The book focuses on the relationships between Little Bee, Sarah (the mom), and Charlie (the little boy). It also talks about Sarah and her lover, who now have to find where they stand once her husband is dead. She is reinventing and re-finding herself, and trying to do too much. It ends with Little Bee and Charlie on the Nigerian beach as on ode to her sister's death, and Charlie decides to take his Batman suit off as bad men come to get them.
My ending for the book would finish it off, since it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger. I would have Charlie keep his Batman suit on, and somehow have him save Little Bee from the baddies. It would cost his life, which would be a real heart-wrenching moment. He would then go to heaven and describe it, and the book could end from his point of view subtly, since he isn't given a chance to share his perspective at any other point.
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So, in the book it has given a very detailed recap of what all happened on the beach in Nigeria and how Little Bee and the mom connect. It then speaks more about the time after Little Bee arrives in the house and how she interacts with the young boy. She is able to connect with him on a different level because she finds similarities between him and herself in odd ways. She kind of becomes part of their family in that sense too.
If I were in the book, I think I would be friends with Little Bee. She has such a unique way of seeing the world and it would be really fun to talk to her and hear what she has to say. I wonder what hanging out with her would be like. Would she constantly be on edge? How would she react to an argument? What kind of sense of humor does she have? I can somewhat clue in answers from the reading, but not all of it. I think I would like to talk with the young boy as well. He has such a powerful imagination and would be so interesting to hear ramble about his latest adventures. He would also probably be tons of fun to play with. I think I would struggle to get along with the mom because she has a very matter of fact and somewhat cold way of looking at and processing things. She also finds it hard to convey emotion, and cheated on her husband. Honestly, I don’t know how I would act with her. It would depend on the independent interaction I would have with her. I feel like we would have more in common than I think. So first a brief summary. Little Bee has been at the barn and sleeps in a room they have prepared with the three other girls she’s traveling with. She talks to Yevette about how she wants to find the man who took his own life in the past blog, but she’s currently unaware that happened. Their backstory is still somewhat unknown, although it’s touched on that her village in Nigeria was ruined by men because it was built over an oil field. Anyway, as they sit in the barn and talk, the girl who doesn’t speak starts to tremble and cry, and at first they don’t understand. A then she begins to murmur things and starts seeing her daughter - the daughter isn’t actually there and might have been dead - in the sunlight shining through. The girls ply along with it and give her the happiness she was so desperate for, and even has the woman who lives at the barn make a fifth plate for her daughter. Little Bee wakes up early in the morning to find that the girl who imagined her daughter ended up banging herself. Little Bee then flees the scene and heads away from death, claiming only bad things happen near death. This is her final goodbye to Yevette for now since she couldn’t bear to wake her up and is heading in a different direction.
Some characters in this book which bounce interestingly off of each other are the mom, the son, and Little Bee. Little Bee is a very simple and understanding girl who is just trying to comprehend the world for what it is, and has experience that many people can’t relate to. The son is in his own little world, he is Batman defeating the baddies. The mom is extremely heartbroken about her husband’s death and is most likely a tornado of emotions and somewhat numbed by the immense amount of pain. There is an odd level of understanding between these characters, and the way they bounce off of each other without mixing or mashing is interesting. Some advice I would give Little Bee is to continue to be herself and have patience. The mom is going through a lot and the son is fighting baddies, they’re in their own little worlds, and although it’s perceived very differently by each of them, there’s a hidden commonality which I’m sure Little Bee - if anyone - would see. I don’t know the full story as it hasn’t been shared yet, but I feel like the characters have a large role to play in each other’s stories. It seems as though Little Bee was the reason - or one of the reasons - why the husband took his own life, which led to the feelings being understood by both parties. Something connecting to the husband also affected where Little Bee lived, and how she ended up in the detention center. Pages 1-64
This book starts out with a Nigerian girl being held with other girls in a detention center, a place holding immigrants which either get deported, held, or released. She is released and heads over to someone she met two years ago. I don't know the whole backstory yet, but it sounds as though the family went to Nigeria two years ago for a vacation and got caught in the middle of a crossfire, but met Little Bee, the immigrant girl. It must have been traumatic because after the husband of the family receives news she's coming, he decides to take his own life. Then after, Little Bee shows up as they go through his funeral process. It switches from her perspective to his wife's, and it's really interesting to hear her train of thought. They have a little boy, so she has to find a way to explain this all to him, which is pretty hard. She runs through a chain of events leading to his suicide, and is upset with herself for not seeing what was coming, or maybe for seeing it and not completely understanding it. Then it switches back to Little Bee's view, and she speaks about what the word horror means to her, and how because of her life, she has had to imagine how to kill herself in any scenario so she isn't caught by "the man", and also states she's a refugee. She then goes into detail about her leaving the detention center with three other girls and how they stay at a farmer's house. This book is a bit of a difficult read for no other reason then that it is full of different perspectives and overlapping events. I was able to take away a lot through reading though. There are obvious things such as main characters, setting, and basis of a story, but I also was able to find meaning in the more philosophical paragraphs and dive into Little Bee's mind, which is swirling with unique thought. I think the main character, Little Bee, will continue talking about how she got to the family she met in Nigeria, and give more clues and insight as to where she came from and her backstory. I think it would be cool if the little boy had a chapter for his perspective, although I'm not sure how likely that is considering he doesn't speak good English yet and is around four years old. I think there will be some conflict with Little Bee staying at that family's house, and some tension surrounding the suicide of the wife's husband and Little Bee's part of that. I am enjoying the book so far and have found its depth to be beneficial in the sense of having many takeaways while reading. There have been different perspectives and I have been able to hear different ways of thinking which are well portrayed through each character. |
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