although I haven't dealt with racism personally and was never affected by it, this novel hit me deeply. I found myself yelling at the chapters of Turk. sometimes being utterly disturbed by them that I had to stop reading for a moment, take a deep breath, gather my thoughts and force my brain to think that "it's just a book" so I can continue although I know that it isn't and people deal with this perhaps daily.
Small Great Things made me look at things from different perspectives. it made me realize by not trying to do anything about racism you see in your life makes you not so different from other people who are actual racists. After reading this I have found myself in countless arguments with my elders about this topic. I found myself more interested in trying to talk about the problem with my society that claims that we are not racists and our religion doesn't divide people according to race. but for some reason deep down they are racists and that's what bothers me the most. they fail to address this problem because they are denying the problem actually exists in our world.
I loved Ruth's chapters the most. I loved how graceful she is. her personality made me feel like I should be doing more in my life. her love for nursing and helping others made me regret not being a nurse as she made me feel so passionate about it. we need more people like Ruth in our societies. We need people that are this passionate about what they do. We need people who love their jobs and would do anything to continue on doing it but they aren't only doing it for the money but they are doing it because they realize how important their jobs are.