What I learnt reading Small Great Things
An implicit contribution to the Black lives matter movement
Small Great Things was undoubtedly a fantastic novel. Just like other works of Picoult, even this story is a fictional one woven around social issues of today(concerning particularly the USA). The thing I loved most about Small Great Things was the social messages it gave regarding law, racism and justice.
The protagonist of the story is Ruth, an African-American nurse with a Yale degree, working at a hospital at Connecticut with more than 20 years of experience. One day as she performs routine checkups on a newborn, she is reassigned since the parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth touching their child. At one instance when the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery — after which, the baby dies and the parents charge a lawsuit against Ruth and the hospital.
The novel narrates events right from the birth of the child to the end of the lawsuit through primarily three starkly different perspectives: Ruth Jefferson(the nurse), Kennady Mcquarrie(her white public defender), and Turk Baur(the father filing the lawsuit).
I’ve studied about the civil rights movement and racism of the 1930s, and read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, through which I understood the struggle African Americans went through to gain the rights they currently have. However reading Small Great Things taught me that while politically, laws and bills may have been passed, we never really know what a minority or ethnicity may be going though, unless we experience it ourselves. Through narration of Ruth’s experience, I learnt that irrespective of the merit you gain, the identity you possess by birth can still be a liability to you. Kennady has always believed that African Americans are granted equal rights until spends a day with Ruth and realizes the difference that implicit racism makes to their lives.
Picoult’s play with contrasting perspectives is one of the most eye opening characteristics of the novel. Turk Baur, the white supremacist and essential ‘villain’ narrates his experiences since childhood — including living with an abusive grandfather who taught him strength, defense and survival. Kennady’s focus is only on winning the lawsuit but she eventually realizes that the decision of the judges isn’t the crux of the matter. Ruth ultimately comes to accept that despite the fact that she lives in an up class society and has is rather privileged compared to most African Americans, her race will always be a part of her identity.
The story furthermore introduced me to the idea of implicit or reverse racism — wherein privileged American white citizens overly think or hesitate with their words and behavior towards African Americans, in the fear of appearing to be racist or discriminatory. Are they being racist by not being natural?
This is a book I’d recommend for anyone in their teens and above — but should be particularly interesting especially anyone interested in racial relations, law, medicine and justice. Her epilogues are inevitable realization for the reader that it isn’t the end that matters — it’s the journey and change the characters undergo throughout the novel.
