The themes in Noughts and Crosses

• Racism and discrimination

• Friendship
• Violence

• Courage
• Betrayal

In the play Noughts and Crosses there are many themes shown in the Book/Play, one of the main themes being racism and discrimination. In the play noughts and crosses despise each other; this is shown as they call each other ‘Blankers’ and ‘Daggers’.  Another way racism is shown in the play is that crosses get a better education than noughts and they go to a separate school. The only way noughts can get in to Heatcroft (the school crosses go to) is by passing a test. In the play Callum and three other noughts get a place in Heathcroft, but even once they are in the school they are not respected and are not treated fairly. The play also relates to events that have happened in history, for example the apartheid. The apartheid was in South Africa and black people or people of other racial groups did not have the same political and economical rights as white people.

 Another theme that I feel was key to Noughts and Crosses is friendship. Friendship is portrayed through Callum and Sephy’s relationship. They are able to stay friends even though society looks down on them for it because he is a Nought and he is a Cross. 

Violence in also a theme that appears in the play several times, for example family violence when Ryan Mcgregor hits Jude Mcgregor, also when Sephy gets beaten up at school. For me the most significant act of violence in the play is when the bomb went off at Dundale shopping centre. This was significant for me because it really destroyed the Mcgregor family as many crosses were trying to harm them as it was believed Ryan was responsible for the bombing so they had to move away which resulted in Callum not being able to see Sephy for a very long time. Also Ryan was sentenced to life in prison and later died trying to escape. 

Courage is portrayed strongly throughout the play Noughts and Crosses, particularly between Callum and Sephy. They had the courage to stand up against society and stay friends despite  their skin colour. Another example of courage is when Ryan Mcgregor took the blame for bombing Dundale shopping centre when it was in fact Jude who bombed it. He was aware that he would have life in prison or hanged and he still took the blame to save his son.

Another theme in the play is betrayal. Betrayal was more evident towards to end of the play when Callum tricks Sephy into thinking they were going to meet up at the beach but then captures her with his brother Jude and two other people who are part of the liberation militia, so they could black mail Kamal Handily, so he would give them money and they would give back Sephy. I think betrayal is a theme in the play as you see small incidences of betrayal through the play for instance when Callum ignored Sephy at school.