Essay prompts Beg, Borrow, or Steal Sarah Adams

12 Analytical Essay Prompts for Beg, Borrow, or Steal

How to Use These Prompts

Each prompt targets a distinct literary element—character development, symbolism, structure, causality, or thematic resonance—grounded in specific scenes from Sarah Adams’s novel. The accompanying thesis direction and evidence leads are springboards, not prescriptions. Use them to build an argument anchored in the text.

Prompt 1: The Treasure Chest of Doom and Emily’s Emotional Arc

Why this prompt matters: Emily’s internal metaphor—a spiked black steel chest where she locks away antagonistic thoughts and painful feelings—is introduced in Chapter 4 and persists until the pantry scene in Chapter 30. Tracking how this coping mechanism weakens across the novel reveals the architecture of her character growth.

Sample thesis direction: Emily’s “Treasure Chest of Doom” evolves from a survival tool into an obstacle she must dismantle, and its gradual failure mirrors her growing trust in Jack and her sisters.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 4 introduces the chest during the salon scene as Emily suppresses anger at Virginia’s slowness.
  • Chapter 24 shows Emily using the chest to bury fear of abandonment after learning Noah and Amelia will tour.
  • Chapter 30’s pantry confession to Noah marks the moment she verbalizes the old wound from Liam instead of locking it away.

Prompt 2: The Rivalry as Intimacy Engine

Why this prompt matters: Emily and Jack sustain a decade-long feud that masks mutual fixation. The novel repeatedly suggests their antagonism is a form of closeness no one else provides. Examining specific beats of their banter reveals Adams’s argument that rivalry can be a precursor to vulnerability.

Sample thesis direction: The rivalry between Emily and Jack functions not as genuine hatred but as a safe container for intense emotion, and its dissolution requires both characters to admit they never truly wanted the other gone.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 5’s coffee shop duel ends with an uneasy truce and Emily secretly ordering Jack’s coffee decaf—a gesture of control that also signals investment.
  • Chapter 10 reveals Jack moved back partly because of Emily and that their rivalry made him feel less alone.
  • Chapter 27’s confession scene sees Jack terrified that his secret writing career will seem like “one more arena we could compete in,” proving he now fears the rivalry.

Prompt 3: Dual POV and the Architecture of Dramatic Irony

Why this prompt matters: The novel alternates between Emily’s and Jack’s first-person chapters, granting readers access to both inner worlds while the characters remain ignorant of each other’s secrets. This structure creates sustained dramatic irony around their hidden writing identities.

Sample thesis direction: Adams’s dual-POV structure builds tension by letting readers watch two secret authors fall in love while each believes the other is unaware of their double life, making honesty the story’s central dramatic question.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 3 establishes Jack’s secret identity as AJ Ranger while Emily remains oblivious.
  • Chapter 4 reveals Emily’s secret romance manuscript, unknown to Jack.
  • Chapter 15 shows Jack critiquing Emily’s manuscript and noticing her shelf of mystery novels that includes his own books.

Prompt 4: The Closet Scene as Turning Point

Why this prompt matters: In Chapter 22, Emily and Jack hide in Bart’s closet during the break-in, and the forced proximity collapses years of emotional distance. This single scene condenses the novel’s central movements from avoidance to confession to physical intimacy.

Sample thesis direction: The closet scene functions as the novel’s fulcrum, transforming the physical constraint of hiding into emotional liberation and proving that the characters’ true prison was their mutual silence.

Evidence leads:

  • Jack admits he avoided saying goodbye when he left Rome because it was too painful.
  • He confesses being far from Emily always felt wrong.
  • Their first kiss occurs in total darkness, a setting that strips away the personas they maintain in daylight.

Prompt 5: The Motorcycle and the Symbolism of Trust

Why this prompt matters: Emily’s fear of Jack’s motorcycle parallels her fear of emotional risk. Her arc from panic on the bike to riding with exhilaration in Chapter 14, and Jack’s later decision to sell the motorcycle in Chapter 39, tracks their relational transformation.

Sample thesis direction: The motorcycle symbolizes the risk Emily must accept to move beyond grief and control; Jack’s choice to sell it—without being asked—demonstrates that love can mean sacrificing a symbol when its meaning shifts.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 13: Emily’s hands shake too violently to fasten her helmet.
  • Chapter 14: Jack plays “Pony” and teases her through the ride; afterward, she feels “utterly free, anxiety absent.”
  • Chapter 39: Jack announces he is selling the motorcycle, stating her peace of mind matters more than the bike.

Prompt 6: Generational Cycles and the Confrontation with Fredrick Bennett

Why this prompt matters: Jack’s father, literary giant Fredrick Bennett, exerts control through emotional manipulation and alcoholism. Jack’s arc requires him to confront not only his father but his own terror of becoming him, a fear Emily’s “monster in private” remark triggers in Chapter 14.

Sample thesis direction: Jack’s public rejection of his father and his private acceptance of Emily’s love represent parallel acts of breaking a generational cycle—one by severing ties, the other by staying.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 14: Emily’s “monster in private” comment terrifies Jack because of his father.
  • Chapter 31: Jack confronts Fredrick directly, reveals his pen name, and tells him he will not return.
  • Chapter 37: Jack reveals the pen name “Ranger” came from his childhood teddy bear, reclaiming his origin story from his father’s narrative.

