Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Noughts and Crosses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism, Division, and Tragedy
Awareness and Privilege
Love, Lust, Power, and Violence
Friendship
Youth, Innocence, and Growing Up
Family
Summary
Analysis
Callum is now working in a car repair shop, and his coworkers Rob and Gordy are asking him what he’d do with all the money in the world. This is annoying; Callum likes his work because it’s mind-numbing and takes his mind off things. Callum says he'd build a rocket and leave the planet. Rob insists that things would be different for noughts on this planet if they had money, but Callum insists it’s not that easy. Just then, the boss comes out of his office and tells Callum, Rob, and Gordy to get back to work.
Recall that at least sometimes, Callum figures he’s dead. So his wanting to leave everything behind by moving to a different planet follows: perhaps things would be better elsewhere, where he doesn’t have to suffer in his racist and dangerous society. In his opinion, money won’t fix much. He doesn’t believe, for instance, that he could buy the Hadleys’ respect or their blessing to date Sephy.
Themes
Once the boss is back in his office, Rob starts to mock him—but Callum shushes Rob and turns up the volume on the radio. An announcer is saying that Mr. Hadley is refusing to confirm or deny that Sephy is pregnant, and that the baby was fathered by one of her kidnappers. Sephy is also refusing to speak about what happened. When Gordy starts to shout in shock, it takes Callum a second to realize it’s because he smashed the radio. Callum walks out of the shop.
Learning that Sephy is pregnant with a baby Callum knows he fathered changes everything for him. Again, his smashing the radio shows how closely violence is tied up to love and relationships—just hearing that Sephy is pregnant is enough to push Callum to violence. But for now, Callum is single-minded: nothing matters now but Sephy.
Themes
