Noughts And Crosses

“Sometimes I wondered if it was worth losing your marbles to find that kind of peace. Sometimes I envied her.”

Callum discusses his sister Lynette, who suffered an accident three years earlier and now lives in a mental state separate from the world around her. Callum envies her lack of understanding of what’s happening around her. Callum searches for peace throughout the novel and does not find it until his final act of sacrifice for his child.

“It seemed to me we’d practiced segregation for centuries now and that hadn’t worked either. What would satisfy all the noughts and the Crosses who felt the same as Mum? Separate countries? Separate planets? How far away was far enough? What was it about the differences in others that scared some people so much?”

Callum argues with his mother about attending Heathcroft High, a Cross school. Callum’s mother harbors a deep mistrust of Crosses and believes in the segregation of the two groups. Callum poses rhetorical questions that explore the nature of discrimination and its root causes.

“Why did I have to represent all noughts? Why couldn’t I just represent myself?”

Callum feels pressure to represent the nought community and to overachieve. This pressure leads Callum to focus on his ambition to gain the respect of Crosses through his education. Callum soon faces insurmountable obstacles to his ambition that teach him that peace exists only in true human connection.

“We had our own world, our own secret place on the beach where no one went and where no one would ever find us – not if they didn’t know where to look. It was a small space, tiny really, but it was ours.”

Sephy and Callum meet at her private beach often to escape from the world around them. They maintain their relationship for years at the beach and return to the beach to reconnect after separating. As a symbol of nature, the beach allows Callum and Sephy to exist outside of society’s bounds and dictates and represents their natural connection.

“My eyes widened at that. I’d never really thought about it before, but she was right. I’d never seen any pink Band-Aids. Band-Aids were the color of us Crosses, not the noughts.”

Sephy realizes the lack of representation for noughts in society through her conversation with the other noughts at Heathcroft. She is beginning to see how privileged she is. These realizations fuel Sephy’s growth into a more conscious advocate for equality between noughts and Crosses.

“The Crosses were meant to be closer to God. The Good Book said so. The Son of God was dark-skinned like them, had eyes like them, had hair like them. The Good Book said so.”

Callum details the religious justification for the supremacy of Crosses. He explains how the Good Book’s word has allowed the Crosses to discriminate against the noughts based solely on the color of their skin. The repetition of “The Good Book said so” emphasizes the religious text in this society.

“Why was it that when noughts committed criminal acts, the fact they were noughts was always pointed out? The banker was a Cross. The newsreader didn’t even mention it.”

Sephy reflects on the ways in which the media represents noughts in a negative light. Sephy grows increasingly aware of the biases that have influenced her perception of noughts. This growth reflects the influence Callum has had on Sephy by sharing his experiences as a nought.

“I didn’t want to resent Sephy for the way my education was automatically assumed to be less important than hers. I didn’t want to hate her because she was a Cross and different from me. So I carried on looking out of the window, pushing the knot of loathing deeper inside me. Deeper and deeper. The way I always did.”

Callum feels resentment at his mistreatment by the conductors on the train to Celebration Park. Although he is upset, he stays silent and does not tell Sephy about his true feelings. He describes the loathing he feels as a knot that he buries deep inside. These feelings eventually erupt and consume Callum.

“I’m not completely stupid. I’m not as naïve as I used to be either. I’m finally growing up.”

Sephy senses that Callum is not telling him how he really felt on the train ride to Celebration Park. She is becoming more discerning and is beginning to think more critically about the world around her. Sephy undergoes a transition from childhood to adulthood throughout the novel that teaches her there is more to life outside of her privileged upbringing.

“My face was the reflection of Dad and Jude. My expression was theirs. My thoughts and feelings and hates and fears were all theirs, just as theirs were mine, and though I like to think I’m quick and on the ball, I hadn’t even realized. Until now.”

Lynette frightens Callum, his father, and Jude after having one of her episodes. Callum recognizes himself in the faces of his father and Jude. As noughts, they share the same fears. Previously, Callum resented any association to his family and strived to gain the respect of Crosses only. He now realizes that his identity as a nought is part of his identity.

“‘Just remember, Callum,’ she said, her back toward me, ‘when you’re floating up and up in your bubble, that bubbles have a habit of bursting. The higher you climb, the farther you have to fall.’”

In her last conversation with Callum before her death, Lynette warns him about pursuing his own ambition rather than thinking of making a difference. She uses the metaphor of a bubble to illustrate the heights that Callum can reach with his ambition but also the fragile nature of such a plan. Lynette foreshadows Callum’s downfall.

“In everything that had happened, I’d been completely forgotten. By everyone.”

Callum watches his family fight over his father and brother’s involvement in the Liberation Militia. They completely forget Callum’s presence. Callum feels abandoned by his family and feels a growing sense of isolation. This sense of isolation pervades Callum and Sephy’s lives and draws them closer to one another as they rely on each other to survive their tumultuous lives at home.

“I smiled – and carried on walking. I wasn’t part of his school anymore. I didn’t have to do what he said. I wasn’t part of the whole Cross way of life. Why should I do what any of them said?”

The Heathcroft headmaster informs Callum that he will be suspended for the duration of his father’s trial. Callum confronts the headmaster about his mistreatment of the nought students at the school. In this pivotal moment, Callum abandons his plan to find social mobility through his education and is left without a purpose.

