Noughts and Crosses Analysis Essay Sample

The novel ‘Noughts and Crosses’  by Malorie Blackman has increased in popularity since its publishing in 2001. The novel is mainly about two people called Callum and Sephy and they are separated by their families and friends. Also, they get into trouble and each of them starts getting pulled further and further apart. Throughout the novel, Blackman deals with the racism in society by using events to help us understand. Also  Blackman deals with several issues including friendship and  the abuse of power, the main themes that go throughout the novel are racism and prejudice. This essay will explore Blackman’s portrayal of race in an alternate place called Albion focusing on the treatment of the noughts.  In This essay, we will start by exploring the reason for the crowd outside the school.

The novel highlights racism in society as in the beginning, Malorie Blackman Goes to many lengths to tell us about racism in society. And at the schools, She tries to show the difficulty for the nought’s to fit into society. This is shown as when the noughts start their first day at the school there is a large crowd blocking them from entering the school. . This is noticeable when one of the noughts are hurt by the crowd outside the school. 

“ ‘A blanker’s hurt.’

The news spread through the crowd like a virulent disease.‘HOORAY!’ Spontaneous cheers filled the air.” 

The word “ virulent:” suggests that a disease or illness that can be easily transferred / highly infective from a person to another person. Just like the racist views used by the students in the school, the word “blanker” was shouted over and over again by the crowd of students. This is evident as the slogan “NO BLANKERS IN OUR SCHOOL”  tells us that the crosses dislike the noughts, furthermore when one of the noughts are injured the crowds start cheering. This helps  show  that the noughts are disliked by the crosses.  Therefore,  This tells us that the crosses didn’t what noughts going to their schools as it was repeatedly said a  lot of times.  therefore the first few chapters of the novel are crucial as they are used to set the backdrop of the racism of the society against Callum and Sephy. This foreshadows that their relationship would not work in the end. Due to the racism in their society.