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
Sephy wakes up to stones hitting her window. It’s Callum. He clambers up the drainpipe and onto Sephy’s balcony. Sephy wants to apologize for everything. But she thinks it’d sound trite, so she decides it’s better to say nothing. She tries to ask if she can help and how Meggie is, but then runs to lock the door—she doesn’t need visitors. But when Sephy turns around, Callum is right there. He says he thought she was going to get help and his expression gets colder every second.
Sephy seems aware that there’s not much she can say that is going to make anything better for Callum. He’s going through an unspeakably difficult experience right now, and Sephy reasons that the best thing she can do is make sure Callum isn’t found in her bedroom. But this backfires because Callum is assuming the worst of Sephy in this moment—he’s too angry to trust her.
Themes
Callum spits that Mr. Hadley must be proud—his political reputation is restored now that an innocent man is imprisoned. Sephy refutes this, but she knows it’s true. Sephy notices Callum clenching his fists. He’s so angry, and he wants to hurt someone. Callum hisses that he and Sephy must stop seeing each other—it’d ruin her reputation too to be seen with him. Sephy tries to touch Callum’s cheek, but he jerks away and shouts that he doesn’t want her pity. She tries to get him to be quiet, but he shouts that she must want people to know she has a “blanker” in her room. He says he hates Sephy and every other “dagger.”
It's somewhat unclear exactly what bearing Dad’s trial has on Mr. Hadley’s political reputation (the novel never specifies if it’s well-known that Meggie worked for the Hadleys). But regardless, Sephy finds herself having to choose between defending her father and validating her friend. Validating Callum, though, becomes next to impossible because of how angry he is. He’s overwhelmed by his emotions—and Sephy, as his friend and a Cross, makes an easy target.
Themes
Crying, Sephy says she knows—Callum has hated her since she called him a “blanker” on the first day of school. She suddenly realizes lots of things, including why she started drinking. Callum says that Sephy has hated him since he refused to be there for her at school. After a minute, Callum asks why they’re still together. Sephy says they’re best friends, and she loves him. When Sephy says it again, Callum says it’s impossible for noughts and Crosses to be friends or to love each other. Sephy asks why he’s here if that’s true. He doesn’t know.
In this moment, Sephy starts to understand that her privilege and innocence have made her very tone deaf and consequently caused her to be a poor friend to Callum. But Callum acknowledges that both he and Sephy have hurt each other. If they’re going to move forward, they’re going to have to apologize—which it seems like only Sephy is currently capable of doing. But it’s much less of a risk for her to admit what she’s done wrong, given her privileged position.
Themes
Sephy sits on her bed and Callum joins her. Sephy wants to say so many things, but she can’t speak. She holds out her arms to Callum. He doesn’t respond until Sephy starts to turn away, and then he pulls her close and kisses her. Callum tells Sephy to turn around and then spoons her. Sephy wants to get under the covers, but figures she should settle for this—it’s better than Callum’s rage. She tells him not to leave without writing down his address and phone number, and then apologizes for sitting at Callum’s table and for going to Lynette’s funeral. Callum tells Sephy to forget it, and she falls right to sleep.
Even if Sephy is becoming more aware of her privilege, she still reads as a bit tone deaf in this passage: she expects Callum to embrace her wholeheartedly, rather than acknowledging that he might need some time to think about her apology. She also seems to see Callum’s anger as normal, which speaks to how integrated anger, fear, and violence have become in Sephy and Callum’s relationship. It’s so normal that Sephy can fall right to sleep, even as she knows Callum is still angry.
Themes
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