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Chapter 36
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 flips through channels—nothing on TV is entertaining—until Minnie snatches the remote and throws it. Minnie spits that Mother and Mr. Hadley are splitting up for real this time; does that mean anything to Sephy? Sephy says it does, but she can’t do anything. Minnie gives Sephy a dirty look and leaves the room. As Sephy retrieves the remote and thinks angry thoughts about Minnie, Minnie suddenly shouts for Sephy to call an ambulance. Instead, Sephy runs upstairs and finds Minnie in Mother’s room. Mother is on the floor with a pill bottle; there are a few pills around her. Minnie screams again for Sephy to call an ambulance. Sephy is in shock that Mother tried to kill herself.
As teenagers, both Sephy and Minnie feel powerless as they watch their parents fight and now finally begin the separation process. Sephy has a bit more power in this passage because she has the remote and can therefore decide what they watch on TV. But things take a turn for the worse when Minnie discovers that Mother has attempted suicide. This makes an impending divorce pale in comparison. Though note that Sephy seems to be shocked more at the idea that Mother would kill herself, not necessarily at the prospect of life without her mother.
Themes
