Little Bee Chapters 9-11 - A very dissatisfying ending

Did that really just happen?

...Was my reaction most of the time I spent reading this section. While Little Bee started out as tragic but intriguing, I found that each section of Little Bee got progressively more disappointing and the last chapter especially just ruined the book for me. Chapter 8 began with Little Bee taking a walk around London with Sarah, Charlie and Lawrence and somehow ends in a missing child (although only briefly), deportation and finally (get ready for it) Little Bee on a beach in Nigeria with soldiers aiming their guns at her and Little Bee laughing, accepting that she we die. What!? I hope you can understand now why I say my reaction during this was Did that really just happen?

Needless to say, I found Chris Cleave's ending to Little Bee, what could have been an inspiring, thought-provoking, beautiful story, completely dissatisfying. The ending disappointed me not  because the novel didn't end happily, I can accept that, but because I felt there was so many deeper messages in the book that were untouched in the ending of the novel. I felt like Chris Cleave could have said more to conclude the book more seamlessly so the reader won't be turning the page expecting there to be more which was exactly what I did. Otherwise, I felt this book was very well written. The ending really did ruin the book for me.

Side note: I had a difficult time trying to track down a copy of Little Bee which, according to Indigo, was unavailable in basically every book store in Ottawa. I ended up having to purchase the book electronically and reading it on my iPhone, which was extremely annoying. I think I may have found the reason for this though. Little Bee by Chris Cleave also goes under the title The Other Hand. There are many possibilities for the significance of this title which, like much of the book itself, is mysterious and perplexing. Is the "other hand" Sarah's right hand which has all it's fingers intact or Sarah's left hand with one finger missing? Is it Andrew's hand which he wouldn't sacrifice one finger of to save a girls life? Or maybe it is none of these, maybe the title is supposed to be ambiguous. 

Personally, I prefer the title Little Bee for this novel because it is straight-forward yet still symbolic. Little Bee created this name for herself at a time of danger, when it was unsafe to use her real one. Little Bee says about her new name "My troubles will find me very easily in this town if I keep my foolish name that I chose at the edge of the jungle"(Cleave, 220). She seems to think that if she changes her name, she will leave her troubles behind along with it, "With my new name, I will not even belong in Little Bee's story anymore" (Cleave, 220). The importance Little Bee placed on names in this novel, as if the title she gave herself could change who she was and erase who she was before, reminded me of the The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, when Gogol changed his name to "Nikhil" believing that he could become a new person because of this. At the end of the novel, Little Bee convinces Charlie to take off his Batman costume if she tells him her real name, both shedding the false identities they have hid under to reveal their true ones. Ironically enough, Little Bee's real name is Udu, which means peace in her language. Little Bee explains peace to Charlie by saying "'Peace is a time when people can tell each other their real names" (Cleave, 265). I like this because my grandmother and several other of my family members are named Eirini, which means peace in Greek. 

What do you think of the alternate title of Little Bee and what it might mean? What did you think of the book? Did you find the ending as disappointing as I did? Comment to let me know.

Photo Citations:

Little Bee By Chris Cleave. 17 Aug., 2010. fridaymorningbookclub.com. WordPress.Web. 5 May, 2014.

Cute Little Bee. 20 Mar., 2012. storybird.com. Web. 5 May, 2014.

Little Bee Chapters 5-8 - "I am selfish too, you know" (Cleave, 502)

So much has happened in this section!

Plot wise, not many new things happened, but this section did reveal many new details about the event on the beach, Sarah's relationship with Lawrence and Andrew's death. After the first section I was eager to continue reading and to learn about the events that were still concealed in mystery, particularity the event on the beach. After reading these next few sections what I have realized is that ignorance is bliss. The new information revealed has challenged the way I feel about the book and how I feel about Sarah and Little Bee.

I titled this blog with a quote from this section said by Little Bee while talking to Lawrence, "I am selfish too you know" (Cleave, 502). To me, this line represented a turning point in the book. The plot got even more complex with Little Bee's admission that she was there when Andrew hung himself and challenged the way I thought about Little Bee.

Little Bee has definitely become even more complex and thought provoking in this second section of the book. I am still very much enjoying looks and am anxious to see what further secrets will be revealed in the last section of Little Bee. Most of all I wonder what will happen to Sarah and Little Bee. Is there relationship one that can be sustained? Will Little Bee face deportation and a future as tragic as her past?

What do you guys think? Feel free to comment below! 

Little Bee Chapter 1-4 - Refugees

I will be reading the novel Little Bee by Chris Cleave and blogging about it for my English summative assignment. 

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

These first few chapters of Little Bee open with a Nigerian refugee named Little Bee being held in an immigration detention centre in the United Kingdom after having escaped from her home country. She spends two years being detained during which she spends her time learning  the Queen's English out of a dictionary. Little Bee is released from the detention centre along with several other women, although they are released without proper paper work making them illegal immigrants. Little Bee walks from the detention centre in Essex to Kingston-Upon-Thames, making most of the journey alone and with nothing to guide her. She arrives at her destination, the house of Andrew and Sarah, a couple she met in Nigeria years ago, only to find the man she has came to see has died and she has arrived just in time for his funeral. Throughout the chapters the event that brought Little Bee, Andrew and Sarah together is mentioned frequently although the details of the event remain elusive. Only at the the end of this section are more details about the event revealed, although it is still unknown how Little Bee escaped alive.

A beach in Nigeria. Beautiful right? What terrible tragedy could have happened here?

Something that both interested and shocked me while reading the first few chapter of Little Bee was Little Bee's unnatural fear of men. It is clear that Little Bee's fear of men was caused by something that happened while she was in Nigeria, likely the event on the beach. Little's fear of the men is so severe that she plans how to quickly kill her self in whatever location she is in, "In the immigration detention centre, 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" (Cleave, 129). This part really stood out to me and I find it hard to imagine what the men could have done to Little Bee that is so terribly she would rather take her own life. Little Bee's fear continues while she is being held in the detention centre. The men are separated from the women at night but were to walk among the women during the day. To make herself look undesirable and protect her self from these men Little Bee winds cloth around her breasts, wears loose fitting clothes and cuts her hair short. Little Bee also hears many stories from the other women of how they came to be at the detention centre, all of which begin with "The men came and they" (Cleave, 33). It is horrible to imagine how Little Bee lives with this fear and it is very easy to forget while reading this book that Little Bee entered the detention centre when she was only 14.

The Black Hill Immigration Removal Centre was more like a prison. The immigrants were treated horribly when the only "crime" they had committed was trying to escape the horrors of their own countries.

I have to admit, so far I am enjoying Little Bee much more then I thought I would be. The story sad but intriguing and suspenseful. Little Bee's character is caring, intelligent, determined and all-together likable. I am looking forward to reading the next section of the book and hopefully learning more about what happened to Little Bee and how she escaped.

What does everyone else think of the book so far? 

Photo Citations:

Little Bee: A Novel. 3 Dec, 2009. www.npr.org. NPR. Web. 22 May, 2014.

Lacampagne Tropicana Beach Resort. 10 Dec, 2010. www.cometonigeria.com.Guide to Nigeria Tourism. Web. 22 May, 2014.

Cantu, Aaron. America on Lockdown: Why the private prison industry is exploding. 15 April, 2014. www.salon.com. Salon Media Group, Inc. Web. 22 May, 2014.