Layla's Phone

Layla's phone symbolizes freedom of speech. When the Exclusion Officers storm her home at the start of the novel, they seize her telephone. The theft not only keeps her from communicating with David, but illustrates the governmental work to strip Muslim American citizens of their voices, agency, and connection to the world beyond their coming imprisonment in Camp Mobius.

The Book Burning

The book burning the community stages at the start of the novel symbolizes erasure of minority peoples, and dissenting voices. The election of a fascist president leads to a wave of Islamophobia, which infects the spirits of the nation. The book burning illustrates how the government has overtaken the minds of its people, systematically working to eliminate the identities and words of millions of its citizens. Among the books burned, are Ali Amin's poetry collections; Layla, therefore, has an immediate emotional response to...