If You Could See the Sun: Essay Prompts for Deeper Analysis

These 12 prompts are designed to help you write a focused, argument-driven essay about Ann Liang’s debut novel. Each prompt targets a specific element of craft or theme and includes a defensible thesis direction and concrete leads from the text. Use the linked character and theme pages to strengthen your evidence.

1. Alice’s Invisibility as a Response to Emotional Crisis

Why this prompt matters: Alice’s invisibility first appears the moment she learns she might lose her place at Airington. The connection between extreme stress and the power suggests the author is using the supernatural as a metaphor for psychological collapse and the need to disappear.

Sample thesis direction: Alice’s invisibility is not a random supernatural gift but a psychosomatic reaction to the overwhelming pressure of losing her scholarship, her identity, and her family’s trust—each episode coincides with moments of acute emotional threat.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Alice turns invisible immediately after the awards ceremony, just after her parents told her she may have to transfer (cold feeling, loss of reflection).
Chapter 2: Invisibility returns during Chinese class when she feels pressure to produce an outstanding essay (paragraph on anxiety, sprinting to the bathroom).
Chapter 9: The freeze over the history exam she forgot; she hyperventilates, breaks down sobbing (chapter 8 evidence of panic attack).
Chapter 11: Her power fails when she tries to use it for a task during a rare happy moment with Henry—control seems tied to emotional state (chapter 11 outline: “her powers failed”).

2. The Beijing Ghost App as a Moral Slippery Slope

Why this prompt matters: Alice begins with small, victimless jobs (infidelity surveillance) and escalates to kidnapping. The app functions as a mechanism to track her ethical decline and raises questions about whether good intentions can justify harmful means.

Sample thesis direction: By structuring the novel around increasingly dangerous Beijing Ghost tasks, Liang shows that economic desperation can erode moral boundaries—each “small” compromise prepares Alice to agree to the kidnapping without fully confronting its horror.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 4: Alice pitches the plan to Henry; he questions ethics but agrees to 50-50 (business launch).
Chapter 5: First job—gathering evidence of infidelity; Alice feels guilt when she realizes the target is Chanel’s father.
Chapter 7: Deleting Rainie’s nudes feels justified as a protection act; Alice calls herself a hero (Rainie’s message: “you’re my hero”).
Chapter 9: Agrees to steal exam answers, weighing family sacrifice vs. integrity (flashback to grocery store robbery, mother’s stabbing).
Chapter 12: Andrew She offers one million RMB to kidnap Peter Oh; Henry challenges her, but they plan it.

3. The Contrast Between Alice’s Two Selves: Visible vs. Invisible

Why this prompt matters: Alice behaves differently when invisible—she takes risks she would never attempt while visible. The split between her public persona (overachiever) and her secret identity (Beijing Ghost) dramatizes the tension between who she is and who she needs to become to survive.

Sample thesis direction: Alice’s invisibility grants her a freedom she lacks in her visible life, but that freedom comes at the cost of her integrity; the power allows her to act without accountability, which ultimately isolates her from the people she wants to impress.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Visible Alice is anxious, obsessed with grades, desperate for approval (silent reaction to award ceremony).
Chapter 5: Invisible Alice breaks into a VIP restaurant, invades privacy—things she would never do visibly.
Chapter 10 (ch. 9): Invisible Alice steals the exam; Henry fakes a faint to help her escape.
Chapter 16 (ch. 15): Visible Alice feels guilt when classmates call Beijing Ghost a hero; she hides her identity.
Chapter 17 (ch. 16): Invisible Alice lures Peter to kidnapping; visible Alice returns to free him—torn identities.

4. How Alice and Henry’s Relationship Changes Across the Novel

Why this prompt matters: Alice and Henry begin as academic rivals, become reluctant allies, then partners, and finally romantic interests. The evolution traces a shift from competition to collaboration, and from mistrust to vulnerability.

Sample thesis direction: The Beijing Ghost partnership forces Alice and Henry to move beyond rivalry into genuine interdependence, but their emotional intimacy only deepens when each reveals a hidden vulnerability—Alice’s poverty and Henry’s abusive father.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1 & 2: Rivalry established; Alice resents Henry’s wealth; Henry tests her invisibility but remains cold.
Chapter 8 (ch. 7): Henry says “I don’t hate you” after the phone heist; Alice feels surprised and awkward (dialogue: “No, Alice. I don’t hate you.”).
Chapter 13 (ch. 12): Henry admits claustrophobia from childhood abuse by his father; Alice gets angry; they share an intimate moment.
Chapter 15 (ch. 14): Henry falls asleep on Alice’s shoulder by the canal; she reflects on the fragility of the moment.
Chapter 19 (ch. 18): Henry visits Alice’s cramped apartment, sees her poverty, apologizes for not noticing.
Chapter 20 (ch. 19): First kiss in the pavilion; Henry laughs after she bites him—tender and real.

