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Chapter 24
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
Back in the present, Sephy asks if Callum was thinking of the police officers. He doesn’t deny it, and Sephy thinks they would upset her too, if she was in his shoes. Callum says he wants to remember the day as a good day, once they got to the park. Sephy knows he’s lying. He wants to connect what happened on the train to Mother not letting him in. Sephy’s sure of it; she’s not naïve anymore. She’s growing up. But she’s also afraid to ask Callum what he’s actually thinking. And honestly, her main memory of the day is of feeling ashamed of how the officers treated Callum, and of herself. She resents Callum for making her feel this way. She shouldn’t feel guilty for just existing.
Sephy saying that she’d be upset too if she were in Callum’s shoes suggests that she’s not upset because she’s not in Callum’s shoes. In other words, she can’t empathize with Callum entirely, because she doesn’t suffer. And Sephy also shows that she’s not willing to try to truly understand how Callum feels, which keeps her from being a good ally. To make things even worse, she starts to blame Callum for making her feel bad. This shows that Sephy doesn’t really want to have to confront her privilege. It’s too uncomfortable.
Themes
Sephy’s head fills with questions. Why are nought men and women always portrayed badly in old films? Why aren’t noughts in the news unless it’s bad news? These days, Sephy pays attention to how Crosses and noughts speak to “their ‘own’ kind.” They relax with others like them, and are afraid around people who are different. Life used to be easy, but Sephy suspects those happy days are gone.
Sephy isn’t willing to ask Callum about his experience, but this doesn’t mean she isn’t becoming more aware of how her society is racist. She homes in on the fact that noughts and Crosses are afraid of each other, and she realizes that Crosses produce media that only confirms their biases against noughts.
Themes
Callum says it was a good day at the park. Sephy agrees—but it’s not the truth. She wishes Callum would say what he’s thinking, but he doesn’t. Sephy sighs that it’ll be winter soon; this means that Mother won’t let her down on the beach as often. Callum asks who beat Sephy up. Sephy refuses to say; she can’t do anything to get back at them. But she finally tells Callum. Callum assures her he won’t do anything; he’s “a lowly nought,” after all. Sephy tells him to stop—she’s not his enemy. They both apologize.
Neither Sephy nor Callum are willing to speak honestly about their trip to Celebration Park—which keeps Sephy from learning more about how Callum moves through the world. This makes it even harder for her to develop empathy for him and other noughts. As they both become more miserable in their friendship, they also start to act increasingly hopeless about their racist world ever improving.
Themes
