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In The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Bees symbolize hope for a better life while underscoring the fragile vulnerability of that hope. In Aleppo, Nuri works as a beekeeper, but Afra is the first character to invoke the image of bees when she describes a night full of broken dreams “like bees in a room.” In this early passage, Afra’s hopes for her life become a swarm of bees that threaten to suffocate her, emphasizing how dreams—when broken—can plague the dreamer. When Nuri discusses his beekeeping work, he calls the bees “an ideal society, a small paradise among chaos.” His patient work with the bees teaches him to embrace an orderly, communal way of life. To that end, the destruction of Nuri and Mustafa’s apiaries represents how such a peaceful life has become unattainable in war-torn Syria, forcing both men to eventually flee. Later, Mustafa writes to Nuri, “People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good […].” The chaos and lack of human empathy Mustafa has encountered on his journey as a refugee have caused him to lose some of the hope the bees inspired.
The flightless bee that Nuri cares for in the English bed and breakfast revives some of that hope, though her lack of wings represents the lingering effects of past damage. Like this bee, Nuri’s suffering has left him damaged and perhaps ill-equipped to start a new life in the UK. Despite this, the bee survives. Furthermore, Mustafa’s accounts of beekeeping in the UK’s cold and rainy climate suggest that bees—like humans—can learn to adapt to less favorable circumstances. In this way, the novel implies that Nuri and Afra, like the bees, can find new ways to thrive even in light of the suffering they have endured.
Bees Quotes in The Beekeeper of Aleppo
The The Beekeeper of Aleppo quotes below all refer to the symbol of Bees. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
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The bees were an ideal society, a small paradise among chaos.
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Chapter 4
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People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good—I’ve come to realize this now.
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Chapter 9
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But in the days and weeks that followed I saw him become smaller, and less urgent, less purposeful in his actions, as he cut or sewed or measured. As if he had lost the fire that had driven him. And I thought in that moment, lying there looking up at the Athenian sky, that if I had sacrificed my father’s happiness to become a beekeeper, then I had to find a way to make it to Mustafa.
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Chapter 13
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“You’re lost in a different world. You’re not here at all. I don’t know you anymore.”
I don’t say anything.
“Close your eyes,” she says.
So I close my eyes.
“Can you see the bees, Nuri? Try to see them in your mind. Hundreds and thousands of them in the sunlight, on the flowers, the hives, and the honeycomb. Can you see it?”
[…]
I don’t reply.
“You think it’s me who can’t see,” she says.
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Chapter 14
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He speaks with the enthusiasm of a child again, but can detect an undertone of desperation. I know him, and what he is really saying is this: this is how the story must end; our hearts can bear no more loss.
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He wants to give me something to hope for, I can tell. Mustafa has always given me something to hope for.
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Bees Symbol Timeline in The Beekeeper of Aleppo
The timeline below shows where the symbol Bees appears in The Beekeeper of Aleppo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...tells Nuri about a dream she had where her broken dreams filled the room like bees. Nuri does not tell her he only dreams of murder nowadays. Afra has pain behind...
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...detailed, and he finds the architecture of the city beautiful. At home, Nuri has four beehives in his garden, but the rest are in a field on the outskirts of the...
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Mustafa, Nuri’s cousin, introduces him to beekeeping. A professor at Damascus University, Mustafa hires Nuri to manage his apiaries and teaches him...
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...safe. He and Firas stay behind in Syria. Mustafa insists that they cannot abandon the bees, who are like family. Nuri and Mustafa’s families still dine together, making tentative plans to...
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After the bees die, Mustafa is ready to leave Aleppo, but Firas goes missing. The family waits for...
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Chapter 2
Later, Nuri sits in the concrete courtyard of the bed and breakfast, thinking of his bees. He hears a buzz and discovers a bumblebee with no wings. Taking the bee inside,...
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...tries again to reason with Afra, but she shuts down. Nuri thinks of the way bees give one another directions and wishes he had someone to guide him.
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Chapter 3
...garden doors, expecting to see Mohammed. He goes into the garden and brings the flightless bee back with him. The landlady brings tea. Nuri observes her attention to cleanliness—despite the bed...
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...again tries to imagine the world before the war. He imagines the apiaries and the bees in their hives, and he remembers Mustafa dipping his finger into the honey and tasting...
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Chapter 4
...in camps in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Germany. Regarding smugglers, Mustafa writes, “People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good.” He...
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Nuri remembers the first time Mustafa took him to see the bees’ apiaries, how he told him to relax and become like nature. He writes about this...
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Chapter 5
...Moroccan man returns and calls to Nuri. He has purchased several plants for the flightless bee that Nuri has been caring for. The men set them up in the garden. Nuri...
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...other residents are in bed, Nuri goes out to the garden again to watch the bee and look for Mohammed. Alone, he leans against the tree and listens to the sounds...
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Chapter 7
...green; it is full of plants and personal effects. Despite the courtyard’s comparative drabness, the bee sleeps on one of the flowers. Nuri remembers managing the hives for nectar flow and...
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...though he is in pain. Nuri sleeps and wakes up to the sound of many bees and the marble rolling on the floor. Mohammed is there; he asks if Nuri found...
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The bees’ buzzing fades into the sounds of waves, and Nuri flashes back to taking another boat...
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...Mustafa’s deceased mother. Mustafa was raised by his father and grandfather, and he treated the bees like his siblings. When Nuri came to visit later in life, Mustafa’s grandfather treated him...
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Chapter 8
...insisting that the history is integral to his story. Nuri begins to think about the bees and drifts off as Afra begins to draw on her sketchpad.
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...Nuri steps out onto a hilltop in Aleppo beneath a full moon. He sees the bees’ apiaries and follows a path to the city; Mohammed runs ahead of him. There is...
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...directions to the honey shop, and Nuri led him there, listening to him talk about bees and Damascus University. They parted ways at the shop.
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...sister’s son. This was the beginning of Nuri and Mustafa’s friendship, which led to his beekeeping career and changed his life. Nuri attributes this chance meeting to Yuanfen, fate drawing the...
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Chapter 9
...leads him to his bedroom, where Afra has left a picture she drew of the bees’ apiaries. Afra herself is downstairs with the other residents, and Nuri sleeps some more before...
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...tells Nuri he has put an ad on Facebook to see if anyone has a beehive to donate to him. In the second message, he reports that a woman donated a...
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At night, Nuri imagines the crickets are bees. He realizes he forgot to respond to Mustafa and thinks of his mother’s silk fan....
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Chapter 10
...murderer. Feeling his panic rising, Nuri tries to focus on Afra and thoughts of Mustafa’s bees.
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Chapter 11
In Mustafa’s latest email, he tells Nuri that he has met a local beekeeper who is helping him set up beekeeping workshops. His hives are thriving, the British bees...
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Chapter 12
Mustafa’s latest message asks if Nuri has made it out of Athens. He is giving beekeeping workshops now and has made the acquaintance of other refugees. The project is expanding, and...
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Chapter 13
...tells Nuri how scared she was, how he seems to have forgotten Mustafa and the bees, as if he is lost or a different person. She tells him to close his...
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Chapter 14
...that his wings are just scars. Downstairs, Nuri enters the courtyard, amazed to find the bee still alive despite her surroundings. He knows that Mohammed is gone, that he created him....
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...and Nuri sit in the living room, struggling to find words. Nuri asks about the bees, and Mustafa asks if he will come and help him. They are discussing Nuri’s asylum...
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...left. Mustafa says that one day they will return to Aleppo and rebuild, bring the bees back to life. Afra is looking up at the blossoms of the cherry tree at...
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