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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
It’s so funny. When Sephy first got to Chivers, she cried herself to sleep because Callum didn’t want to run away with her. Sephy also didn’t realize how addicted to alcohol she was until she started shaking—she was having withdrawal symptoms. After three weeks of pretending she had the flu, Sephy threw herself into school activities. Now, she realizes Chivers was the best thing she ever did for herself. She got to rework her identity and make new friends who actually like her. School is hard, and Sephy makes a point to never spend holidays at home.
Sephy is writing now from some unspecified point in the future, and it’s clear she’s grown up a lot in the time between the last chapter and this one. She realizes that when she lived at home, she felt compelled to embody a certain identity. But at Chivers, away from her dysfunctional family and the racist environment at Heathcroft, Sephy is able to better explore her identity and become a person she feels proud of.
Themes
Sephy has also joined a dissident group. The Cross group took a pledge to help integrate noughts and Crosses—though they all believe nothing will really change until the old people currently in charge die. The group is what really keeps Sephy focused at school. Sephy used to tell herself that it was just a few people spoiling things for everyone else. Now, she believes that most Crosses aren’t actually prejudiced; they’re just too afraid to call out wrong things when they see them. Sephy is also afraid, but with her dissident group, she at least feels like she’s doing something.
The dissident group gives Sephy the purpose she craved in her old life, but couldn’t find. Now, she realizes that working quietly in support of integration makes her feel like she’s doing something meaningful—even if it’s not as splashy as shouting at mobs or sitting with the noughts at lunch. However, Sephy still seems naïve and unaware of how racist her world is, if she thinks most Crosses aren’t prejudiced. The novel has shown again and again that even Crosses who don’t think they’re racist—like Sephy—are products of a society that normalizes casual racism.
Themes
For a while, Sephy considered inviting Minnie to join. But she decided not to—Minnie is too busy, and it’s miserable at home with Mother. Mother is still drinking. Sephy doesn’t drink anymore because she wants her future to be different. It won’t include Callum, for one. She’s going to be a lawyer like Kelani Adams and speak up and get so famous that the government and the PEC won’t be able to intimidate her. She thinks about Callum still, but she no longer hopes for “the impossible.” Sometimes she wonders if Callum still thinks of her.
Sephy’s dreams of becoming like Kelani Adams have a good chance of coming true, thanks to Sephy’s family’s wealth and privilege. She can afford law school, and she already understands how the government works after seeing her father work in it for so many years. But she still doesn’t seem to grasp that she might not be able to use her power to become fully untouchable: after all, Kelani wasn’t able to save Dad.
Themes
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