With a Little help from My Friends

    In their hit song “With a Little Help from My Friends,” the Beatles sing about the importance of help in life’s journey with the titular line “I get by with a little help from my friends.” J. R. R Tolkien, oddly enough, addresses the same theme in his short story “Leaf by Niggle.” The story centers around a man called Niggle who is “a painter [but] not a very successful one” who has a long journey to take (93). Through Niggle’s journey, Tolkien illustrates the part of the human condition that is the deep need for help; Parish and the two Voices serve as tools for conveying the message that men truly could not get by without a little help from their friends.

The first relationship visible to the reader showing the importance of help is between Niggle and his neighbor, Parish. Because Parish is “a man with a lame leg,” and because Niggle is a kindhearted man, Niggle frequently helps Parish with “a good many odd jobs” (93). Niggle helps his neighbor and others from “further off,” but what he really values is being able to spend time in his craft–painting (94). His desire to create something meaningful causes him to begrudge the positive actions he takes towards helping others in a way that could have proven detrimental to his ultimate salvation. However, Niggle is very talented at painting leaves so much so that he is unable to paint a tree, but he “wanted to paint a whole tree, with all of its leaves in the same style, and all of them different” in some ways reflective of how he is hyper focused the individual things of life to the negligence of the whole of life that is doing good for others (94). The grouchy disposition Niggle takes towards the interruptions the help-seekers cause is further perpetuated by the acknowledgement that his long journey would require him to leave soon, so he continues to dispel work in his garden and help others with a cheerful heart in favor of completing his art.

In the last days before Niggle’s journey, Parish knocks urgently at Niggle’s door. Niggle confesses to “not lik[ing] the man very much” because he was always in need of help and he did not care about painting as Niggle did, instead caring very much for gardening which Niggle did not (97). The mention of their opposing interests becomes critical information later in the story, but as it is, Parish is in need of Niggle’s help fetching both a doctor and a builder. Niggle does help, but the unpleasant weather causes Niggle to become sick as well. The Inspector of Houses comes to visit the sick Niggle, sharing with him the idea that one should not expect someone else to help their neighbor–that is each one’s own job. Following the Inspector, the Driver comes to escort Niggle on his journey to which the Inspector says “you’ll have to go; but it’s a bad way to start on your journey, leaving your jobs undone” (102). The Inspector’s words are true; Niggle had neglected his jobs and it was a less than ideal way to begin his journey–the journey of life after death. The mention of his falling short foreshadows the judgment of the two Voices later in the text.

 After his death, Niggle arrives at a place where the tree he had long labored at painting became an actuality. As he examines the leaves on his tree, he sees many in his characteristic style, but he also sees that the “most perfect examples” were evidently produced “in collaboration with Mr. Parish” (110). There is great significance in the tree being composed of collaborative leaves; as the whole tree represents something higher than oneself, the collaborative leaves being the most beautiful reflects how the best qualities of Niggle’s life had been when he did tasks for others, specifically Parish. The tree would have been incomplete without the help of Parish, teaching Niggle the value of help. As he struggles to determine where to begin in cultivating the garden, he concludes that “what [he] need[s] is Parish” so he asks for him (111). In the almost purgative place he is in, Niggle understands the importance of learning from others in order to yield the best results, and when Parish arrives he does the same as he begins to learn from Niggle. The two men work together in bettering their lot as they finish their labor in the purgatory-esque land. Ultimately, despite their differences while living, they were able to recognize their mutual need for one another after passing into the better place, reflecting the point that help is a critical part of life.

Another piece of evidence to the point is the advocacy of the Second Voice. Niggle encounters the Voices while at the Workhouse Infirmary. Laying in bed and contemplating how things could have gone differently at the end of his life, he hears the Voices. The First Voice is described as a “severe voice” while the Second Voice is “gentle though it was not soft,” and the conversation Niggle overhears is the discussion of his own salvation (105). It is the severe Voice that values justice and argues that even though Niggle’s heart was in the right place, as the Second Voice notes, he “did not function properly” because his priorities were so askew (105). The Second Voice, however, acts as an advocate on Niggle’s behalf and says though Niggle saw helping others as an interruption, he still helped them without any expectation of reciprocity. In the end, the help of the Second Voice enabled him to continue on in his life after death and to eventually go beyond the Mountains. 

Tolkien’s own beliefs illuminate Niggle’s journey as the Voices’ discussion resembles that of Christ and God the Father at Judgment. As the First Voice is severe, with the connotation of strictness, it is clear that the First Voice is like the Father in the desire for justice. Falling short, as Niggle did, requires punishment in a world of true justice, but the Second Voice that represents Christ speaks as an advocate for Niggle to not suffer the eternal consequence of his failure. In 1 John 2:1, Scripture says, “... if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous'' and within Tolkien’s story the same concept could be read as Niggle having an advocate for the First Voice, that is the Second Voice (ESV). 

Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle” expertly navigates many intricate layers to reveal profound meaning including the need all men have for a helper. Like Niggle and Parish needed the help of one another, like Niggle needed the help of the Second Voice, Tolkien suggests that the true helper of the human condition is Christ Jesus. To parse together the words of some familiar verses: Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus, a friend who helps us do more than just get by.