“I looked up from my broom. There was kindness in his eyes, and I felt I could ask him. ‘Will you tell me, sir, if the quarantine has been set?’” (Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring 63)
Griet asks a man about the plague quarantine, and notices a glimmer of kindness behind his eyes. During her time spent working for the Vermeers, Griet doesn’t experience much kindness, and knows the sight of it when she sees it.
This quote was connected to that of Nomi Nickel and Sayuri Nitta of A Complicated Kindness and Memoirs of A Geisha. Nomi refers to the kindness expressed in her normally oppressive community when “people look at you and don’t know what to say”. The sympathy shared for one another in Nomi’s town reveals the kindness behind a misunderstood society.
Sayuri finds kindness in the eyes of the Chairman. The gift that he extends to her is worth much more than any material object. The Chairman’s smile and sincere outreach to Sayuri provides her with a hope for a better future, and to her, this is only what she dreams about.
The significance of this quote, and the reason why Chevalier chose to include it as a part of Griet’s response, is because of all things, kindness is something that lacks in every culture and time. People are so consumed in their own lives that they neglect to acknowledge the other “waves in the ocean”. Kindness is more than a smile. It is the appreciation for the moment, and the genuine gift of giving. When the readers read this quote, they notice the difference in conduct between Griet and the other individual. Griet is a maid, apparently unworthy of any kindness, but this man decides to greet her with her deserved respect – not as a maid, but as a fellow human being.
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