Little Bee

The summer that Little Bee arrives in Kingston-upon-Thames, “the only name [Charlie] answered to” (21) was Batman. He has “breathless confidence” in the costume; he never thinks, Sarah says, “that he might not overcome this new challenge” (42). For Charlie, wearing a costume can bestow supernatural, heroic powers. For the adults around him, each of whom wants to be or wishes they had been a hero for someone else, this kind of confidence is inspiring.

Saving one’s own life is a common theme for Little Bee: She watches Yevette do so with her beauty, and she runs away herself in order to survive. But she also feels that Sarah saved her: “You cut off your own finger for me. You saved my life” (147), she says when first confronting the British woman. Sarah regrets more that she could not save Nkiruka. Indeed, Sarah’s heroic act unites the two women, but the memory of Nkiruka, and the sadness that for the incomprehensible fact that she is gone, is what bonds them inextricably.

Lawrence also feels that Sarah “saved” (185) him. The language of heroism means different things in different contexts. Charlie imagines himself saving others, including his father, by putting on a specific set of behaviors and confidence. Lawrence and Sarah see each other as saviors for providing escape from banal lives. Saving lives, mortally, is another form of saving. Although the characters in Little Bee see others or themselves as heroic, their mutual heroism ultimately draws attention instead to the interdependence between all, with heroism becoming, instead, a commonplace.