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 history class, Mr. Jason announces that today, he’s going to show the class that all famous people are people, just like the students in class. He says it’s easy to think of great explorers or inventors as beings above and beyond normal people, but anyone can “aspire to greatness.” Staring right at Callum, Mr. Jason says that anyone can be whatever they want to if they work hard enough. Callum doesn’t understand why Mr. Jason hates him so much. If it’s because Callum is white, then that’s silly—Mr. Jason isn’t even that dark. By that logic, Mrs. Paxton should be the one to treat Callum so terribly because her skin is very dark.
Callum recognizes that though Mr. Jason is speaking as though he’s talking to everyone in the class, his body language is telling Callum that Callum and other noughts cannot “aspire to greatness,” no matter how hard they work. Callum is casting about trying to figure out why Mr. Jason hates him so much. Nothing seems to make sense if it’s just because of skin color. But this just illustrates one of the novel’s bigger points: hatred doesn’t always make logical sense.
Themes
Mr. Jason asks the class for the names of the people who invented traffic signals, pioneered blood banks, and perform open heart surgery. Callum is the only one who can list the inventors—and for that, Mr. Jason suggests Callum teach the lesson. More hands go up when Mr. Jason asks what all those men have in common. Students have many suggestions, but they’re missing the obvious one. Callum puts his hand up and says all those men were Crosses. This is the right answer, and Mr. Jason says that from the time Crosses’ ancestors sailed from Cafrique, they’ve been leading backward civilizations into the future.
Callum is better versed in history than his Cross classmates. But he’s punished for knowing things because he’s a nought, and noughts aren’t thought of as being intelligent and knowledgeable. Mr. Jason then goes on to present a really backwards view of colonialism. If the novel’s world is just an inverted version of the reader’s world (in which Europeans colonized the world), then Mr. Jason is ignoring the fact that colonizers destroyed advanced civilizations worldwide.
Themes
Callum won’t stand for this. He puts his hand up and says that noughts have contributed to progress too. For example, the Cross Matthew Henson went to the North Pole with a nought, Robert Peary—they’re joint discoverers of the North Pole. Mr. Jason has never heard of Peary, and Callum says that’s because Crosses write the books and leave noughts out. At this, Mr. Jason gets even angrier and insists Callum is lying. He sends Callum to “go and stand outside the headmaster’s room” until he’s ready to behave.
Even if Callum previously expressed skepticism about his parents’ views on the Good Book (that it was written by Crosses and is therefore biased), here he seems to buy that the historical record is thoroughly biased—at least when Mr. Jason is saying such offensive things. Mr. Jason is so caught up in proving the Crosses’ supremacy that he’s unwilling to consider new information.
Themes
Callum knocks over his chair, glares at Sephy, and storms out. Crosses might have learned to make guns that made them powerful, but that doesn’t make their methods right. Slavery has been over for 50 years, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed—and it’s so unfair. Maybe Mum and Jude are right, and Heathcroft is a waste of time. At Mr. Corsa’s office, Callum figures that Mr. Jason probably wants Callum to stand outside Mr. Corsa’s door, where he’s most likely to get in trouble.
Callum is starting to wonder if Heathcroft isn’t going to give him an education—if it’s just going to wear him down and make him angry instead. Figuring that Mr. Jason gave his directions specifically so that Callum would get in as much trouble as possible shows that Callum knows he can’t win at school: even when he does as he’s told, he still gets in trouble.
Themes
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As Callum approaches the door, he hears angry voices coming from inside the office. Mrs. Paxton and Mr. Corsa are arguing—Mrs. Paxton wants to crack down on the bullying the noughts are experiencing, and Mr. Corsa wants to let the “blankers” decide Heathcroft is too hard so they leave. Mrs. Paxton points out that she and many other teachers wanted the noughts here, and it’s their responsibility to make school safe for the noughts. But Mr. Corsa insists the government only let noughts in to please the Pangaean Economic Community. Callum doesn’t want to listen anymore.
Mrs. Paxton seems to fully support the nought students—but she also seems extremely naïve about her coworkers’ lack of support for the noughts. So even though Callum has previously thought of Mrs. Paxton as a safe ally, overhearing this fight makes it seem as though he can’t trust her to fully understand the extent of her coworkers’ vitriol and racism. Broadly speaking, Callum also gets proof here that most adults at school don’t want him here.
Themes
A minute later, Mrs. Paxton comes out of the office. Callum tells her why he’s not in Mr. Jason’s class right now, and when she suggests he learn when to keep quiet, he says he can’t just not speak up—noughts won’t ever get the recognition they deserve if they stay quiet. He says too that Mr. Jason hates him. Mrs. Paxton says that Mr. Jason in just trying to toughen Callum up, and that none of the teachers want the noughts to fail. Callum scoffs, but Mrs. Paxton tells him a secret: Mr. Jason isn’t against the noughts because his mother was a nought.
Suggesting that Callum doesn’t contradict Mr. Jason’s racist teachings shows that Mrs. Paxton really doesn’t understand how dehumanizing being in school is for Callum. Few people want him here, and most people are going out of their way to make him feel unwelcome. But Mrs. Paxton then reveals her reasoning as to why Mr. Jason isn’t actually against Callum: he has nought blood. She essentially proposes that because he (presumably) loves one nought, he wants all noughts to succeed.
Themes
