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Discussion Director:
What are your thoughts on Sephy's dad's plans? I think that he has sinister plans for the noughts who are going to attend the cross' school. He feels threatened with the possibility of Sephy overhearing his plans.
Why do you think CDiscussion Director:
What are your thoughts on Sephy's dad's plans? I think that he has sinister plans for the noughts who are going to attend the cross' school. He feels threatened with the possibility of Sephy overhearing his plans.
Why do you think Callum's mum is reluctant to send Callum to school? She is scared Callum will be singled out and ridiculed for being a nought.
Discussion Director Pages 46-56 I felt a lot that there was a lot of tension whilst reading this section of the book. Firstly, Callum is getting ready for school, and his mother continuously reassures him that that all will be okay. She seems to be predicting that something will go wrong at school. Callum is puzzled why she keeps drawing attention to how hard school will be. Although he realises that things may be hard going to a school with Crosses, he is positive and looking forward to the opportunity of learning and getting an education. Secondly, Callum’s sister Lynette causes the family to have a fight, by bringing up the supject of her skin colour. Although Lynette is a Nought, like the rest of the family, she sees herself as one of the higher-class citizens, a cross. She tells the family she ‘doesn’t belong’ with them. She comments on her rich, dark skin and strokes it over. As she brings up the subject of them being inferior to her, the family fights. Jude, Callum’s brother, comments on how Callum is ungrateful and resentful to be a Nought, and can’t wait to go to school to get away from the family. Callum denies the accusations and is defensive. As things start to become physical, their father intervenes and the conversation is cut short. When Callum gets to school, he and other noughts are harassed physically and verbally. Reading this extract was almost a parallel of a real-life example of inferior races. South Africa was an apartheid state, with many restrictions and cruel actions taken out against black people. It is quite confronting to read about these actions taken out against the inferior race, the Noughts, who in the book, are white skinned.
Chapter 5 Sephy is preparing for the first day of term at Heathcroft. She has all these amazing fantasies and dreams of what school is going to be like, with her best friend going to the same school as her. What Sephy didn't imagine was how Callum would be treated, viewed and respected. Sephy seems oblivious to the fact that Noughts are generally regarded as dirt, not respected at all, constantly taunted, and that they are vulnerable physically and emotionally, from the abuse hurtled at them by Crosses. As she drives and pulls up to school, she sees a strange sight. A huge crowd were shouting and screaming. As Sephy ran to inspect the scene, she saw the new nought students being ambushed with the slogan "NO BLANKERS AT OUR SCHOOL" being repeated over and over again. Her biggest shock was not only seeing Callum being attacked, but her sister Minnie joining in on the ambush. Things became physical with all of the noughts sustaining physical injuries, as well as emotional abuse. Sephy was so shocked and desperate to stop the attacks that she yelled out "STOP IT" but no one listened. She didn't know what to do. She then tried again to divert attention away from the Noughts by screaming " STOP IT YOU'RE ALL BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS. WORSE THAN ANIMALS - LIKE BLANKERS." (Blankers is a derogatory term used to decribe Noughts). As she screamed, people stopped and gave her their attention. As she looked down at Callum, she had seen his expression. He was obviously deeply hurt - crushed. His best friend had called him and his fellow people one of the worst things possibly imaginable. Yet he didn't understand her motive. Stephy wasn't trying to cause him more pain and trouble. She was trying to help him. I found this chapter quite shocking to read, because like Stephy, I was oblivious to the point that Callum was most likely to have not been well received by the fellow Crosses. I had blindly expected everything to have gone well, without any or maybe little trouble caused. Once things had been depicted as becoming physical, with blood especially, I felt sick to my stomach wondering whether he would be okay. I felt both Stephy and Callum's pain - Stephy's pain at not knowing what to do to stop the attacks against the Noughts, and both Callum's physical pain of being attacked as well as his absolute disappointment and humiliation caused by Stephy's comments. I wondered whether if Stephy had handled her words and actions differently, she would have still been able to stop the attacks and diverting attention without absolutely humiliating and crushing Callum.
Chapter 6 Callum both acts on and defends Stephy's actions, by initially denying what she said, then thinking that he must have imagined what she said. He tells himself that although he may be Nought, he is not a Blanker. He tells himself over and over that he is NOT a blanker. It was interesting to watch Callum's battle, and how self talk dictated his thoughts and feelings. While he was defending Sephy's actions, he couldn't stop thinking about what she'd said without feeling critical, at the same time.
Chapter 7 Sephy and Callum meet up at their favourite spot to relax – the beach. Although there was a lot of tension between them, since Sephy had deeply offended and hurt Callum, they were able to sit together and talk. Sephy apologised profusely, trying to explain that she wasn’t directing ‘the word’ at him, yet he made her promise to never, ever, use that word again. Once they had mostly resolved the issue of the ‘elephant in the room,’ things started to become normal between them again, like nothing had changed, and that the incident had never happened. Sephy started shivering, as the coldness bit into her, so Callum lent her is jacket, not only so that she would warm up, but as a token of their friendship being back on track. They both started to relax, and then went their separate ways, back home to their own families and lives. This chapter was starkly different to the chapters just read. Instead of the two friends warring, they had communicated their thoughts and feelings, which ended in made-up friendship and more clarity of their friendship. Sephy was apologising while Callum was trying to make sense of the situation. The chapter ended by them agreeing to never use the word “BLANKER” again, and that they wouldn’t communicate at school for fear of reprisal and uprising. I was happy to have read that they made-up as friends, as I became slightly alarmed that that scene meant the end of their friendship – but they overcame the challenges and worked things out, which was nice to hear. Instead of them not knowing what to say or what to do after the incident, they both maturely approached the situation and communicated, leading them to better understand one another’s thoughts and actions.
