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 from a pleasant dream to Sarah and Mother demanding she unlock her door and let them in. Sephy calls that she’s fine, shakes Callum awake, and shoves him toward the bathroom. She mouths that she’s going to let them in—they haven’t done anything wrong—and puts a bathrobe over her expensive dress, which is now wrinkled. Once Callum is in the bathroom, Sephy opens the door. Sarah suspiciously says Sephy slept until noon, but Sephy yawns casually. Then, Sephy notices Callum’s sneakers by her bed.
Sleeping until noon could simply be a consequence of being up so late—but it could also indicate Sephy and Callum’s comfort with each other, at least while they’re both asleep and have their guards down. Sephy’s insistence that she hasn’t done anything wrong still seems naïve—her parents wouldn’t appreciate knowing that she spent the night with Callum, but she doesn’t seem to fully grasp how dangerous this could be for him.
Themes
Brightly, Sephy says she’ll be down after a shower. Sarah looks suspicious—and stops abruptly when she notices Callum’s sneakers. Sephy assures Mother that everything is fine as Sarah walks slowly to the sneakers and kicks them under the bed, and then starts to make the bed. Mother snaps that Sarah shouldn’t do that and stalks away. As Sarah follows, she hisses to Sephy to get Callum out, now. Once they’re gone and the door is locked, Callum comes out of the bathroom. He and Sephy laugh. They decide to cuddle for a while longer before sneaking Callum out.
Sarah might not be as unthinkingly loyal to Mother as Sephy previously thought, if Sarah is willing to protect Callum and Sephy by hiding his sneakers. And though Sephy is the more naïve one in this situation, neither Callum nor Sephy seem to care much about how much trouble Callum could get in if they were to be found out—a symptom of their youth and their relative innocence.
Themes
