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
In his prison cell, Callum reads the paper. Now that his trial is over, he’s not on the front page anymore (he’s on page three or four). Nothing written about him, though, is accurate. He’s mostly reading to pass the time, but one article catches his attention. It’s about a suspected “mole” in the Liberation Militia. Supposedly, all LM activities are at a standstill until they find this person. Callum mentally praises Jude—that’s his work. Hopefully the General can catch Andrew Dorn before he disappears.
Prison seems, for Callum, to be pretty boring: there’s not much to do except read the paper to pass the time. On some level, Callum is still loyal to the LM, since he mentally praises Jude for raising the alarm about Andrew Dorn. So whatever happens to Callum next, he can rest knowing that a cause he supports is going to continue to flourish thanks to his help.
Themes
Callum throws the paper away and thinks of Lynette. He’s been thinking of her more often these days. When she died, he’d hated her for being a coward. But he realizes he was selfish. Lynette had been through a lot. Callum had let things rob him of humanity, but Lynette seems to have had a better idea: “fade out” for a while. Maybe she just wasn’t ready to come back to reality.
With the benefit of hindsight, Callum sees that Lynette’s delusions about being a Cross were protective. They protected her from the horrors of her world, which eventually pushed her to decide that life wasn’t worth living anymore. Callum is particularly attuned to the horrors in his world—he’s in prison, after all.
Themes
Callum’s thoughts are interrupted by Jack, the Cross prison guard who has become Callum’s good friend. Jack says Callum has a visitor and judging by his expression, Callum won’t like this visitor. Callum asks if he has a choice and starts to pull on his shirt, but Jack says that the visitor is coming here (rather than meeting Callum in the visitors’ hall). A minute later, Callum’s jaw drops. It’s Kamal Hadley.
The note that Callum and Jack have become good friends suggests that friendship can transcend all manner of boundaries—it’s unexpected that someone like Jack, who’s in a position of power, would take the time to befriend an inmate like Callum. This offers hope that things will eventually improve for the characters.
Themes
Mr. Hadley enters Callum’s cell and sends Jack away. He then says he’d like to propose a deal: for cooperating, Callum will be sentenced to life, but will only serve eight to 10 years. Mr. Hadley says for this to happen, Callum must publicly state that he kidnapped and raped Sephy. Sephy, he explains, won’t “put this whole business behind her” unless Callum does the same. She thinks she owes him for saving her, and she’ll abort the child she doesn’t want if she knows Callum won’t die. It’s clear Mr. Hadley has chosen words that will cause Callum as much pain as possible.
Since readers have insight into Sephy’s perspective in addition to Callum’s, it’s clear that Mr. Hadley is lying: Sephy genuinely wants to continue her pregnancy, and she isn’t staying pregnant just for Callum’s sake. But it seems as though Callum hasn’t had a chance to speak to Sephy since that night in the rose garden, so it’s unclear to him whether Sephy has changed her mind since then.
Themes
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Callum sinks to the bed. He doesn’t really believe Sephy doesn’t want the baby, but what if Mr. Hadley is telling the truth? Callum has to choose between his own life and his child’s life. He asks if Mr. Hadley objects to him and Sephy having a baby, or all mixed-race children. Mr. Hadley refuses to answer and asks for Callum’s answer. Callum stands and, knowing it’ll “damn [him] to hell,” gives the “right” answer.
Callum is probably correct in thinking that Mr. Hadley takes issue with all mixed-race children, given Mr. Hadley’s desire to keep noughts and Crosses as separate as possible. For now, it’s not clear what the “right” answer is, but Callum makes it clear that it’s going to have horrible consequences for him.
Themes
