Political Disguise of Fascism

Throughout the novel, the author illustrates the ways in which a political power is capable of wielding fascist principles under the guise of productive and peaceful change. In Layla's narrative world, a realm not far from the reader's contemporary reality, the United States government, takes steps to threaten and eliminate the lives and freedoms of its Muslim population. After the country elects the unnamed president, the nation increasingly embraces laws, movements, and the social trends which dominate and oppress minority American citizens. In the world of Internment, these political agendas particularly target the liberties and identities of families like Layla's: followers of Islam, regardless of their ethnicity or cultural background.

In the early chapters of the novel, Layla perceives the world as a series of divisions, her memories and experiences categorizable by the Then and Now: before the election, before the Nazi marches...