Noughts and Crosses

Noughts and Crosses

by

Malorie Blackman

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Noughts and Crosses makes teaching easy.
Themes and Colors
Racism, Division, and Tragedy Theme Icon
Awareness and Privilege Theme Icon
Love, Lust, Power, and Violence Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
Youth, Innocence, and Growing Up Theme Icon
Family Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Noughts and Crosses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship Theme Icon

Noughts & Crosses focuses on the friendship between privileged Cross (Black person) Sephy and the nought (white person) Callum, whose family lives in poverty. The novel begins when the two are still young teenagers, and Sephy and Callum have been best friends since Sephy was born (Callum’s mother, Meggie, was Sephy’s nanny and brought young Callum to work with her). As children, Sephy and Callum can have a genuine, fulfilling friendship precisely because neither of them understands that, due to their different skin colors, they’re not supposed to be friends. But as they get older, their friendship crumbles when Callum starts attending Sephy’s school as one of the first noughts to integrate the country’s school system, and Sephy fails to support Callum or even understand the racist abuse he experiences at school and in public. The novel also briefly touches on the supposed friendship between Mrs. Hadley and Meggie. While Mrs. Hadley, the more privileged of the pair, insists that she’s legitimately Meggie’s friend, Meggie later maintains that the women were never friends—the power differential between them made genuine trust and support impossible. Through characters’ different perceptions of their relationships, the novel suggests that enjoying spending time with someone doesn’t make a true friendship. Even between two people who enjoy each other’s company, outside forces (like racism or class differences) can prevent people from genuinely understanding each other.

Related Themes from Other Texts
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Friendship ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Friendship appears in each chapter of Noughts and Crosses. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Get the entire Noughts and Crosses LitChart as a printable PDF.
Noughts and Crosses PDF

Friendship Quotes in Noughts and Crosses

Below you will find the important quotes in Noughts and Crosses related to the theme of Friendship.
Prologue Quotes

“Honestly, Mrs. Hadley,” said Meggie McGregor, wiping her eyes. “That sense of humor of yours will be the death of me yet!”

Jasmine Hadley allowed herself a rare giggle. “The things I tell you, Meggie. It’s lucky we’re such good friends!”

Meggie’s smile wavered only slightly. She looked out across the vast lawn at Callum and Sephy. Her son and her employer’s daughter. They were good friends playing together. Real good friends. No barriers. No boundaries. Not yet anyway.

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Meggie McGregor/Mum (speaker), Callum McGregor, Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“STOP IT! YOU’RE ALL BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS!” I shouted so hard my throat immediately began to hurt. “WORSE THAN ANIMALS—LIKE BLANKERS!”

The sound of the crowd slowly died away. “Just look at you,” I continued. “Stop it.” I glanced down at Callum. He was staring at me, the strangest expression on his face.

Callum, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t mean you. I’d never mean you. It was just for the others, to get them to stop, to get them to help. I didn’t mean you…

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Corsa, Shania
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Why couldn’t he understand that I hadn’t been talking about him? It was just a word. A word Dad had used. But it was a word that had hurt my best friend. A word that was now hurting me so very, very much.

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Callum McGregor, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

“What’re you talking about? She’s got friends dripping out of cupboards,” I scoffed.

“Not close ones. Not real friends that she can tell anything and everything to.”

“She’s probably driven them all away with her funny moods, […] If I didn’t have to live in the same house as her I wouldn’t put up with her either.”

“She’s lonely,” said Minnie.

“Why doesn’t she just go out and make some new friends then?” I asked.

Minnie smiled, one of her superior smiles that instantly ruffled my feathers. “You’re very young, Sephy.”

Related Characters: Sephy Hadley (speaker), Minerva “Minnie” Hadley (speaker), Mrs. Hadley/Mother, Mr. Kamal Hadley
Page Number: 165
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 55 Quotes

“Sephy, don’t follow your mother, okay? She’s headed for a mental home—or a coffin. Is that really what you want?”

That made me start and no mistake. Was that really where Mother was going? I didn’t want her to die like that. I didn’t want to die like that. I regarded Callum, seeing myself as he must see me. A silly, pathetic child who thought that drinking was a way to grow older faster.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Mrs. Hadley/Mother
Related Symbols: The Spot on the Beach
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 77 Quotes

“You stupid girl. Who d’you think paid for their lawyer and all their legal fees?” Mother took hold of my shoulders and shook me. “I prayed and paid and did everything I could to make sure that Ryan wouldn’t hang. What more could I have done? You tell me.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Hadley/Mother (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Meggie McGregor/Mum, Ryan McGregor/Dad, Kelani Adams
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 80 Quotes

When I’d come into her room, I’d been burning up with the desire to smash her and everything else around her. Sephy was a Cross I could actually hurt. And yet here she was, asleep and still holding on to my arms like I was a life raft or something. There’s not an inch of space between her body and mine. I could move my hands and…And. Anything I liked. Caress or strangle. Kill or cure. Her or me. Me or her.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley, Ryan McGregor/Dad
Page Number: 339
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 94 Quotes

And we’d succeeded. We had Sephy. No! Not Sephy…Just a Cross girl—who deserved everything she got, who’d get us everything we needed. I paused outside the cell door. I could do this. I had to do this.

Be what you have to be, Callum, not what you are…

I repeated that phrase over and over in my head, the way I used to do when I first joined the LM. The way I had to whenever there was something…distasteful that needed to be done.

Related Characters: Callum McGregor (speaker), Sephy Hadley
Page Number: 391
Explanation and Analysis: