37 pages • 1 hour read
Jacqueline WoodsonIf You Come Softly
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Challenge of Interracial Love
One of the central themes of If You Come Softly is the challenge of interracial love. As a story about the relationship between a Black boy and a white girl, this book depicts the beauty of a love that bridges differences, but ultimately reveals the ways that a racist world continues to pose a threat to an interracial relationship. Jeremiah and Ellie are immediately confronted with the conflict that race presents for their love in a racist society, and, before they even come together, they begin to interrogate what role race plays in love.
This theme of the challenge of interracial love appears both inside and outside of Ellie and Jeremiah’s relationship. Privately between Ellie and Jeremiah, race is a challenge for Ellie, who is unused to being aware of its presence, while Jeremiah has always had to be aware of the color of his skin and the risks it could pose. Woodson gives us many clues about the risks of being Black, such as when Jeremiah’s father tells him never to run in Central Park, a white neighborhood, and when Ellie remembers Anne’s fearful reaction to a Black jogger. Because Ellie has never herself born the negative impact of racism, Jeremiah questions whether or not Ellie will be able to understand him and use her whiteness for change. Ellie begins to understand that her views on race and her understanding of racism have come from her family, so she is prompted to start unpacking how these views took shape in her life and whether or not they reflect the reality of racism in this world.
These internal relationship challenges are mirrored by the challenges Ellie and Jeremiah face publicly. Though the young couple is hopeful about their future, they encounter strangers, both Black and white, who give them odd looks or project racist stereotypes onto Jeremiah, or onto the couple as a whole. Ellie and Jeremiah face scrutiny from the world around them, and Jeremiah even fears that his presence could possibly provoke violence. Though Jeremiah’s death is not connected specifically to his relationship with Ellie, his death is caused by a racist world fearing his Blackness. For Ellie, the loss of Jeremiah because of the racism that surrounds him is in many ways the ultimate challenge of loving someone of a different race in a racist world. The book’s depiction of Ellie and Jeremiah’s journey together highlights the significant risks and hardships of an interracial love.
The Differences in Coming of Age for Black and White Americans
Coming of age is another major theme that appears throughout “If You Come Softly.” The core of a coming-of-age story is a protagonist’s transition from childhood to adulthood, when he or she grows and develops into an independent person with a matured view of the self and the surrounding world. In this book, Ellie and Jeremiah transition from their childhood to young adulthood through the lessons they learn from their relationship. Woodson’s final message indicates that growing up for a Black American has wildly different complications than those of a white American, despite how similar the two characters are in personality and social status.
As Ellie and Jeremiah confront issues of racism, they must to re-examine the beliefs they have internalized through exposure to their respective families, cultures, and communities. Ellie considers the perspectives of her family, their interactions with people of color, and what their reactions might say about her as a person. She fears that her parents may harbor racist tendencies, and she remembers a time when her sister reacted with fear when she saw a Black man running in the park. Because Ellie is now questioning her background and the familial norms that used to define her, she’s able to grow past these thoughts and confirm herself as dedicated to Jeremiah, despite what her family’s reactions or views might be. In this vie for independence from her family’s possible beliefs, she is revealing her growth as a character and the coming-of-age character arc.
We also see Ellie’s growth after Jeremiah’s death. Whereas Ellie was initially hesitant to reveal her love interest to her parents, we learn at the end of the novel that she did tell her parents about Jeremiah. That Ellie mentions him in the Prologue implies that he is also a common topic of discussion between Ellie and Marion. This Prologue note suggests that Ellie has both forgiven her mother in her more open and accepting mature self and that she still considers Jeremiah an important part of her life who is worth discussing with her parents without hesitation. From these points of character development, Ellie emerges as a more confident, committed version of her former self.
Jeremiah also confronts his familial identity and the ideas of the community around him in his discussions with his father, who “hopes” that there are some white people who recognize their white privilege; in his reaction to the people who look at the couple disapprovingly or with concern; and in his attempts to learn more about his biracial friend. Jeremiah considers a new way of thinking, and he comes to the same conclusion as Ellie: Some of his long-held, not oft-observed, beliefs no longer satisfy his growing identity.
Woodson reveals her final message about the couple’s maturation when Ellie tells Jeremiah she sees herself as having so many more possibilities since she met Jeremiah. Conversely, Jeremiah cannot see a future for himself. With Jeremiah’s admission, Woodson draws a contrast between her two characters. Despite the parallels Woodson has drawn between Ellie and Jeremiah—simultaneously thinking similar thoughts, going about their days in similar ways, etc.—the contrast here between their aspirations declares Woodson’s harsh message concerning the different opportunities for Black and white American youths: Black boys must face the reality that racist violence could end their lives at any moment, even though they are just like white boys and girls.
The Power of Fate and Inevitability
Fate and inevitability is another major theme that appears in If You Come Softly. The idea that something is destined to happen and inescapable is threaded through Ellie and Jeremiah’s story, from the moment they collide in the hallway until Jeremiah’s tragic, untimely death. At the core of their relationship, Ellie and Jeremiah feel an inevitable pull toward each other. After Ellie meets Jeremiah, she crashes into a beautiful Black man on the street and wonders if the universe is sending her on this journey. Once Jeremiah sees Ellie for the first time, he cannot get the thoughts of Ellie and of kissing Ellie out of his mind. On the day they first kiss in Central Park, Ellie stumbles upon Jeremiah in the hallway, where he shares that he was just thinking about her. In the park, Ellie and Jeremiah talk about the Audre Lorde poem “If You Come Softly,” and Ellie wonders if they, like the poem, were always coming toward each other and this moment. This is something that Ellie reiterates through the rest of the novel, too.
Jeremiah’s untimely death is also foreshadowed in previous chapters, which adds to this theme of fate and inevitably. First, it is shows up with his father’s warnings to not run in white neighborhoods. Then, it appears again when Jeremiah confesses to Ellie that he doesn’t know what his future looks like because he only sees a blank space when he tries to imagine his future. Again, we see it in Ellie’s memory of Anne’s reaction to a Black jogger. Finally, the notion of fate shows up when Jeremiah is running in Central Park while the police are looking for a tall, dark man. All of these foreshadowing moments create this idea of inevitability around Jeremiah’s death and suggests that the story of Jeremiah’s life was always moving toward this moment. Through her copious foreshadowing, Woodson emphasizes the inescapable consequences of racism for Black American youths. She seems to indicate that America, like Jeremiah, is barreling toward more and more tragedies until systemic racism is remedied. Woodson speaks through Ellie when she says that each person needs “some kind of chance” (70), something Jeremiah will never have.
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By Jacqueline Woodson
