Ellis was born in 1905. He is a 26-year-old newspaper reporter with brown hair and blue eyes. He is a hardworking young man filled with ambition. For as long as Ellis can remember, reporting is all that he has wanted to do. He is the surviving son of Jim and Myrna Reed; his brother, Henry, died when Ellis was a child. His family is central to his character because his father, who takes responsibility for Henry’s death, is not close to Ellis, while his mother tries to keep her family together and is Ellis’s biggest supporter.

Ellis is the protagonist and one of two first-person narrators. The story follows his fateful choice to fake a picture for a newspaper story in order to advance his career. He grew up in a mining town, with a father who was a miner, but he was fortunate not to have to work when he was growing up. He went to high school and then to work; and he owned his own car at a time when few likely could. Ellis’s parents also took good care of him, even if his father’s relationship was difficult. His father raised him with the same morals—hard work, do the right thing, take care of the ones you love.