Importance of Laptops

Throughout the novel, laptops serve as a symbol of a character’s connection with an outside world and to modernity overall. Initially, Success is the only character with access to a laptop, implying that technology and modernity are only available to those who pursue a western-oriented education. However, the revelation that even Ya Ta’s husband has a laptop implies that terrorism and radical fundamentalism are as much a constitutive part of modernity as education.