work with her son beforehand and her methods of comforting him now were not exactly consistent. However, Little Bee is able to calm Charlie possibly from her own understanding of loss and still being a child herself. But rather than getting upset too the way Sarah does, she stays calm when she goes to calm Charlie herself.
Little Bee and Sarah could not be anymore different, but they are linked by the day they met on the beach in Nigeria along with the events that followed after it.
Okay, that's all for now.
Did the trend between Sarah and Little Bee continue throughout the book? Is it because of all the grief Little Bee has already endured that she knows how to help Sarah who was probably sheltered until her own tragedy. I am interested to hear if this became a cliche at all.
ReplyDeleteI like the juxtaposition/possible character foil between the two narrators, Little Bee and Sarah, and the oxymoronic nature of their characters. Little Bee seems to be a child who’s wise beyond her years while Sarah seems to be an adult who handles herself and her kid like an immature child. I like reading stuff like that. There is also juxtaposition of the two main characters in my book, Gone Girl. Amy is very bright and optimistic, while Nick is very cynical and composed.
ReplyDeleteI think I can understand why Little Bee said that she wanted to be “a British Pound coin instead of an African girl” because she would “be free to come and go as she pleases,” but didn’t want to be anything more (even though I don’t know anything about Little Bee’s character other than what you wrote). In my Economics class, we just learned about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It’s a triangle with five rows. The bottom row is physiological needs (like food, water, sleep, and shelter), the next row is safety (like a secure job and house), the next row is love/belonging, the next row is self esteem, and the top of the triangle is self-actualization (finding yourself and your purpose in life). In order to achieve self-actualization, according to Maslow, you have to work your way up from the bottom of the pyramid. For example, if you don’t have food and water, you won’t be concerned with things like love, because you’ll be too focused on the bottom row, physiological needs. Anyway, my point is that Little Bee seems to have been deprived of love/belonging, and maybe even the second row, safety. You said that she’s “an orphan with no family left to reach out for,” and that her entire village was killed. I think that this could be why she doesn’t have any big dreams for herself. She just wishes that she could live a normal life and feel like she belongs… like a coin, which always belongs in a pocket or a cash register or a jar.