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
Mum is enraged by the time Callum gets home, but Dad is the one to ask where Callum was. Callum can’t tell them the truth (he said goodbye to Sephy two hours ago, but then hid and watched her to make sure she got home), so he says he was walking and thinking. Dad asks if Callum is okay; he tried to come to Heathcroft earlier, but Crosses told him he had no business there. Jude starts to curse, but Mum stops him. Dad asks Callum how classes were. Callum says they were fine. This is another lie: the teachers ignored the noughts and the Crosses bullied them. Dad tells Callum not to let the “dagger swine” drive him out of school.
Callum clearly cares about Sephy despite being mad and conflicted about their relationship. But he has to hide this from his family, as they don’t support friendship between noughts and Crosses. And Callum pulls further away from his family when he lies about how his day went. But Dad also seems to suspect that Callum isn’t telling the whole truth, and he seems far more animated as he warns Callum about the “dagger swine.” He wants Callum to be equal to the Crosses—but he also clearly despises the Crosses.
Themes
Jude says he saw Callum and his “friend” on TV and heard what she said. Callum insists Sephy didn’t mean it like that, but Mum, Dad, and Jude all agree that the Hadleys are terrible people. When Callum notes that Mum and Mrs. Hadley used to be friends, Mum says they were never friends. That’s not what Callum remembers. Mum nannied Minerva and then Sephy. It was like one day Mum and Mrs. Hadley were friends, and then three years ago everything suddenly changed. Sephy and Callum have continued to see each other and even made a blood oath to keep seeing each other at their secret place on the beach.
Callum reads as far more naïve than his family members. He seems to look back on Mum and Mrs. Hadley’s friendship as something genuine. However, Mum insists that due to the power dynamic between employer and employee, their friendship was never able to really flourish. This introduces the idea that friendships in the novel might look fine to an outsider, but an outside look doesn’t always give someone the full picture.
Themes
Dad shushes everyone as the news comes on. First, the newscaster shows footage of Kamal Hadley saying that the government wasn’t blackmailed by the Liberation Militia to let noughts into Cross schools. Dad snorts and Callum tunes out—until Jude says, “Long live the Liberation Militia!” Dad praises Jude, and Callum notices Mum looking away. Something is going on, and Callum feels excluded.
Notice that Callum isn’t interested in the news, or his parents’ reactions to it, until Jude brings up the Liberation Militia and Dad responds. He hasn’t fully explained what the Liberation Militia is yet, but it seems to be causing strife in Callum’s family—note that Mum looks away as though she doesn’t approve.
Themes
