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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
Two plainclothes officers are interrogating Callum—and they have been for hours. They want to know about Jude, Dad, and Mum’s involvement in the Liberation Militia—but Callum insists he doesn’t know anything. The questions keep coming for hours, until Callum thinks he’s losing his mind. Eventually, Callum’s mind shuts down.
Keep in mind that Callum is just a child; he’s only 16. The officers are dehumanizing him by questioning him in this manner, until Callum actually passes out due to the exhaustion and the trauma. This highlights that Callum (and other noughts) have good reason to fear the police in this society.
Themes
Callum comes to in a cell, with Mum stroking his hair. Mum says that Dad is being questioned; she doesn’t know where Jude is. He wasn’t in the house when the police came. She explains that investigators found Jude’s fingerprints on a coke can in the mall. They matched his fingerprints to Jude’s data at the hospital. Starting to cry, Mum says that they’re saying Jude will hang—they’ve already put out a massive reward offer for information. Callum snaps that they probably planted the evidence. Jude wouldn’t set off a bomb.
It's hard to tell if readers should trust Callum’s assessment of Jude’s innocence or not—Jude did admit that it was his and Dad’s LM cell that planted the bomb. However, given how the police treat noughts as though they’re all criminals, Callum’s insistence that the police planted the evidence doesn’t seem out of place. There’s no trust between the police and a huge swath of the population.
Themes
Callum asks why the police are talking to Dad still, if they want Jude. Mum doesn’t know—but she hopes Dad is careful. Just then, the cell door opens and the officer tells Mum and Callum that they can go. When Mum asks where Dad is, the officer says he’ll be formally charged soon—but he won’t share any more information. When Callum asks what Dad is being charged with, the officer finally answers: political terrorism and seven counts of murder.
What Dad is going to be charged with suggests that the police believe he’s the one who planted the bomb—so Dad is seemingly taking the fall, either for Jude or for someone else in his LM cell. But at this point, it’s unclear whether Dad’s loyalty is more to his family or to the LM (and if he’s protecting Jude, Dad’s loyalty is in both places).
Themes
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