This thesis entitled “THE SOCIAL IDENTITY CHANGE OF LITTLE BEE AS THE MAIN CHARACTER IN CHRIS CLEAVE’S THE OTHER HAND” is intended to answer the objectives of the study: 1). to find the factor which influence’s Little Bee’s social identity change, 2). to find how Little Bee learns her new identity. The theory used in this thesis is social identity theory by Tajfel and Turner.
The type of this research is a library research which consists of primary data and secondary data. The primary data of this research is the novel entitled The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. Meanwhile the secondary data were taken from other sources, such as books, journals, articles that are related to the topic, and the internet sources to help the researcher to understand and analyze the data. The object of this research focuses on the Little Bee’s social identity change. The method used in this research is critical reading. To collect the data, the researcher
did some steps including reading the novel closely and intensively, making notes, visiting library, and exploring the data from the internet which are related to the topic. In analyzing the data, the researcher used descriptive qualitative method. After conducting the research, the researcher got several research findings. They are: 1). The reason of Little Bee’s social identity change are her envy towards British people’s easy life, her needs to tell her sad story, her will to survive, and her desire to overcome her past. 2). The way Little Bee learns her new identity is by reading, such as novels and newspaper, practicing how to pronounce and speak, looking for difficult words in her dictionary in order to learn the language, and  learning  the  British  life  by  watching  television  and  reading  books  to understand the British lifestyle.

Keywords: The Other Hand, Social Identity, Social Identity Change