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
Minnie and Sephy are sitting on the stairs, listening to their parents fight. Fighting is rare: Mr. Hadley is never home and when he is, Mother is usually too drunk and out of it to fight. Mother is telling Mr. Hadley to not do “this” to her, while Mr. Hadley sarcastically says that Mother has been a great parent to “all” his children. Crying now, Mother asks if she was really supposed to let her husband bring his “bastard” into the house, and says that when she first refused to let him come, she made a mistake. Mr. Hadley says marrying Mother was a mistake and he’s had enough.
Most of the time, Sephy and Minnie can ignore that their parents’ marriage is so strained because their parents are seldom in the same place at the same time. And note that for the girls, this seems like a pretty emotionless experience—they’re just gathering information about their parents by listening in. It turns out that Mr. and Mrs. Hadley’s marriage is even more dysfunctional than it initially seemed, if Mr. Hadley has a son somewhere.
Themes
Sephy is shocked that she and Minnie have a brother. Downstairs, Mother suggests that she and Mr. Hadley start again, but Mr. Hadley says that’s silly. Their relationship is over, and Mother has let herself go too much. At this, Minnie stalks away. Sephy stays put and listens to her parents argue about whether Mother has appropriately supported Mr. Hadley throughout their marriage. Mr. Hadley assures Mother that she and the children will get everything they need, but once the election is over he’ll go public about their separation. Mother threatens to divorce him, but he says that’ll make him happy.
Listening in on this conversation teaches Sephy just how cruel her father can be—his contempt for Mother is palpable, and this is presumably what causes Minnie to get up and leave. The Hadleys also seem to frame their marriage as purely transactional. They’re not married because they love each other, but because they feel they’ve “earned” a relationship and support based on past actions.
Themes
Sephy grabs her jacket and races out the door before anyone can stop her. All that she’s learned is so shocking. It’s also shocking that Callum is in their place on the beach. He puts his arm around Sephy when she sits down next to him, and she apologizes for how Mr. Jason treats Callum. Callum smiles and suggests that neither of them apologize for other Cross or nought “idiots.”
Keep in mind that as she’s a bit of a young romantic, Sephy is no doubt disturbed to hear her parents fight. So it’s nice for her to find Callum here, since she believes that Callum genuinely loves and cares about her. Unlike her parents’ relationship, Sephy’s relationship with Callum isn’t so transactional.
Themes
Sephy takes a deep breath and says she has a confession to make: she invited Callum to her party for “the wrong reasons,” just to upset Mother and her friends. She’s taking the invite back now. Callum thanks her. Sephy sighs that growing up is hard, and Callum adds that it’s only going to get harder. Sephy doesn’t ask him to clarify—what he might say scares her.
This is a moment where it starts to look like Sephy is growing up and gaining maturity. She realizes that she has some power, and that she should use that power to protect Callum and their friendship. But still, Sephy isn’t totally ready to accept the horrors of her world, since she won’t ask Callum what else is going to happen.
Themes
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