5. The Role of Parental Sacrifice in Shaping Alice’s Decisions

Why this prompt matters: Alice’s parents work tirelessly, borrow money, and hide their struggles to keep her at Airington. Her awareness of their sacrifices drives her to take unethical risks, raising questions about whether love can justify wrongdoing.

Sample thesis direction: Every major ethical choice Alice makes—from launching Beijing Ghost to stealing the exam to agreeing to the kidnapping—is framed by a memory or revelation of her parents’ sacrifices, suggesting that economic pressure can turn filial devotion into a rationalization for harm.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Parents break the news about tuition; Alice sees their worry.
Chapter 3: Xiaoyi reveals Mama borrowed money for tuition; Alice’s guilt deepens (chapter 3 evidence: “Mama came to you for money”).
Chapter 9: Flashback to robbery in California, mother stabbed, police indifferent—financial ruin forces them back to China; Alice concludes she cannot stop now.
Chapter 12: Airington tuition rises to 360,000 RMB; Alice takes the kidnapping job because of money.
Chapter 18 (ch. 17): Alice’s father yells at her in shame; she returns to tiny flat; parents give her their bedroom.
Chapter 20 (ch. 19): Alice lies to Baba about Beijing Ghost; he forgives her after she apologizes for greed.

6. Invisibility as a Metaphor for Class Marginalization

Why this prompt matters: Alice is invisible both literally and socially. The novel repeatedly shows how wealthier students are seen, heard, and valued while scholarship students like Alice are overlooked. Liang uses the supernatural power to externalize the experience of class erasure.

Sample thesis direction: Alice’s invisibility is not a unique curse but a heightened version of the erasure she already experiences as a scholarship student among Airington’s elite; the power simply makes visible the class marginalization she suffers every day.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: At the awards ceremony, applause for Henry is louder than for Alice (evidence: “applaud grows noticeably, painfully louder”).
Chapter 8 (ch. 7): Julie Walsh mistakes Alice for Vanessa Liu—she is literally unseen.
Chapter 13 (ch. 12): Rainie befriends Alice but doesn’t know her real struggles; Mr. Chen says she’s “too hardened” for her age.
Chapter 14 (ch. 13): On the train, Chanel is recognized as Coco Cao’s daughter; Alice is invisible to the mother and child.
Chapter 14 (ch. 13): Alice notes the compartment is bigger than her parents’ bedroom.
Chapter 19 (ch. 18): Henry apologizes for not noticing her family’s struggles.

7. The Symbolism of the White Rabbit Candy

Why this prompt matters: The White Rabbit candy appears only once but carries significant emotional weight. It connects Alice to her grandmother’s death and represents the comfort and grief that drive her ambition.

Sample thesis direction: The White Rabbit candy functions as a tangible link to Alice’s unresolved grief for her grandmother and the preventable death that fuels her relentless drive to succeed, making it a symbol of both sorrow and motivation.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 8 (ch. 7): After history test breakdown, Henry gives Alice a White Rabbit candy; she recalls childhood memory of Nainai, who died from a preventable stroke.
The candy is a rare moment of sweetness in a stressful scene; it triggers memory of family loss.
The candy contrasts the luxury of Airington (wealthy students have everything) with Alice’s simple, frugal past.
The image of the candy reappears in Alice’s mind when she reflects on why she must keep working so hard.

8. How the Novel’s Structure Builds Tension Through Escalating Tasks

Why this prompt matters: The Beijing Ghost jobs increase in danger and moral severity: from spying to deleting photos to stealing exams to kidnapping. This structural pattern creates a rising stakes arc that mirrors Alice’s descent into ethical compromise.

Sample thesis direction: Liang organizes the middle chapters as a series of increasingly dangerous assignments, each one forcing Alice to cross a line she previously wouldn’t have considered, so that by the time the kidnapping offer arrives, the reader—like Alice—is almost numb to the wrongness.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 5: First job—infidelity surveillance (low stakes, moral gray area).
Chapter 6: Delete nudes from Jake’s phone (higher stakes, revenge porn).
Chapter 7: Heist with Chanel and Henry; success, but Alice feels guilt (Rainie calls her a hero).
Chapter 9: Stealing exam answers (academic dishonesty).
Chapter 12: Andrew She offers one million RMB to kidnap Peter Oh (crime).
Note the progression of money: from free first job to 50,000 RMB to 120,000 RMB to one million RMB.

