At its heart, Noughts & Crosses is a story of how Sephy, a wealthy Cross (Black person), and Callum, her poor nought (white) best friend, grow up. Sephy is 13 and Callum is 15 when the novel begins, and it follows them for the next three and a half years, as their lives take wildly different paths than they expected. For both Sephy and Callum, but to differing degrees, growing up entails becoming increasingly aware of the darker aspects of their world, which is racially segregated. Indeed, noughts are in constant danger of violence or discrimination from racist Crosses. Sephy is innocent and naïve when the novel begins, ignorant of the fact that Callum goes through his days fearing he’ll be demeaned or even hurt because of his skin color. And she never entirely grasps this idea, which indicates that by the end of the novel, Sephy hasn’t fully matured. But Callum, as a nought who’s erroneously accused of raping Sephy, is executed before his 20th birthday. This outcome shows that in Sephy and Callum’s society, it’s a privilege to get to grow up at all. In this way, Noughts & Crosses portrays childhood as a time when kids are naïve and unaware of the unpleasant aspects of the world around them. It suggests that childhood is an enviable state, but one that inevitably comes to an end, at least for underprivileged or marginalized people—sometimes through death, but more often through disillusionment and fear.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Youth, Innocence, and Growing Up ThemeTracker
Youth, Innocence, and Growing Up Quotes in Noughts and Crosses
“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.
“Us noughts and you Crosses.” I shook my head. “It makes it sound like…like you’re in one place and I’m in another, with a huge, great wall between us.”
Callum looked out across the sea. “Maybe we are in different places…”
“No, we aren’t. Not if we don’t want to be, we aren’t.” I willed Callum to look at me.
“I wish it was that simple.”
“It is.”
“Maybe from where you’re sitting.”
“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…
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.
“I’ll find out who did this and when I do—they’ll be really, really sorry.” And the look in my sister’s eyes told me that she was serious. Deadly serious. For the first time since the three pigs had started laying into me, I felt almost good. Minnie had never been on my side like this before. It was almost—but not quite—worth it if it meant Minnie and I would grow closer…
“No one touches a Hadley. No one,” Minnie stormed. “If they think they can get to you with no comeback, then it won’t be long before someone tries it on with me. I won’t have that.”
My tentative bubble of well-being was well and truly burst.
“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.”
“We had to, Mum. Our cell was ordered to do it. Some of us set it up last night, but they said they’d phone through with the warning an hour before it went off. I swear they did. They said that everyone would be evacuated in plenty of time.” The verbal waterfall tumbled from Jude’s mouth.
“You killed, you murdered all those people…,” Mum whispered, appalled.
“Dad said they would phone through with a warning. That’s what he said. I don’t understand.” Jude turned bewildered eyes toward Dad.
“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.
“Who’re you trying to convince? Me or yourself?”
And then I did the last thing either of us expected. I burst into tears. My sister put her arm around me then, allowing my head to rest on her shoulder—which just made me feel worse.
“Minerva, I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to, before I explode.”
“Don’t worry. I’m working on it with Dad.”
“Yeah, for yourself. But what about me?”
“No, I’m working on Dad for both of us,” said Minnie.
Mr. Pingule, the prosecutor, smiled at me encouragingly, which helped a little. A very little. I hadn’t expected to be quite so nervous. […]
“Take your time, Miss Hadley,” the judge said, smiling.
I smiled back at him gratefully. Maybe I could do this. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.
According to the reporters on the telly, Kelani was making sure that the trial was as fair as possible—and putting the judge’s back up in the process. Good for her!
Ryan McGregor just had to be found not guilty. It was only right and proper.
It was only just.
It was only justice.
“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.”
I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoiled things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it’s not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself? And it wasn’t even that most Crosses were prejudiced against noughts. I still didn’t believe that. But everyone seemed to be too afraid to stand up in public and say, “This is wrong.” And by everyone, I meant me included.
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.
“Mum’s grandfather, our great-grandfather, was a Cross. That’s what Mum told me that day. We’ve got Cross blood in our veins.”
“I—I don’t believe it,” I whispered.
“It’s true. Mum only told me because I joined the LM. She said I was part Cross, so killing them would be just like killing my own. Poor Mum! That backfired on her.”
“What do you mean?”
“None of them ever wanted us. What has any Cross ever done for me except look down at me? I hated them even more after Mum told me the truth. Poor Mum.”
