Thefts - Carolyn Ann Adams Summary and Analysis

"Thefts," by Carolyn Ann Adams is organized into two chapters: The Right to Remain Silent and The Right to Speak. In The Right to Remain Silent, she describes her crime, trial, and conviction. In The Right to Speak, she finally tells a horrible family secret that she has kept for years.

The story begins outside a courtroom. Carolyn is about to face the Superior Court judge. She sees one of the people she assisted in her position as executive director of a mental health advocacy board, but he won't speak to her and passes by without looking at her. She has been embezzling advocacy board money for four years and gambling most of it away at nearby casinos.

Carolyn then backtracks to describe her humiliating arrest. She also uses many of the senses...