Discussion Questions:
Little Bee tells the reader, “We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived” (p. 9). Which characters in the story are left with physical scars? Emotional scars? Do they embrace them as beautiful? Do you have any scars you’ve come to embrace? Did you feel more connected to Little Bee as a narrator after this pact?
How did it affect your reading experience to have two narrators? Did you trust one woman more than the other? Did you prefer the voice of one above the other?
Why do readers react so strongly to Sarah? Why don't some readers like her very much? How do you feel about her?
Little Bee begins her story talking about what life would be like for her once
she learned the Queen’s English or if she were a pound note. How is language
currency? Why does language come to represent hope for Little Bee?
Little Bee credits a small bottle of nail polish for “saving her life” while she was in the detention center (p. 7). Is there any object or act that helps you feel alive and beautiful, even when everything else seems to be falling apart?
Little Bee says of horror films, “Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it” (p. 45). Do you agree? Was reading this novel in any way a dose of horror for you? How did it help you reflect on the presence or lack of horror in your own life?
Little Bee figures out the best way to kill herself in any given situation, just in case “the men come suddenly.” How do these plans help Little Bee reclaim some power? Were you disturbed by this, or were you able to find the humor in some of the scenarios she imagines? How do you think she "killed herself back to life."
What do you think happens to the characters at the end of the novel? Do you like that the ending is open, or wish the loose ends were more neatly tied up?
Why does Sarah’s four-year-old son, Charlie, need his Batman costume? What
are the deeper meanings around costumes and masks in this novel?
Why does Lawrence feel threatened by Sarah’s relationship with Little Bee?
Little Bee says, “I do not think I have left my country. I think it has traveled with
me.” How do the places we come from shape us and what does it mean to
belong?
Why did the author call this book Little Bee? What do you think of its original
title, The Other Hand?
Why does the novel close with this Nigerian proverb: “If your face is swollen
from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man”? How
does the proverb relate to the book as a whole?
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