All My Rage

Tahir uses music as a motif to show its power as a form of self-expression, escape, and emotional processing. Music is all of these things to Noor. She turns to music to understand her feelings, put her feeling into words, and temporarily escape from reality. Ironically, a love for 90s music is the only thing Noor and Chachu have in common, and Noor uses the music Chachu enjoys to deal with the trauma that he causes her.

Tahir also uses the music motif as a connecting point between Noor and Salahudin. Ama loved “The Wanderer” by Johnny Cash and U2, so Noor plays this song for Salahudin through an earbud during Ama’s funeral. Noor also plays songs for Salahudin that express her feelings for him in a subtle way. For example, when they go to Veil Meadows together, Noor plays a song called “I See You” from an album titled Kids in Love; the titles alone express the intimacy and romantic feelings she experiences with Salahudin.

Examples abound in the novel of other instances where Tahir mentions the specific artists and song titles Noor listens to, and readers familiar with some of the songs mentioned may make a connection between the song's meaning and a particular plot event.