Darkness
Darkness is the defining metaphor of the modern age. This ascension began in the late 19th century, but with the revelations of the abominations of the Nazis in WWII, it rose straight to the top and nothing appropriate has yet come along to topple darkness from its throne:
“Sometimes I think that if I keep walking, I will find some light, but I know that I can walk to the other side of the world and there will still be darkness. It’s not like the darkness of the night, which also has white light from the stars, from the moon. This darkness is inside me and has nothing to do with the outside world.”
Bees
As the title indicates, bees play a big role in the story. Needless to say, bees also come into play in the metaphorical imagery populating the text. Especially as they relate in comparison to humanity:
“People are not like bees. We do not work together, we have no real sense of a greater good”
War, What Is It Good For?
The background of the story is the Syrian civil war. It is a particularly pointless war that has been going on for too long and with no real end in sight. The region has been wracked by war since it seems like forever, but not everybody is yet personally impacted. Not yet.
“White planes searing through the sky. Too many to count. I hear a whistle followed by a rumbling, as though the world has ripped open.”
There, Here, Everywhere
Philosophical statements related to nationalist instincts and character occasionally do seem to be limited. But this is not usually the case. As a famous episode of Twilight Zone ironically asserted, people are alike all over. This Syrian proverb certainly has legs capable of carrying its insight across borders alongside its refugees:
“But in Syria there is a saying: inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know.”
Leaving Home Behind
Home for the protagonists is Aleppo. The necessity to leave Syria and seek refugee status in England is initiated by the destruction of their home. The consequences of battle always leave scars which can heal, but things are never really ever the same:
“Aleppo is now like the dead body of a loved one, it has no life, no soul, it is full of rotting blood.”
