Andrew and Sarah are two of the main characters in Chris Cleaves Little Bee.

Throughout the book we discover more and more about the marital relationship of Andrew and Sarah and their means of communication, or lack their of.Andrew and Sarah throughout the book are painted as a failed couple for one major reason; communication. Andrew and Sarah, while both are by profession artists with words, cannot seem to make their feelings to one another known. After Andrew takes his own life, many times we see Sarah saying, Andrew never told me.(166) Both Sarah and Andrew should have in theory had the ability to use language as a way communicate, but in turn language proved to be a dening barrier in their relationship.! ! The event which directly leads to the estrangement between Andrew and Sarah is Sarahs affair with Laurence. When defending herself to Andrew, Sarah throws out that with Laurence it was just sex. Sarah is using a crucial skill in language by adding the word just before the word sex. Sarah is using language to manipulate her argument and minimize the meaning and severity of what she did. Andrew, being a writer by profession, picks up on this extremely quickly and adds, Anything else youd like to minimize at this time, Sarah? Just unfaithfulness? Just betrayal? Just breaking my fucking heart?(167) Language is a way to communicate, but Sarah attempts to manipulate words for her own purpose and not for the purpose of clarity. Sarahs manipulation of words contributes to the lack of communication language can provide.! ! As an attempt to x Sarahs relationship with her husband, Andrew, Sarah gets a trip for the two to Nigeria. On one of the days of the trip, they went down from their hotel to the beach. There, they were met with a decision to cut off their nger and save two girls or walk away and be responsible for the girls deaths. While Sarah chose to rise to the occasion and cut off her nger, Andrew did not and in return one girl was saved and the other was raped and murdered. From the day on the beach in Nigeria, Andrew slowly fell into a deep depression. His lack of communication with Sarah may have been the main contributor to their drifting apart. Andrew never conded in Sarah his thoughts or his feeling of guilt. In other words, Andrew didnt use language to communicate, but we nd out later in the book that Andrew did in fact use language to relive some of his guilt and express how he felt. Sarah nds many of Andrews research les on Nigeria, which contained extensive research on the country and its villages being destroyed due to England's exploitation of its goods. Although Andrew is dead, Sarah decides to take advantage of language to form a connection between her and her dead husband. Sarah decides she will nish Andrews book and use her abilities with language to make a difference. Sarah plans to spread awareness of the suffering people in Nigeria and hopefully expose England and end African oppression under England.