The word “change” recurs throughout Portrait of a Thief. As a motif, change ties into character development and transformation, supporting the theme of The Weight of the American Dream on the Children of Immigrants. Trying to satisfy her parents’ American Dream, Alex feels stuck on a path she didn’t choose, a place of loneliness and wasted potential. She’s desperate for change. Due to her upbringing in a run-down New York City neighborhood where survival was a daily struggle, she has always known “how much it took—how much you had to risk—to change a life” (35). This desperation explains Alex’s agreement to the heist, despite the possibility of losing everything. Daniel’s desperation for change stems from his fractured relationship with his father. As a younger man, this impulse led him to steal from a museum. The consequences nearly buried him, and he’s determined not to return to this version of himself. The fact that Daniel agrees to the heist anyway illustrates his unhealthy need to rebel against his father, and how much their relationship requires change.

At times, descriptions of change explore societal ills. In one scene, the crew shares memories of protests during the Black Lives Matter movement: It was a time “when the country felt on the verge of collapse, on the verge of change” (138).