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.
Chapters 20-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary
Before basketball practice, Jeremiah tells Ellie that he wants her to come to Brooklyn. After practice, they head to the train and eventually end up in Fort Greene. Jeremiah finally reveals whom his parents are, and Ellie is taken aback. She wishes that he was “just Miah,” and she wishes that she wore something different to meet these incredibly successful people. Ellie’s most upset because she feels like he lied to her by omitting this information, and she just wishes she had known. Jeremiah tells her that he just wanted Ellie to see the real him.
Chapter 21 Summary
On the way to his mother’s, Jeremiah and Ellie run into Carlton. Carlton makes Ellie laugh easily, and Jeremiah is glad that she likes his friend. When they arrive at his mother’s house, Ellie finally meets Nelia. Jeremiah hasn’t revealed that Ellie is white, so Nelia momentarily raises an eyebrow before taking Ellie’s hand and saying “It’s good to have you here” (160). Ellie and Jeremiah take a tour of his home, and Jeremiah tells Ellie he wants to kiss her in every room.
Chapter 22 Summary
In the wintertime, Ellie spends many afternoons with Jeremiah at Nelia’s home, doing homework in front of the fireplace, running down their marble staircase, and chatting. Ellie shares that she’s never thought about the possibilities of her future, like becoming an artist, until she met Jeremiah. Jeremiah doesn’t know what he wants to be in the future; he reveals that when he imagines his future, he just sees a “blank space” where he should be (166).
Jeremiah wants to meet Ellie’s family, but Ellie is nervous about how her family will react to him and their relationship. She’s scared to know what’s in their hearts and to know what hate she might be capable of, too. Jeremiah thinks similar things when he’s around white people, but he says that they need to know if they want to be together. Ellie shares that she’d marry Jeremiah right now; that’s how much she loves him.
Chapter 23 Summary
That afternoon, Jeremiah takes Ellie home, and Ellie says she’s going to tell her parents about him. Jeremiah is so happy that he’ll finally get to meet them and know this whole other side of Ellie. He can’t believe that Ellie loves him. Jeremiah is too excited to get on the train right away, and instead he cuts through the park. With his basketball in hand, he gets consumed by the feeling of running and being in the moment with his ball, of “feeling as though he could lift up, fly” (169). He doesn’t know that the police are “looking for someone”—”a tall, dark man”—but if he had known, he might have stopped when he heard shouts (170). Instead of stopping, he keeps running, and he’s grinning when he feels something “hot and hard against his side” (171). As he is falling, he thinks of Ellie, his dad, and his mom, and he misses them already. Jeremiah feels a “sudden, terrible sadness,” and then “nothing at all” (172).
Chapters 20-23 Analysis
Chapters 20 to 23 use foreshadowing to build upon the suspense the author has created throughout the book and lead the reader to the climax of this story. Throughout the book, the author has planted the seeds of the coming tragedy by referring to the inescapability of racism, the inevitability of time and moments passing, and the uncertainty of Jeremiah and Ellie’s future. In these final chapters, the narrative finds the conclusion the author has been building to: Jeremiah’s end and Ellie’s grief.
Though there is hope and new levels of connection between the couple as Ellie is introduced to Jeremiah’s world and family in Fort Greene, discussions about their future remain uncertain. Jeremiah can only see a blank space where he should be when he tries to imagine his future. Ellie knows that she needs to finally introduce Jeremiah to her parents, but she is frightened to know their reactions and fears that if they show hate that would mean she is also capable of hate. These uncertainties and fears eventually come to light with Jeremiah’s tragic, untimely death when the couple is at their most hopeful.
Jeremiah’s inability to see his future is a premonition, and the author suggests here that racist violence is a very real possibility for many Black American boys. Even with Jeremiah’s wealthy, influential parents and a prep school education, he becomes another victim of systemic racism. Jeremiah’s victimization is not about class, and it’s not about financial difficulties, as merely the fact that Jeremiah was Black while in a white part of town was enough to end all hope of a future. The author gestures at the senselessness of racism and at the many innocent Black lives lost in similar situations. She asks her reader to empathize with the frightening plight of Black men and boys, who are disproportionately killed by policemen in America, and she gives Jeremiah as a clear example of what these policemen are killing: not statistics, but real, human boys with individuality and loved ones.
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By Jacqueline Woodson
