Little Bee, by Chris Cleve, is a novel that explores unthinkable evil, but at the same time celebrates its characters in their ability to transcend everything that oppresses them, including their past, their their secrets and their flaws. For the character of Little Bee, identity is inevitably linked to ethnicity, nationality, gender, race and class. A representative passage from the book that explores Little Bee's point of view (both her relentless optimism and stark realism) is found in the final chapter: Little Bee wakes up from a beautiful dream, and then comes the first haunting sentence, "C 'it's a moment when you wake up from the dream in the hot sun, a moment out of time when you don't know what you are' (Cleave 258) Little Bee is questioning her identity at the very moment she should be most sure of it. As Little Bee has searched for a home, a family, and a belonging, and has seemingly found it, the reader realizes that there is still hope: Little Bee is hindered by the weight of her past; a character who has shown that she can overcome the boundaries of her identity and change her position in life. It is crucial that the final chapter is his perspective, as much of the book deals with the lack of Western knowledge of people like Little Bee, the silence about their stories, and the healing power of storytelling. The most significant vocal element in this passage is the tonal shift between its two paragraphs. In the first paragraph Little Bee is coming out of her dream and the narrative recalls that half-awake state. The second paragraph......middle of the paper......ned. She will remain herself, “while the shape-shifting magic of dreams whispers in the roar of the ocean” (Cleave 259). It is a harbinger of his final decision. She doesn't choose to flee or fight, but instead to give up for Charlie's sake, because he is young and will continue the dream for her. The reader takes from Little Bee the idea that identity is fluid and one's sense of self can be a tool of transcendence. Little Bee's circumstances require her to reinvent herself from village girl, to refugee, to member of an upper-middle-class British family. Because of her brain, her language and her imagination, she cannot be marginalized, even if she must succumb to evil. For the reader, Little Ape will remain free as the wind and peaceful as the undisturbed sand, because she has offered her voice and her story as testimony.