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Chapter 54
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
Laughing hysterically, Sephy greets Callum and tells him it’s a beautiful day. Callum, though, isn’t laughing. He leans forward, sniffs Sephy’s breath, and then shakes her and asks what she’s doing. Frightened, Sephy tells Callum to let go and falls when he does. The ground is swaying; it’s hard to get up. When Callum accuses Sephy of being drunk, Sephy says she just had one, maybe two, glasses of cider. Callum tells Sephy she’s “stupid,” she’s going to end up like Mother. At least Mother had a reason to start drinking, but Sephy’s reasons just show that she’s entitled and bratty.
Callum has an outside perspective on Sephy’s family situation, and he sees more clearly than Sephy does that Mother’s drinking is hurting every member of the Hadley family. He clearly doesn’t want Sephy to get hurt with her drinking—he’s her friend, after all—but notice how forcefully he touches and speaks to her. It's violent and cruel, which suggests that Callum is struggling to separate his feelings for Sephy with his desire to lash out and hurt her.
Themes
Finally, Sephy says that she drinks because she’s tired. She’s tired of her family and of the way Callum makes her feel. She’s supposed to be perfect and live a boring life, but that makes her want to vomit. She wants something more. Callum tells her she won’t find anything in a wine bottle, or she’ll end up like Mother will: in an assisted living facility or dead. Sephy jumps. Is that really what’s going to happen to Mother? Suddenly, Sephy feels like a silly child.
Because Sephy trusts Callum, she’s willing to speak honestly with him about how she’s feeling. This has an immediate effect: Callum is able to make Sephy see that drinking isn’t going to help, and it’s going to put her in danger. Having this laid out for her, Sephy realizes that drinking only makes her look young, naïve, bored, and entitled.
Themes
After a minute, Sephy says she should head back. She promises to try to stop drinking, but won’t promise to stop outright. Then, she leans forward and kisses Callum. He pulls away—she stinks of alcohol. Sephy accuses him of being as cruel as Mr. Hadley. When Callum tries to grab Sephy’s arm and ask her to stay, Sephy screams that he’s too caught up with the Liberation Militia to care about her. Callum insists he’s not part of the LM, but he won’t tell Sephy how he knew about the mall bomb. When Sephy says she wishes he’d let her die in the mall, Callum kisses her. Sephy kisses him back, and their hands wander.
The alcohol lowers Sephy’s inhibitions, which is part of why she tries to kiss Callum. She’s also desperate for someone to love her and make her feel cared for, and right now, Callum seems like her best (and only) option. But despite the fact that Sephy and Callum do go on to kiss, outside forces are still coming between them. Sephy doesn’t fully trust Callum when he says he’s not part of the LM, and Callum seems displeased with Sephy’s unwillingness to stop drinking entirely.
Themes
