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
The Hadleys have enclosed the rose garden in a greenhouse since Callum was last here, and the scent is overpowering. Just as Callum starts to wonder if Sephy will come, she appears behind him. Seeing her feels like a lightning bolt hitting Callum’s heart. She says it isn’t safe for Callum to be here, but he says he had to. He asks if it’s true she’s pregnant, and Sephy says it is. They embrace, and Callum feels overwhelmed—they’re having a baby. As they kiss, Callum feels the ice in his heart shatter. He puts his hands on Sephy’s belly.
Enclosing the rose garden makes it feel like Sephy and Callum are truly in their own world, as they’re physically separated from the racist world outside. In their private universe, it’s safe for Callum to feel his emotions and express his love for Sephy and their baby. Their love is, in this case, enough to push Callum to move past the violent things he’s done as part of the LM and dedicate himself to his new chosen family.
Themes
Sephy says she’ll name a boy Ryan, after Callum’s Dad. Callum asks Sephy to call a girl Rose. Sephy says she’ll use Callie Rose, and Callum grudgingly agrees. Then, Callum asks why Sephy cried that night. Sephy is quiet for a minute, and then says that she knew she loved him when they had sex. But she also realized that because he’s a nought and she’s a Cross, there’s nowhere for them to go where they’ll be at peace. Things were never going to be okay, even if they’d run away together. She was mourning all the things they were never going to have.
Sephy is growing up: she realizes now that she and Callum will always suffer, simply due to the fact that they’re different races. When she and Callum had sex, just as now, it seemed like it was just the two of them in the world—but she knows that this feeling is only temporary. Now, Sephy is ready to face the world as it is: racist, and intent on keeping Sephy and Callum apart.
Themes
Then, Sephy asks if Callum was telling the truth when he said he loved her. Callum puts his hands out and Sephy takes them. It seems like love is an avalanche—but instead of running away from it, they keep running into it. Callum suggests they run away just as lights start to click on. Before Callum can react, someone hits him in the head, and he blacks out.
Once again, Callum and Sephy’s love is described using violent imagery. Avalanches are extremely dangerous and sometimes deadly. Likening their love to an avalanche suggests that it’s too big and overpowering for Sephy and Callum to resist. And it acknowledges that their love was doomed from the start, just because of their respective races.
Themes
