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In Wally Lamb’s novel, Couldn’t Keep it to Myself, Caroline Adams writes the essay “Thefts” that tells the story of her life. Caroline writes her essay while in the York Correctional Institute for stealing. Are the thefts in Caroline’s adult life a result from the history of her childhood? The thefts in Caroline’s past cause her to commit crimes as an adult; therefore her arrest should be exhaunerated due to the effects of her past. A few of the thefts that cause Caroline’s emotional damage are her stolen virginity, disturbing secret, and terrible childhood. Caroline’s childhood history, mental illness, and young pregnancy all contribute to Caroline’s decision and her arrest, for stealing, during her adult life. The history of Caroline’s childhood differentiates from other children’s lifestyles. The narrator states, as an adult, “ I must also manage my addiction to money, a compulsion that took root in my childhood,” and, as a child, the narrator states, “ During the months when we couldn’t swing the utility bill, we did without electricity, too” (Adams 72, 77).
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