small great things by Jodi Picoult

I thoroughly enjoyed Jodi Picoult’s powerful and important novel small great things. The book provides a critical contribution to our country’s current discussions on race relations. Atticus Finch states in To Kill a Mockingbird, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”  Picoult’s novel attempts to understand American race relations in 2015 by considering three points of view.

After Turk and Brittany Bauer’s baby is born in a small hospital outside of New Haven, they name him Davis after the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. The Bauers are proud white supremacists. When Ruth Jefferson, a Black woman with more than 20 years of nursing experience, introduces herself to the young couple and begins to tend to their newborn, Turk and Brittany ask to speak to Ruth’s supervisor. Soon there is a post-it note on Davis Bauer’s file: No African American personnel to care for this patient. Their baby then dies while Ruth is in the room and the white supremacists sue Ruth for murder. Kennedy McQuerrie, a white woman, becomes Ruth’s public defender and a trial ensues.

Picoult knew that people might question the legitimacy of a white woman writing a book about racism. Yes, it is true that Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith, Colin Whitehead. Ta-Nahisi Coates and others offer a more authoritative depiction of discrimination. But Picoult is seeking to reach white readers who have not yet acknowledged their white privilege. Picoult states, “It’s about who has institutional power.  Just as racism created disadvantages for people of color that make success harder to achieve, it also gives advantages to white people that make success easier to achieve." During the trial when Ruth Jefferson wants to object to a statement being made by her lawyer, Kennedy McQuarrie, she catches herself and thinks, “Well, better for the jury to hear it from one of their own.”  That I believe is Picoult’s intent.

The book depicts plenty of intense scenes involving race. The police arrest and drag Ruth from her middle class neighborhood and place her in jail. Turk Bauer describes the joy he feels when he beats up random Black or gay people.  But the incidents Picoult captures so well are the daily indignities that Ruth endures.  For instance, after shopping together at TJ Maxx, a security guard stops Ruth to inspect her receipt while waving white Kennedy through the door. 

Ruth Jefferson works hard to succeed. She knows how to keep a low profile. She graduates from college and then Yale School of Nursing.  For twenty years, she earns excellent performance reviews from the hospital. She tells her son that if you play by the rules, you can get ahead in life.  As she awaits her trial, she asks Kennedy, “How can I say with a straight face to my son, ‘You can be anything you want in this world’ – when I struggled, studied, and excelled and still wound up on trial for something I did not do.”

Picoult brings to light the ways in which African-Americans are asked to repress their cultural customs and traditions in order to fit into the white dominant culture. Ruth’s sister, Adisa, who has changed her name from Rachel to embrace her African heritage, says to Ruth, “It’s their world Ruth. We just live in it.”

Kennedy McQuarrie initially believes she does not participate in any kind of systemic racism.  She sees people like the Bauers and believes that they are the racists. Since Kennedy works as a public defencer with many African Americans, she thinks, how could I possibly be racist?  But part of what Picoult is pointing out is that the institutions of power give white people advantages. Picoult says, “Like ghosts, white people move effortlessly through boundaries and borders.  Like ghosts, we can be anywhere we want to be.”

After Kennedy has spent time attempting to understand the world through Ruth’s perspective, she says to the jury, “It’s about systems that have been in place for about four hundred years, systems meant to make sure that people like Turk can make a heinous request as a patient, and have it granted. Systems meant to make sure that people like Ruth are kept in their place.”  She also says, “I’ve gotten a boost from the color of my skin, just like Ruth Jefferson suffered a setback because of hers.”

Small great things is an ambitious and engaging novel. It helps us to experience and understand other people’s perspectives. Though Picoult does not offer a deep psychoanalysis, she does offer a general explanation of the forces and dynamics that shape the actions and views of her characters.

“Small great things” is a reference to a sentence in a Martin Luther King’s speech, when King exhorts people to do small things in great ways to combat racism. And that is exactly what Jodi Picoult is asking us to do.