Justice and Judgment Quotes in Little Bee (The Other Hand)

Little Bee describes the lack of official justice available to most asylum seekers she has encountered. The girl with no name, whom she's talking about, is a rarity in that her story has somehow been officially verified.

Charlie (Batman) equates his father's inability to help Sarah care for Charlie as fighting baddies. Turns out, Batman isn't too far off.

In Little Bee's world, any sense of justice seems to have flown out the window when her family was slaughtered and her village destroyed, since it was wanted for an oil field. For the naïve, pre-finger amputation Sarah, such things just don't happen. After the encounter, she'll have a very different take on things.

The man speaking is the leader of a group of men trying to find Little Bee and her sister, so they can kill them. They offer Andrew a rough version of justice when they offer to trade the girls' lives for Andrew's finger.

At this point, Sarah has already gotten between the armed killer and Little Bee and her sister. Now she's totally focused on saving the girls. It's not that she wants Andrew to do the dirty work, but understands that these men are serious and that to not do what they want will lead to something bad – which it does.

Sarah doesn't waste any time stepping up when Andrew won't. Again, she seems focused on doing whatever it takes to save the two girls.

The killers mete out their rough justice on Little Bee's sister by raping, torturing, and murdering her while Little Bee is forced to listen. They possess a grim and twisted honor – true to their word, they do, in fact, spare Little Bee's life.

Sarah's personal sense of justice intensifies as a result of her experiences with Little Bee, as Lawrence learns in this moment.

Even though the death of Little Bee's sister can't truly be considered Andrew's fault, we can see how Little Bee would consider him a candidate for her vengeance, especially when we learn the details of her sister's death.

Lawrence isn't at all concerned about justice for Little Bee. He's interested in finding things he can use against her and ways he can judge her.

Little Bee senses that Lawrence might not have Charlie's best interest at heart, though we never learn whether her intuition is justified. Her desire for Charlie to have justice overpowers her desire to disappear into the crowds of the London streets.

Charlie has what some might see as an overdeveloped sense of justice, particularly for a four-year-old. He takes the entire burden of his father's death on himself. Do you think this is likely going to be a permanent element of his character?

Ultimately, Lawrence, whatever his motivation, contributes to the possibility of justice for Little Bee. But since it means being separated from Sarah, it seems like a decent-sized sacrifice. Still, we don't get to know Lawrence well enough to get a good sense of what exactly motivates him.