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Chapter 55
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 knows things went too far with Sephy. They didn’t have sex, but he really only wanted her to see that he doesn’t care if she stinks of alcohol. In any case, Sephy is too young. She’s clearly just drinking because she’s bored and wants attention. Callum tries to make himself stop thinking of Sephy—he’s being pathetic and needs to sleep.
Callum can no longer ignore his feelings for Sephy, though they continue to be uncomfortable. He believes he should have bigger things to think about, like surviving his next day at school, than his kiss with Sephy.
Themes
Callum wakes up to the front door being broken down. There’s shouting and footsteps, and then smoke is everywhere. Callum screams for Jude and then realizes the smoke isn’t smoke: it’s tear gas. As Callum feels his way down the stairs, two voices shout at him to get down and then tackle him to the ground. They cuff him and drag him out of the house. Callum is crying and can’t breathe, the tear gas is so painful. He screams for Mum, Dad, and Jude, and can hear Mum crying as he’s shoved into a police car. He has no idea what’s going on.
This terrifying scene shows how vulnerable noughts are to police brutality—even if they didn’t do anything, like Mum and Callum. Callum is never told what’s going on, and he’s made to experience all sorts of pain and fear, seemingly just to intimidate him. In this difficult moment, Callum screams for his family members—he still relies on them to keep him safe.
Themes
