Racial Superiority as a Mere Pigment of the Imagination: Prejudice in 'Noughts and Crosses' Leah Sallis 12th Grade

Racism is the main plot theme in the novel ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman, through her story of lovers of opposite skin colours in a universe where racism and racial superiority is displayed to the reader through the setting of an apartheid society. The relationship between the two protagonists is complex, as they have immense love for one another but are kept apart by the constraints of segregation and prejudicial morals held by their families, community and peers. There are several instances in the novel where the divide between the Noughts (whites) and the Crosses (blacks) is accentuated, and the reader is reminded of just how extreme each side’s opinions of the other is. Malorie Blackman explores these concepts through teenage pregnancy, racially motivated riots and forbidden love.

The entirety of the novel is portrayed in the first person, told from the perspectives of Persephone Hadley and Callum McGregor. Blackman sets the perspective in this way because it raises empathetic feelings in the reader, being that they are children caught in a world of hatred. This provides the ability of viewing the oppression and discrimination from both sides of the racial divide. The difference in their skin colour fails to...