Prompt 7: The Parallel Secret Identities and Creative Selfhood

Why this prompt matters: Both protagonists hide their writing—Emily out of insecurity, Jack out of self-protection from his father. Their parallel journeys toward claiming authorship mirror their growing romantic trust, and the novel treats creative vulnerability as inseparable from emotional vulnerability.

Sample thesis direction: Adams uses secret writing identities to argue that creative exposure requires the same courage as romantic exposure; Emily’s manuscript submission and Jack’s public unmasking are twin acts of self-claiming.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 4 and Chapter 14: Emily writes in secret and finally submits her manuscript after the motorcycle ride.
  • Chapter 27: Jack confesses his AJ Ranger identity, explaining he hid it to prevent his father from co-opting his success.
  • Epilogue: Eleven months later, Emily’s book deal is public and she has chosen her own pen name.

Prompt 8: The Audrey Hepburn Epigraph and the Theme of Holding On

Why this prompt matters: The novel’s epigraph—“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other”—frames human connection as the story’s highest value. Yet both protagonists spend much of the narrative resisting attachment, making the epigraph a thesis the plot must earn.

Sample thesis direction: The epigraph’s assertion is tested by every character’s fear of loss; the novel ultimately validates Hepburn’s claim not through grand gestures but through small, repeated acts of showing up—from buttered noodles to ginger beer to a shared corner table.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 11: Emily makes Jack buttered noodles during their negotiation.
  • Chapter 34: Jack arrives emotionally raw and finds Emily waiting with “alcohol-free ginger beer.”
  • Epilogue: Emily saves Jack’s seat at their corner table, an echo of the coffee shop where their uneasy truce began.

Prompt 9: The Town as Collective Character and Moral Compass

Why this prompt matters: Rome, Kentucky, is not merely a setting but an active agent in the plot. Its gossip networks punish and reward, its residents choose sides, and its traditions—from Mabel’s casserole to Hank’s bar—shape the protagonists’ choices.

Sample thesis direction: The town of Rome functions as a collective character whose shifting allegiance from Emily to Jack mirrors and pressures the protagonists’ own emotional realignment.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 7: Emily weaponizes Mabel and the Information Dish to turn the town against Jack.
  • Chapter 8: Jack discovers the town has been warned to freeze him out.
  • Chapter 12: Emily reverses her stance and tells the town to include Jack, prioritizing community happiness over her grudge.

Prompt 10: The Rejection Email and the Crisis of Creative Identity

Why this prompt matters: When agent Colette Menton rejects Emily’s manuscript in Chapter 29, the ensuing fight with Jack exposes fault lines in their relationship: Emily accuses Jack of never facing rejection, and Jack pushes for a relationship definition out of fear of abandonment. The scene demonstrates how professional and personal vulnerabilities collide.

Sample thesis direction: Colette’s rejection forces Emily to confront the difference between seeking validation and creating for herself; the argument with Jack reveals that both characters equate professional success with lovability.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 29: Emily tries to delete her manuscript, and Jack physically stops her.
  • Chapter 29: Emily calls Jack a hypocrite for demanding vulnerability after hiding his own writing for years.
  • Chapter 30: Emily and Madison’s sisterly conversation reframes rejection as part of perseverance, not proof of failure.

Prompt 11: Physical Caretaking as Emotional Language

Why this prompt matters: Across the novel, acts of physical care—bandaging wounds, cleaning scraped knees, offering a blanket and a cat—precede or replace verbal emotional expression. Adams uses these gestures to show intimacy developing before the characters have language for it.

Sample thesis direction: In Beg, Borrow, or Steal, physical caretaking functions as a dialect the characters speak fluently even when emotional honesty remains blocked, making first-aid scenes the novel’s most reliable index of relational progress.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 13: Emily drags Jack to her house to bandage his smashed thumb, shocking her sisters.
  • Chapter 10: Jack cleans Emily’s scraped knees after she falls while drunk and panicked.
  • Chapter 38: Emily surrounds a spiraling Jack with a blanket, pillow, Ducky the cat, and a bowl of candy, admitting she cannot fix the situation but can comfort him.

Prompt 12: The Epilogue’s Quiet Resolution and the Rejection of Grand Drama

Why this prompt matters: The novel ends not with a wedding or a public declaration but with a text-message exchange between Emily and Jack eleven months later. Emily’s book deal has been announced; Jack calls her “Goldie” for her pen name; they plan to meet at their corner table. The choice privileges domestic rhythm over spectacle.

Sample thesis direction: Adams’s epilogue argues that happily-ever-after resides not in a single climactic event but in the accumulated everyday moments—saved seats, nicknames, thirty-minute waits—that signify a life built together.

Evidence leads:

  • The epilogue takes place eleven months after the main events, compressing time to show sustained change rather than momentary resolution.
  • Emily’s book deal is public, and she has chosen a pen name Jack instantly loves.
  • Jack says he will meet her in thirty minutes; Emily replies she already saved his seat, echoing the coffee shop negotiations that began their relationship.

Further Reading