The Influence of Charactes in Little Bee by Chris Cleave

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The influence of other people has many effects on a person's decisions and their actions. Chris Cleave examines the idea of outside impacts on a person in Little Bee. First, Lawrence in Chris Cleave's, Little Bee helps Sarah by giving her the idea of moving on and doing something positive to make up for her guilt and making Sarah choose between Lawrence and Little Bee puts Sarah in a tough position. Second, Andrews’s presence in Sarah’s mind helps her focus on the task of helping Little Bee and Andrews’s lack of connection influence’s Sarah. The role of a minor character is to influence the major character mentality in a positive and negative way thus impacting the major characters actions.

To begin with, Lawrence influences Sarah’s mentality in a positive way; by advising her to overcome the guilt, she has, allowing Sarah to help other people. Sarah constantly reminds herself about what happened on the beach,” Lawrence [insists] [that I move on]. [So] I set up a direct debit from my bank account to a couple of African charities” (Cleave 125). Lawrence feels that it is not healthy f...

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