The titular castle in the air appears in different guises throughout the book, first as a metaphor and then as a distant image in the clouds, before finally becoming a real and immediate setting. This overall arc symbolizes Abdullah’s journey as he gradually moves toward making his dreams a tangible reality.

The image is introduced on the second page to describe Abdullah’s daydreams: “It was a complete castle in the air and Abdullah knew it” (10). This is a reference both to the book’s title and to the common idiomatic expression “to build castles in the air,” meaning to entertain an improbable or unlikely dream or ambition. The metaphor of the castle reflects the grandeur of his daydreams, while the detail that it is up “in the air” shows that his daydreams are far removed from his reality, suggesting that they are hollow and insubstantial. The metaphor shows Abdullah’s relationship to Navigating the Lines between Fiction and Reality: He knows the difference, but prefers to stay in a fictional world rather than seek to change his reality.

When a literal castle in the air appears later, this signifies that Abdullah’s dreams are closer to coming true.