Ellie

Ellie, or Elisha, is the 15-year-old female protagonist of If You Come Softly. Daughter of Marion and Edward, Ellie comes from a white Jewish New York family. Because Ellie's three older siblings have already left home, Ellie lives by herself with her parents. After Marion leaves their family twice when Ellie is growing up, she loses trust in her mother and is reluctant to confide in her throughout the novel. Though she loves her father, he is rarely home and spends most of his time working at the hospital. Before Ellie meets Jeremiah, she feels lonely and isolated. When she tries to tell her closest sister Anne about Miah, and Anne reacts poorly to Miah's race, Ellie loses the one person who is most important to her.

Throughout the novel, Ellie struggles to understand her feelings for Miah in the context of her family's narrow-mindedness, and her own...