“I’d sworn on the Good Book not to lie. But the judge and the jury wouldn’t understand the truth. The truth was more than just a spoken sentence. It was a combination of the thoughts and feelings and the history behind them.”

Sephy testifies in court to corroborate Callum’s story that he knew nothing about the bombing of the shopping center. Sephy reflects on the meaning of truth and contemplates the nuanced nature of truth. Sephy no longer relies on the values that were instilled in her as a young Cross. She now begins the transition into adulthood as she understands the complexity of truth and lies to protect Callum and his family.

“Over the last few months, I’d had a recurring nightmare about being in a cardboard box, no bigger than I was. A normal, simple cardboard box. But no matter how hard I pushed or punched, I just couldn’t smash my way out. In fact, the more I tried, the harder it became. And in my bad dream, it was only when my hands were bloody and I was gasping frantically for breath that I realized I wasn’t in a box at all. It was a coffin. And once I realized that, I stopped struggling and just waited to die. That’s what terrified me the most.”

Callum recalls a nightmare he has of being trapped in a coffin. The coffin foreshadows Callum’s death at the novel’s conclusion. The coffin also represents the restrictions imposed on Callum as a nought in a Cross-dominated society that make him feel helpless. The detail about no longer struggling alludes to Lynette’s death by suicide that Callum previously judged. This detail foreshadows the ultimate choice Callum makes to sacrifice himself at the end.

“The Crosses were all leaving in a hurry. We were penned in and had to stand up like cattle; they had seats. We were herded in through a side gate and ushered to our part of the courtyard. The Crosses got to drive in and sit down, like they were having a night out at the ballet or going to the cinema or something. Each one of us was scanned and searched. I bet not one single Cross was even stopped. And then they wondered why we hated them so much.”

Callum riots with the crowd of noughts after his father’s reprieve is announced at his execution. Callum uses the collective “we” and feels a connection to his nought community. Callum has come to accept his identity as a nought and has found an outlet for the rage he feels toward the Cross community. This connection leads Callum to join the Liberation Militia, a choice that defines the rest of his life.

“Out of the corner of my eyes I saw him slowly clenching and unclenching his fists. I didn’t move. I didn’t blink. I hardly dared to breathe. Callum was hurting so much, it was tearing him up inside. And he wanted to hurt someone.”

Callum travels to Sephy’s house after his father’s reprieve and talks to her in her bedroom. Sephy can see the rage that consumes Callum. She is no longer naïve and can see how Callum’s rage at the injustices he faces as a nought affect their relationship. This awareness leads Sephy further along her journey into adulthood.

“And sorry for all the million and one other well-meant but badly thought out things I’d done in my life. Acts to make me feel better. Actions that had hurt Callum rather than helped him.”

Sephy apologizes to Callum for the ways she has hurt him in the past by calling him a blanker and drawing attention to him during lunchtime during his first week at Heathcroft. More conscious of her privilege, Sephy sees the ways her well-intentioned actions were misguided and harmed Callum. Sephy grows to understand the role she can take to help noughts like Callum and to cause no more harm.

“Going to the beach felt like trying to recapture the past – an impossible task. Too much has happened over the last year.”

Callum wanders aimlessly to find a purpose after his father’s death. He and Sephy have not seen each other since their night together in her bedroom. He attempts to recreate the past by returning to the beach, once a symbol of their connection. Callum comments on how the symbol of the beach has changed as a result of the growing up he and Sephy have experienced in the past year. The beach serves as a symbol of their childhood connection, which is now changing.

“I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoiled things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it’s not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself?”

Sephy details how she has changed in her time at boarding school away from Callum. She has joined a dissident group and discusses the ways change can occur within society. She acknowledges the ways the discrimination against noughts has become a systemic issue. She has found a greater purpose to fight the system and implement change for the noughts.

“Her life was her major disappointment, her mistakes carved into every premature line in her face, but I wasn’t going to let her use my life as her second chance. I had plans. In September I’d be eighteen years old, and I had my whole life and the whole world in front of me. A world full of choices and decisions and opportunities – and they were all mine for the taking.”

Sephy waits for Callum at the beach. She reflects on her growth into adulthood. She no longer feels pressured to accomplish her mother’s unfulfilled dreams and is hopeful for a future where she can live for herself. Blackman presents this moment as a point of contrast as, shortly after this scene, the course of Sephy’s life changes from her kidnapping and eventual pregnancy.

“So I was dreaming again. Lost in my own world where there were no noughts and Crosses. Just me and Callum, as Callum and I should be, while the rest of the world smiled kindly at us or turned their backs on us – but either way, we were left alone.”

Callum and Sephy consummate their relationship. As they make love, Sephy feels drawn back to her childhood fantasies of being with Callum freely and without the constraints of society. This moment marks the point of no return for their relationship moving forward. It results in Sephy’s pregnancy, Callum’s death, and the birth of their mixed-race child.

“I moved away slightly to rest my hands on her abdomen. Her hands covered mine. Her stomach was only slightly rounded, but the moment I touched her, a frisson of electricity passed right through me. Like my child inside her was trying to connect with me somehow.”

After learning about Sephy’s pregnancy, Callum rushes to see Sephy. This moment is a life-changing moment for Callum and Sephy. Callum feels immediately connected to their child. It is as an illuminating moment that leads Callum to his ultimate purpose: the sacrifice of his life for his and Sephy’s child.