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Chapter 94
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 struggles to sit up when she hears the door unlock. She’s in so much pain, but she doesn’t want anyone to know how badly she hurts. Callum is in the doorway, and Sephy draws back—he tricked her, and she’s afraid of him. She feels like her mind is shutting down as Callum cuts off a lock of her hair, but then she’s relieved. Callum gives her a newspaper; he needs to film her holding it. Sephy says she isn’t going to help him just as two other noughts appear in the doorway. The man tells Sephy to hold it or he’ll break her arms. When the man calls Callum “little brother,” Sephy recognizes him as Jude.
For Sephy, not letting anyone see how much pain she’s in is a safety thing: she wants to seem strong, as that might help her stay alive longer. This is an extremely traumatizing experience for her, and it’s made worse by the fact that Callum is the one cutting her hair and getting close to her. Though she once loved him, Sephy doesn’t believe she can trust him anymore—his loyalty seems to lie elsewhere now.
Themes
Sephy grudgingly accepts the paper. Callum tells the watching noughts to go away, but the woman says venomously that she’s here to see Kamal Hadley’s daughter. Jude tells the woman, Leila, to go guard the door, and Callum gives Sephy a message to read aloud. Sephy takes one look at the note, throws it, and shouts that her dad shouldn’t give the LM any money. Jude slaps Sephy and says she’ll do as she’s told or she’ll die. He then leaves the room. Sephy considers running, but she can’t think straight.
Being watched by the rest of the cell raises the stakes for Sephy and Callum alike. Callum is performing for more than just Sephy, and at the moment, he cares more about impressing his cell than about Sephy. For Sephy, she’s outnumbered many times over with the rest of the cell watching, and resisting could be more dangerous than if she were just resisting Callum.
Themes
Sephy knows she has to get Callum to remember how things used to be. Softly, she tells him that she gets why he thinks he has to do this, but this isn’t okay. She’s been involved in nonviolent protests, and changing the world with violence is very unjust. Callum spits that he tried to change things by getting an education, but that didn’t work. Sephy offers to help, but Callum says he doesn’t need charity and he doesn’t need Crosses supervising everything he does. Sephy tries again to say that he can do things differently, but Callum tells her to be quiet and read.
Sephy, like Callum’s mum years ago, believes that people should try to change the world through nonviolent protests. But for Callum, that just seems ridiculous. Integrating Heathcroft was supposed to be nonviolent, but Callum was bullied every day for going, and he changed nothing. So even if Callum doesn’t really want to be violent, he’s desperate enough to think that violence is the only way forward.
Themes
