Identity and Fear Theme Analysis

Little Bee, Sarah, and four-year-old Charlie are all hiding from pain and trauma—Little Bee from traumatic memories and fear of returning to Nigeria, Sarah from guilt over Andrew’s suicide which she feels she did not try hard enough to prevent, and Charlie from the loss of his father, which he cannot entirely understand. To cope with their burdens, each character adopts a constructed identity for themselves which helps them to hide from their pain. However, it also prevents them from simply being themselves and thus being vulnerable enough to love each other without holding back. Through Little Bee, Sarah, and Charlie, Little Bee explores the way in which an individual develops their sense of identity to protect or hide themselves, but ultimately suggests that to truly and selflessly love someone, one must give up their self-protecting identity and be vulnerable.

Little Bee, Sarah, and Charlie all construct identities—or “costumes”—to protect themselves from the world and help them hide from pain. In the immigration detention center, Little Bee (which is itself pseudonym adopted while fleeing for her life) constructs an identity for herself as a sexless person so that she will be ignored by predatory men, flattening her breasts with a cotton wrap and wearing loosely fitting clothing to hide her female shape. To mitigate the racial prejudice of other people, Little Bee teaches herself to speak English like the Queen, adopting an aristocratic British accent. She makes herself “neither a woman nor a girl, a creature who had forgotten her language and learned yours, whose past had crumbled to dust” and holds onto this identity even while living with Sarah, since it helps her to cope with her fear of being deported and hide from traumatic memories.

Even before Andrew’s suicide, Sarah feels guilty for their failing marriage and her ongoing affair and is haunted by her first meeting with Little Bee in Nigeria. To cope with her guilt and painful memories of a violent world, Sarah leans into her role as a successful career woman, working mother, and wife, though her heavy reliance on fashionable marriage and parenting advice columns suggests she is more concerned with fitting the identity than actually enjoying the act of being a wife or a mother. By focusing all of her energy on constructing her identity, Sarah avoids grappling with the pain of her failing marriage or memories of Nigeria.

Charlie hides from the pain and confusion of losing his father by spending the summer with Little Bee dressed in a Batman costume. As Batman, Charlie feels empowered to understand the world—which he breaks down simply into “goodies” and “baddies”—and this offers him a reprieve from the confusion of Andrew’s suicide. Charlie’s Batman costume symbolically represents his, Little Bee’s, and Sarah’s constructed identities and the manner in which it hides them from the world and shields them from their own pain. Reflecting on each of their identities, Sarah reflects, “We were exiles from reality, that summer. We were refugees from ourselves,” suggesting that just as Charlie’s belief that he is Batman helps him but is a denial of reality, so too are her and Little Bee’s fabricated identities a denial of reality.

After the British government deports Little Bee back to Nigeria, Little Bee, Sarah, and Charlie each learn to let go of their constructed identities so that they can love each other honestly and selflessly. When Little Bee is arrested and deported, Sarah gives up her identity as a professional woman to follow Little Bee back to Nigeria and attempt to save her, telling Charlie, “We won’t ever give up on Little Bee. Because she is part of our family now.” More than simply following Little Bee to Nigeria, Sarah stays close to Little Bee at all times, reasoning that the soldiers who want to kill Little Bee wouldn’t dare to do so with a British journalist present. In shedding her identity as an upper-class career woman, Sarah reclaims her former idealism, the version of herself that cut off her middle finger to save Little Bee once before, which allows her to love Little Bee without regard for her own safety or well-being and live more boldly as who she is.

Similarly, when Little Bee realizes sees the Nigerian soldiers shoot at Charlie, she realizes the only way to stop them is to reveal her true self as Udo the village girl—and give up her identity as Little Bee—whom they are hunting, so they will leave Charlie alone. Although the novel implies that Udo will quickly be arrested and probably killed, by sacrificing her identity as Little Bee, she not only saves Charlie’s life, but also models the courage it takes to live truly as oneself, despite how fearful or vulnerable it may seem. Emboldened by Little Bee’s courage to become Udo once again, Charlie takes off his Batman costume, shedding his own identity, and joyfully plays with the other children on the beach, existing simply and purely as Charlie, who may not understand his father’s suicide but now can move and play and participate freely in society without hiding. Sarah, Little Bee, and Charlie each face risk in letting go of their fabricated identities, and yet within that vulnerability they are able to live freely and love selflessly, which ultimately suggests that although a developed identity may help one protect themselves from the world or hide from pain, it ultimately impedes their ability to fully live and love others.