Themes If You Could See the Sun Ann Liang

Moral Compromise and Ethics in If You Could See the Sun

Thematic Claim

In If You Could See the Sun, Ann Liang argues that systemic inequality forces individuals—particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds—to make painful moral compromises. The novel questions how far a person will go to survive and succeed when the rules of the game are stacked against them. Protagonist Alice Sun, a scholarship student at elite Airington International Boarding School, discovers she can turn invisible and decides to monetize the power through a secret app called Beijing Ghost. What begins as a pragmatic response to financial desperation quickly escalates into a series of ethical breaches, from cheating on exams to participating in a kidnapping plot. Liang does not condemn Alice outright; instead, she presents her choices as the logical outcome of a system that makes integrity a luxury for the privileged. The theme of moral compromise and ethics is thus intertwined with questions of class, power, and personal accountability.

Tracing the Theme Across the Plot

1. The Birth of Beijing Ghost (Chapter 4)

When Alice first proposes using her invisibility to carry out paid tasks for classmates, she anticipates ethical pushback from her tech-savvy rival, Henry Li. Henry immediately asks, “What about the ethical implications?” Alice deflects with sarcasm, but internally she feels a “jolt of guilt.” She rationalizes her plan by envisioning the money she could send to her struggling parents—repaying their sacrifices, buying her mother hand cream, funding her own tuition. This moment establishes the central tension: Alice knows her scheme is wrong, but she frames it as a necessary evil. She even compares herself to corporations that donate a fraction of profits to charity, highlighting her awareness of moral loopholes.

2. The Exam Cheating Dilemma (Chapters 9–11)

A pivotal test of Alice’s ethics arrives when a classmate requests the answers to the history midterm exam. Alice initially recoils because she knows cheating could get her expelled and would shame her parents. Yet after recalling the night a robber slashed her mother’s hand in their family grocery store—an attack that went unpunished—she begins to see the world as fundamentally unjust. She stays up making lists of pros and cons, remembering that “being good doesn’t ever promise you anything in this world—only power does that.” Alice ultimately fulfills the cheating request, a decision that haunts her. She tells Chanel Cao she feels “like Lady Macbeth,” whose guilt manifests as hallucinations. This literary allusion underscores the psychological cost of moral compromise. Alice’s guilt is real, but so is the financial pressure that drove her to act.

3. The Kidnapping Assignment (Chapters 12–13, 18–19)

The most extreme moral test comes when Andrew She offers one million RMB for Alice to help kidnap Peter Oh during the Experiencing China trip. The task initially seems unthinkable, but Alice discovers she has only one week to pay the tuition deadline. She tries to justify the act to Henry using a utilitarian calculus: “one large crime pays the same amount as ten or eleven medium-sized crimes, so we’re actually just maximizing profit and minimizing sin.” Henry retorts, “A few months ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible for you to consider kidnapping your classmate either.” Alice’s progressive desensitization—from cheating to kidnapping—illustrates the slippery slope of moral compromise. Yet she does not follow through with the kidnapping as originally planned. Instead, she later uses the Beijing Ghost app to gather leverage on Andrew and forces him to confess his role to the school board. In the climactic meeting with school board representative Madam Yao, Alice goes on the offensive, arguing that the school’s systemic inequality “forced her into crime.” By turning the spotlight on the institution, she reclaims a measure of ethical ground, even though her own hands are not clean.

Character and Symbol Connections

Characters as Ethical Mirrors

  • Henry Li serves as Alice’s primary conscience. His persistent questioning forces her to articulate—and sometimes confront—her justifications. Yet Henry is not purely virtuous; he is a wealthy tech heir whose own company contributes to inequality. Their negotiation over profit splits (he pushes for fifty percent) reveals that even he is willing to profit from moral ambiguity, albeit from a position of comfort.
  • Chanel Cao represents a friend who sees Alice’s good side but remains unaware of the full extent of her activities. Chanel’s casual dismissal of Alice’s guilt—“Your body like, functions on bad feelings”—underscores how isolation enables moral blind spots.
  • Andrew She (not a character page; skip) and Mr. Chen (teacher with his own past invisibility) offer contrasts: Andrew uses wealth to manipulate others, while Mr. Chen offers Alice a second chance, suggesting that redemption requires self-awareness.

