Comments about my post: Little Bee

Comment from Joan:

I really enjoyed your blog on this book - really summed up well our discussion of the afternoon and added more insights. I do agree with all that you said with the following exception.
I actually found that Cleave's writing was more elegant, succinct, and sophisticated in the "Questions and Answers with the Author" found on Google. I was much more impressed with him and his book after reading what he had to say by way of explanations, and with how he answered many of the questions. In the book, I often found his writing inconsistent and befuddling.

In the Q & A's, he made 2 very good points - there was a "disproportionate emphasis on the decisions we make in the split second". Also he said "Little Bee is a novel about where our individuality lies - which layers of identity are us, and which are a mere camouflage." Personally, for me, that is one of the main themes of the book (the first one being the exposure, as you mentioned, of the UK immigration policy and its system - definitely incongruous to each other!!)

As I brought up at our meeting, Cleaves used Charlie as a metaphor for his theme of searching for identity. Little Bee suddenly realized when she watched Charlie shed his chosen identity that there was something more important than herself: all of the little children playing with each other. Finally, it no longer really mattered what happened to her, the important thing was the future - for her country- which looked much brighter when she saw these little children playing together.

Response from Esther:

Thanks for your comment, Joan.

As I think about your excellent point, that the theme of searching for identity is such a large part of the book, I still think that Little Bee's acceptance of the fate before her at the end of the book is not consistent with her character as Cleaves developed it. The enormity of the problem of her personal security eclipsed and motivated her only search for identity which was to integrate into British society. Did you think she was searching for identity, apart from her desire to flee from her past? There was so much emphasis on her search for potential ways of killing herself, should harm befall her, that I don't think it was right for her character to accept her fate so philosophically at the end when it was clear that the men were coming to get her.