A Simple Favor

One of Emily’s prized possessions is a sapphire and diamond ring that once belonged to Sean’s mother. In fact, it is one of the first things Stephanie notices about her. Stephanie sees the ring as a symbol of Emily herself: “[B]ecause she moves her hands a lot when she talks, I think of the ring as a sparkling creature with a life of its own, like Tinker Bell flying out in front of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys” (14). Stephanie’s perception of the ring is much like her perception of Emily herself as magical—a good mother, with a full-time career, who is smart and sophisticated.

The ring symbolizes Emily herself: beautiful, unusual, and not at all what it appears. She tells Stephanie that Sean’s mother gave it to him to use as an engagement ring for her, but it has a very different history that reveals Emily’s moral ambiguity, as well as her control of Sean. In the initial story about the ring, Emily steals it and then uses the theft to force Sean to choose between her and his mother. His willingness to go along with her theft foreshadows how he will go along with her future, larger, plan to fake her own death.