Characterization By: Michelle

Title: If You Come Softly
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Pages: 181
Genre: Coming of age

Characterization: is the methods a writer uses to reveal the personality of characters.
In the book If you come softly, the author uses characterization to show how two people with a different skin color can have a lot more in common than you think. Though Jeremiah is black, he is not a mugger or thief like what Ellie's sister Anne makes black people seem like by jumping to conclusions when she sees a African American jogger at the park one day with Ellie, on page 69. When Anne screamed and grabbed Ellie this shows us something about how she sees black people but, Ellie doesn't see African Americans the way she does. On page 70 she wonders to herself why "these black people who were just like us- who were equal to us? Why weren't they coming over for dinner? Why weren't they playing golf with daddy on Saturdays or quilting with Marion on Thursday nights? Why weren't they in our world, around us, part of us?"Jeremiah goes to Percy Academy, where he feels different sometimes being among white people. He wishes that he didn't have to be switching beds every night because since his parents split, he still has to be with each of them who live right across the street from each other. He is not a mugger or thief, just a human with the same problems as many others. On page 100, Jeremiah admits some of his feelings. How sometimes even with his homeboys he felt alone most days a loneliness that settles deep inside of him and lingered. Ellie is a girl he meets at Percy. At the park Ellie and Jeremiah both admit to each other sometimes they get scared. Though the color of their skin is different both of them are just human beings who have family problems and find comfort in each other.