Little Bee

Little Bee, whose birth name is Udo, is a teenage refugee from Nigeria. Throughout the novel, Little Bee tries on different names as a way to leave herself behind: first, in Nigeria, to avoid danger from the attacking oil company; then, in England, in hopes that she “will not even belong in Little Bee’s story anymore” (219).

Fleeing violence in her home village, Little Bee and her sister, Nkiruka, barely escape death. They are chased to a beach where they encounter Sarah and Andrew, a couple who are on holiday in a war zone. Where Nkiruka loses her life, Little Bee survives, traveling to England as a stowaway. During her two years in an immigrant detention center outside of London, she teaches herself both the Queen’s England and to work out “how [she] would kill [herself]” (46) in any new place. Both of these skills shape her story once she leaves the detention center and escapes to Sarah and Andrew’s home and Andrew’s subsequent death.

Initially, Little Bee wants to “say thank you to Sarah” for saving her, but also “to punish Andrew for letting [her] sister be killed” (190). Quickly, as she watches Sarah and Andrew from afar, she becomes worried about the demons that seem to chase Andrew, which mimic her own.