Chapter 8 After making sure Sephy got home safely, Callum walked home, and only turned up at 10pm. As he walked in he was ‘interrogated’ by his parents of where he went, who he saw and what he did for the day. Callum told a white lie, saying that he ‘went out for a walk’ which happened to only be half of the truth. He went out for a walk and then met up with Sephy then came back home. As Callum, Jude and their parents discuss the day’s events about school, they tell Callum that the events were broadcasted all over the country, and that the Hadley family are a bunch of twits. They all voice their opinions on their thoughts about what Sephy had to say, with her comments about ‘Blankers’ and how she addressed the crowd. As the conversation delved deeper, Callum was thinking about the past, how his mother and Mrs Hadley had once been best friends, how their families were almost ‘united,’ how he and Sephy grew up in each other’s company, and how life used to be. As Callum snapped back to reality, he questioned his mother’s thoughts and opinion on Mrs Hadley, reminding her that they once used to be the best of friends. Their conversation is cut short, when the TV’s program reports a story about Kamal Hadley addressing the public, about his forthcoming actions linked with the past terror threats and attacks, committed by the ‘Liberation Militia.’ This means nothing to Callum, as he is oblivious to the connection Jude and his father have to the Liberation Militia. As Kamal Hadley’s speech is over, Jude and Callum’s father raise their fists, yelling ‘Long Live the Liberation Militia.’ This is the point when Callum realises that there is possibly a family connection to the militia. As he questions their actions, he begins to see another aspect of his family unfold that he never knew before. Whilst reading this chapter, I was wondering if Callum’s parents had any suspicion about him talking and hanging out with Sephy, for the past day. Also, once the point about the connection to the Liberation Militia had been exposed, I was wondering what Callum’s next action or direction to handle this news would be.
Chapter 9 Mrs Hadley excitedly barges into Sephy’s room, announcing that Sephy’s dad is on TV. As Sephy described it, it was like it was the first time Mrs Hadley had ever seen Sephy’s dad on TV, not the 100th time. Sephy seemed bored and exasperated at the idea of watching her father on tv, and secondly, bored of politics constantly being the at the forefront of every aspect of her life, with her family, at school and with Callum. Kamal Hadley was addressing an issue about Noughts, and how there was going to be a political shift in the way situations and problems would be handled. I found this chapter interesting to read, as Sephy seemed disengaged and disinterested in the topics her dad was covering, as she is constantly hearing and talking about politics, and it is definitely understandable that she wanted a break. All the talk of Noughts vs Crosses and politics and blah blah blah was doing her head in, and so she switched off the TV and tried to think about anything, anything else except politics.
Callum and his family were continuing to watch the news, and he and his family became more and more frustrated about reported the bias shown towards the Crosses, and against the Noughts. The coverage always just happened to skip vital parts, like when Callum and the other fellow noughts were attacked or when the chanting of “NO BLANKERS” was not shown, nor when he or his fellow Noughts were attacked. “Somehow the camera was never in the right place to show that the whole back of my jacket was awash with Cross spit.” This is one of the examples of how the footage was altered to still make the Crosses be perceived innocent, although they had been the ones who had started rioting and protesting against the Noughts joining their school. Callum had become so angry within himself, but his calm and gentle sister Lynette held his and he immediately relaxed. “She smiled at me and I could feel the anger sweeping out of my body. Only Lynette and Sephy could do that - make all the rage that sometimes threatened to blow up inside me just fade to nothing.” As the broadcast progressed, the camera began to show Sephy running into the frame, and about to scream. As Callum saw this, he told his family that he was going up to his room. He was too late, as Sephy had already started speaking. The words hit him like bricks, as if it was the first time he’d heard them. As he’d continued running up to his room, he overheard a conversation between his parents and Jude. Jude commented “They’re all the same; Callum’s fooling himself if he thinks that cross girl cares one clipped toenail about him. When push comes to shove, she’ll dump him so fast that his body will become pear shaped.” Callum’s dad replied with “You and I may know that, but he doesn’t.” “Well the sooner he learns it, the better,” Callum’s mum responded. This was confusing to Callum. He didn’t know what they were talking about. “Someone should tell Callum the truth otherwise he’s going to get hurt.” Callum’s dad offered to deliver news to Callum but Callum’s mum told them that she was going to tell him, at the right time. Callum couldn’t bear to hear more, and so he ran up to his room. He was confused and upset. This scene is plays a pivotal role, as the readers now know that there is something going on within the tight family unit which Callum has not known about. In previous chapters, there have been hints of ‘underground’ movement, like when Callum’s father and Jude randomly celebrated and cheered on the actions of the Liberation Militia, and so this chapter confirms the suspicions of many readers. I have found a personal connection to the chapter, as I know how frustrating it is when the media innocently portrays one party, so that the other is seen to be right and are their actions are justifiable. The news constantly portrays Israel as the perpetrators of attacks and events, when in fact they aren’t the people being inspired to stab and kill random people on the street. I completely understand how Callum and his family feel about the viewing of events which weren’t shown correctly....more
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