The Beijing Ghost App as a Symbol of Moral Void

The Beijing Ghost app is more than a plot device; it symbolizes the erasure of ethical boundaries. Anonymity allows clients to confess their darkest secrets, which Alice exploits for profit. The app’s “no-judgment policy” mirrors Alice’s own suspension of moral judgment. That she eventually tries to delete it—and fails due to a network error—suggests that moral compromises cannot be easily undone.

Sunrise as Hope for Redemption

The final chapter’s sunrise carries symbolic weight. After confronting the school board and returning to her family, Alice accepts expulsion and plans a legitimate tutoring app with Henry. Holding hands at dawn, they watch the sun rise. This image implies that ethical renewal is possible, but not without first seeing oneself clearly—advice Mr. Chen gives Alice when he reveals his own history of invisibility.

Complexity and Contradictions

Liang does not offer simple answers. Alice’s moral compromises are presented as both wrong and understandable. The novel critiques the system—wealthy parents buying influence, a school that punishes the poor more harshly than the rich—while holding Alice accountable for her choices. For example, Alice’s lie to her father about the app (she claims it is a study group) is a small betrayal of trust, but she earns his forgiveness by apologizing for her “greed.” This scene complicates the reader’s judgment: Alice is not purely a victim; she admits to her own avarice.

Furthermore, the character of Henry Li is himself compromised. He helps build the app, profits from it, and only intervenes when the kidnapping plan goes too far. His privilege allows him to moralize from a distance. In contrast, Alice’s rationality is shaped by genuine need. The novel thus suggests that ethics are not absolute but deeply contextual. The final rebranding of the app as a study tool is a tidy resolution, but the novel leaves open the question of whether Alice has truly reformed or simply found a safer way to succeed.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Alice’s financial situation drive her moral choices?
Alice’s parents cannot afford Airington’s tuition, and she faces transfer to a local school. She monetizes invisibility because she needs 250,000 RMB to stay enrolled. Each ethical boundary—stealing exam answers, considering kidnapping—is crossed under the pressure of an imminent deadline. The novel uses her family’s backstory (the robbery, her mother’s scar) to show that her desperation is not abstract but visceral.

2. In what ways does Henry Li both challenge and enable Alice’s moral compromises?
Henry questions the ethics of the app from the start, but he also agrees to a fifty-percent profit split and builds the technology. He provides a sounding board but never forces Alice to stop. His own privilege insulates him from the consequences, making his ethical lectures feel hypocritical to Alice.

3. What role does shame play in Alice’s decision-making?
Alice fears public shame above all: she would “die before putting her parents through” the humiliation of a cheating scandal. This fear prevents her from coming clean, but it also drives her to perfect her secret operation. When she finally confesses her motives in the article to the school board, she begins to relinquish shame in favor of strategic transparency.

4. How does the symbol of Lady Macbeth relate to Alice’s guilt?
When Alice compares herself to Lady Macbeth, she acknowledges that her guilt is manifesting as paranoia and nightmares. Lady Macbeth’s “damned spot” is a physical symptom of an unquiet conscience. Alice’s compulsive checking and anxiety serve the same function: she is haunted by what she has done, even as she continues to do it.

5. Does the novel ultimately endorse moral compromise as a survival necessity?
The ending is ambiguous. Alice keeps her place at Airington (until semester’s end), earns a scholarship elsewhere, and begins a legitimate tutoring app. She gains a relationship with Henry and reconciles with her family. Yet she never fully answers for her crimes; the app’s other clients remain anonymous. The novel seems to argue that survival sometimes requires bending the rules, but that true integrity requires seeing oneself honestly—a lesson Alice learns only after being forced to look in the mirror, literally and figuratively.

Explore more about the key players in this ethical drama: Alice Sun, Henry Li, and Chanel Cao. Learn how symbols like the white rabbit candy and the bronze Buddha toothpick deepen the novel’s themes. Return to the main book page for an overview.