9. The Significance of Mr. Chen’s Confession at the End

Why this prompt matters: Mr. Chen reveals he once felt invisible too, and his advice to “see yourself first” offers a thematic resolution to Alice’s journey. This moment reframes invisibility as something that can be overcome through self-awareness, not riches.

Sample thesis direction: Mr. Chen’s revelation that he experienced metaphorical invisibility creates a direct parallel to Alice’s literal power, positioning him as a mentor figure whose lesson—that true visibility comes from knowing yourself—offers the novel’s central moral.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 20 (ch. 19): Mr. Chen shows Alice he was “invisible to the world” before he found purpose; he says “To live well, you must learn to see yourself first.”
He offers Alice a scholarship at a friend’s school, based on his own experience of hardship.
His past (first from village in Henan, sold sweet potatoes) mirrors Alice’s struggles.
The scene takes place after Alice has confessed and been expelled; it offers a redemptive arc.

10. Foreshadowing Alice’s Final Choice in the Opening Chapters

Why this prompt matters: Early chapters plant clues about Alice’s willingness to compromise, her guilt, and her desire to protect others. These seeds bloom in the kidnapping plot and her ultimate decision to free Peter.

Sample thesis direction: From the very first invisible episode, Liang embeds foreshadowing—Alice’s guilt over overhearing Rainie’s phone call, her desire to help others (Xiaoyi’s advice), and her father’s shame—that all prepare the reader for the moment she chooses to rescue Peter instead of completing the job.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Alice overhears Rainie crying on phone but is dismissed; she feels concern (foreshadows later protection of Rainie via nudes task).
Chapter 3: Xiaoyi says the universe sometimes gives curses that may become gifts; Alice seizes the moment but with guilt.
Chapter 7: Rainie calls Beijing Ghost a hero; Alice feels good about helping—sets up her empathy.
Chapter 8: Alice breaks down after forgotten test; Henry’s White Rabbit candy triggers memory of loss—her vulnerability.
Chapter 16 (ch. 15): She feels guilt when classmates praise Beijing Ghost.
Chapter 17 (ch. 16): Sees message from Peter’s mother, returns to free him—the crucial choice.

11. How the Ending Reframes the Meaning of Alice’s Power

Why this prompt matters: The final chapter shows Alice accepting expulsion calmly, reconciling with her parents, and starting a legitimate tutoring app with Henry. Her power fades (or she stops needing it), suggesting the invisibility was a symptom of her crisis, not a permanent gift.

Sample thesis direction: By having Alice lose the need for invisibility once she gains authentic connection—with Henry, her parents, and Mr. Chen—the novel argues that invisibility is not a power to be controlled but a condition to be healed through belonging and self-acceptance.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 20 (ch. 19): Alice accepts expulsion calmly; she gives Mama hand cream, they embrace.
Mr. Chen offers scholarship; Alice begins to see herself.
Henry and Alice plan a legitimate tutoring app (Beijing Ghost transformed).
Sunrise symbolism: “They hold hands and watch the sunrise.”
No mention of Alice turning invisible again in the final scenes; the power may be gone.
Xiaoyi’s earlier message about “not yet seeing the light” is resolved.

12. The Relationship Between Alice and Rainie: Contrasting Privilege and Pressure

Why this prompt matters: Rainie appears to have everything—wealth, fame, beauty—yet she is also a victim of exploitation (Jake’s revenge porn threat). The parallel between Alice’s financial desperation and Rainie’s social vulnerability shows that privilege does not guarantee safety.

Sample thesis direction: Rainie Lam and Alice Sun are foils whose arcs mirror each other: both are trapped by systems that value performance over personhood, and both must rely on secrets and alliances to protect what they can’t control.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Rainie laughs off her phone call as acting practice; Alice senses tension (evidence of tension under surface).
Chapter 5: Alice sees Rainie’s vulnerability when Rainie hires Beijing Ghost to delete nudes.
Chapter 12: Rainie reveals tuition increase to Alice; she becomes a friend.
Chapter 15 (ch. 14): On the trip, Rainie gossips with group about Beijing Ghost; Alice feels guilty.
Contrast: Rainie’s wealth protects her from some things (legal help, reputation management) but not from betrayal by someone like Jake.
Ending: Rainie’s fate is not resolved—she remains part of the system Alice is leaving.

Further Resources: