Theme Of Identity In Little Bee

Identity Theme
In the novel Little Bee by Chris Cleave, the outlook of identity later on shapes a person. Identity can be perceived by others and their words can change your outlook of yourself, “The need to categorize people into specific race groups will never feel entirely relevant to this population, whose perceptions of who they are can change by the day, depending on the people they’re with.”(Tsuidec) People always have choices, they can either choose the bad or the good and that creates one’s personality. In Little Bee, One of the many themes throughout is One cannot truly know their identity until they go through the good and the bad. The main character Little Bee struggled to show her true identity. While in the detention center, most of the women would make themselves look beautiful. But on the other hand Little Bee made herself unlikable. “I made myself undesirable, I declined to wash, and I let my skin grow oily. I wound a wide strip of cotton around my chest, to make my breasts small and flat…. I wore loose blue jeans and a man’s Hawaiian shirt and heavy black boots with steel toe caps.(Cleave 6,7) Little Bee hid her true identity in order to feel somewhat safe and focus more on

Her Identity began to wonder when she lost her husband, she had no idea what she wanted to do in life, but Andrew pushed her through everyday. So when he died that made Sarah realize she was on her own with their son charlie having no idea what to do. Sarahs opinion of herself changed when she thought about her affair with Lawrence, while she was married to Andrew “ i can’t raise my son with a slut for a mother.”( Cleave 166) Sarah’s actions later made her realize that she did not just impact her identity, it also impacted many others. Finally, Sarah realized she needed change for the sake of her son, Little Bee, and herself, which made her find the true source of her