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Chapter 17
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
Callum loves math—and he loves his teacher, Mrs. Paxton. She’s a Cross, but she treats Callum like he’s a real person. She might move him into a more advanced class after the Crossmas holidays. Callum looks up from his worksheet to see that Sephy has just entered the class. She refuses to look at him. The only free seat is next to Callum, and Sephy tells Mrs. Paxton she can’t sit there—she’s not supposed to sit with noughts. Mrs. Paxton says that’s just at lunch, so Sephy sits and moves her chair as far away from Callum as possible. Callum prays for God to not let anything come between him and Sephy. He knows he’s not supposed to believe in the God of the Crosses, since he’s a nought, but he needs help.
Callum doesn’t elaborate much about how Mrs. Paxton makes him feel like a person, but Mrs. Paxton clearly presents a model for how Crosses should treat noughts. Sephy, though, is so hurt and confused that she’s not able to look to this teacher for guidance on how to treat Callum. So instead, she ends up behaving even more offensively by trying to insist she can’t sit next to him due to his race. At this point, Callum is getting desperate. Sephy is rude and annoying, but he loves her—and believes losing her friendship would be devastating.
Themes
