In any moment, anything can change.
Literature often contains decisions or change meetings without premeditation or the process of forethought. In Little Bee by Chris Cleave, Little Bee, an African American woman, runs into British editor Sarah O’Rourke on a beach on Nigeria. In this fateful place, their lives accidentally “collide” without either of them planning the encounter; however, when this chance meeting occurs between O’Rourke and Little Bee, their lives are altered forever as well.The encounter between Little Bee and Sarah O’Rourke was entirely dependent on chance. Prior to such an encounter, neither had known the other existed, and were at the beach for different reasons.
However, to fully develop the plot, Cleave takes advantage of the unexpected encounter to sow the seeds of a potential friendship and bond between two women of different races. He later exploits the plot by using the accidental confrontation as a reason for Andrew O’Rourke’s suicide as well.The encounter between Little Bee and Sarah O’Rourke proves significant when the O’Rourkes were given a decision whether or not Little Bee and her sister would live. Sarah obliges to the armed terrorists’ ransom for Little Bee’s life but Andrew allows her sister to die. When Andrew refuses to give up his finger, Sarah pleads with him, saying, “Just a finger, Andrew, and then we’ll walk back again” (114).
Though the first encounter at the beach impacts the plot, the encounter was arbitrary.The undesired ramifications of this confrontation again underscore Cleave’s clever use of coincidence to manipulate the novel. Cleave uses coincidence to further develop his story by placing Little Bee at the O’Rourke’s house two years later, the second encounter between them. The timing was unprecedented and for Andrew, undesirable, for it directly led to his decision to commit suicide.
Andrew clearly did not want to see Little Bee again, for he still felt guilty for what happened at the beach and refused to believe she was still alive.It is clear that Andrew did not know that Little Bee would be coming because he “started hitting himself on the side of his head and said, ‘You are not real, you are in my head, you are not there” (192). Little Bee’s unforeseen reappearance demonstrates another one of Cleave’s intent to incorporate coincidence into Little Bee. The appearance however, was badly timed and does affect the story because it leads Andrew to commit suicide. The two coincidences are linked, for the accidental encounter on the beach ultimately led to Andrew’s death.
Each were necessary for the story’s development, for without such coincidences, the climax and conclusion may have turned out differently. Since it is unusual for an African American to be seen with a British woman, Cleave instead brings them together through a chance encounter and builds a friendship bond through the second unexpected encounter. Clearly, the subject theme of coincidence and chance was used continuously throughout the novel. Little Bee by Chris Cleave is a literature woven together by using chance encounters and coincidence to bring together the main characters.
Many events occur by coincidence or accident, in which the characters have no choice but to adapt to the sudden changes. Little Bee and Sarah O’Rourke not only adapt to the changes that begun in their lives after Sarah sacrificed her finger for Little Bee, but they also develop a strong amity in the process. Their lives collide together one day, a coincidence that plays out and unravels the rest of the story, bringing the characters into a full circle.
