Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Code Name Verity, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
War, Women, and Gender Roles
The Horrors of War
Resistance and Courage
Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Coastal Defense. The narrator is afraid to write what comes next, though that’s silly—the Battle of Britain is over, and Hitler must know what was happening on the British coast during the summer of 1940. She notes that RDF is “Range and Direction Finding.” The Americans call it radar, but in the summer of 1940, the technology was very secret. The narrator abruptly writes “I can’t do this” and stops writing.
The history of Radar/RDF, the narrator seems to believe, is something her Nazi readers are going to be very eager to read about—and though the narrator believes she’s a coward for agreeing to write this account in the first place, it’s still hard for her to willingly give up British military secrets. She wants to be brave, though it’s hard.
Themes
The narrator resumes her account; she’s been fighting with Engel for the last half-hour because she bent her pen nib and Engel decided to straighten it against the narrator’s teeth. The narrator doesn’t know why she winds Engel up, since Engel always wins—but only because the narrator’s ankles are tied to her chair, and because the narrator has a deal with von Linden. To avoid another interrogation session with him, the narrator will do anything, including continuing this treasonous confession.
To the narrator, Engel seems relatively harmless compared to von Linden. So, she’s a safer person to fight with, and fighting with Engel makes the narrator feel somewhat more powerful. The narrator also implies that were she not tied up and bound by this deal, she’d be even more powerful—which may be a signal that the narrator is (or was, before she was captured) more important and capable than she’s letting on.
Themes
Coastal Defense, the Unabridged Version. The Nazis didn’t realize how advanced RDF was in 1940. The English were outnumbered, but with RDF they could see the Luftwaffe aircraft coming and then beat them back. Maddie was sworn to secrecy and given the title “special duties clerk,” or clk/sd for short. She trained in radar for six weeks and was made an officer. Then they posted her to RAF Maidsend, a base for Spitfire planes, taking air-to-ground radio calls over the phone. Sometimes the planes were delivered from the Swinley maintenance depot. The narrator can barely finish writing “Swinley”; she’s ashamed of herself. But according to Engel, the Nazis know about Swinley and have been trying to bomb it for a long time.
Luftwaffe is a general term for the Nazis’ air force; the narrator means that RDF operators could see German planes coming across the English Channel. For Maddie, becoming a special duties clerk represents a leg up—and possibly, a step closer to flying airplanes now that she’s taking radio calls like this. For the narrator, though, describing Maddie’s more secret duties is extremely difficult and emotional. The narrator is still loyal to the Allies, even as she’s collaborating with the Nazis—so it’s not much comfort that the Nazis already know about Swinley.
Themes
Coastal Defense, Damn It. The narrator explains how dots on the RDF screen represent planes, and from the ground, you can watch the battles happen and the dots disappear as planes are shot down (and as pilots die). Maddie talked to the planes that were equipped with radio. One afternoon, Maddie heard a pilot calling “mayday”—but after that word, the pilot spoke in German. Maddie switched her headset to the speaker so everyone could hear and then called for an identification on the radio call. People were afraid; what if this was a loaded bomber? Nobody spoke German, so the officer in charge of the radio room sent for someone to find a German speaker.
Describing being able to watch entire air battles through these dots on the screen gives the impression that for clerks like Maddie, the actual war seems somewhat far away. But it’s impossible to ignore what’s actually happening: the dots aren’t just dots. They represent people, and those people are likely to die when their dots disappear from the screen. The German pilot calling “mayday” suggests that he’s in trouble—but for those on the ground, this is frightening because they can’t verify who that pilot is, or why he’s so close.
Themes
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Minutes later, someone returned with a girl Maddie recognized but didn’t know well, Queenie. Queenie was beautiful and fearless; she was apparently descended from royalty, but she worked as hard as anyone else. Queenie accepted Maddie’s headset, and after a minute, she said the pilot was over the English Channel looking for Calais. Maddie realized what was going on: the pilot crossed the Thames, thought it was the channel, and then thought he was in France. Maddie coached Queenie through helping the pilot land. Queenie spoke confidently in German and, before long, the German plane landed. The officer sent an ambulance onto the runway.
Queenie shares some qualities with Dympna: she’s wealthy, but she seems fully committed to helping her country, just the same as working-class people like Maddie are. Maddie gets to show off her expertise and knowledge here when she puts together how, exactly, this German pilot got confused. And as Maddie and Queenie work together to get the pilot safely to the ground, they discover that their different skills complement each other—Maddie knows about flying, while Queenie can speak German.
Themes
Maddie stayed inside while Queenie joined others on the runway to stare at the bomber. She watched the pilot look first relieved, and then afraid as the Royal Air Force heled him out of his plane. An officer put a hand on Queenie’s shoulder and then asked for her help questioning the German pilot. Maddie was going off duty later when she passed the pilot awaiting his interrogation in an office. Queenie was in the office’s corner, smoking. Maddie was thankful she didn’t speak German—she could’ve never done what Queenie did.
At least in the narrator’s retelling, Maddie doesn’t seem particularly proud of herself for getting this pilot to the ground. Rather, she’s just in awe of Queenie and recognizes that she could never do what Queenie does. This starts to suggest that Maddie is perhaps unaware of just how competent she actually is. And Queenie, for her part, starts to move up the ranks as her language skills come to light and are suddenly useful.
Themes
The Germans bombed Maidsend again that night. Maddie and her bunkmates ran for their shelter in their pajamas; Maddie held an umbrella and refused to leave it outside as the other girls tried to get the door closed. Once everyone was inside, one girl lit a candle and started a game of poker. As the shelter shuddered, Queenie asked to sit under Maddie’s umbrella with her and offered Maddie a cigarette. Queenie managed to take the umbrella while Maddie smoked.
Though Queenie doesn’t know Maddie well, she takes it upon herself to help her new friend feel better during this bombing. Maddie is clearly more shaken and upset by the violence than the other women are—the umbrella is, of course, useless against bombs, but it helps Maddie feel better to have it.
Themes
After a while, Maddie asked Queenie what she did before the war. Queenie said she was halfway through her last year of school studying German; she learned it first at boarding school in Switzerland. The girls complimented the other’s performance earlier in the afternoon and decided they did it together.
Maddie and Queenie’s friendship blossoms as they show each other that they value the other’s contributions. It took them both, they realize, to accomplish what they did earlier—and this mutual reliance becomes the starting point for their friendship.
Themes
Nobody slept that night, and the next day, everyone at Maidsend—including the captured German—helped resurface the runway. Later, Maddie found Queenie asleep in the canteen. Maddie sat down, woke Queenie up, and asked if Queenie was afraid of anything. Queenie started a list of 10 things she was afraid of. It included things like the dark, falling asleep while she’s working, and bombs dropping on her favorite brother, Jamie. Maddie was afraid of the cold and of bombs falling on her grandparents, as well as not having a useful skill—nobody would want radio operators when the war was over. Both girls were afraid of getting old. Queenie was also afraid of being whipped at home, ghosts, and getting lost.
To Maddie, Queenie seems fearless because she didn’t express any fear during the bombings—and could easily pretend to be a German radio operator yesterday. And to be fair, while Queenie expresses some legitimate fears here (such as losing people she loves), her fears seem pretty mundane—even childish. In particular, both Maddie and Queenie’s fear of getting old speaks to their youth and naivete at this point in the war. They don’t yet see that getting old is a privilege not afforded to everyone during wartime.
Themes
The girls discussed the German pilot from yesterday. They both felt sorry for him; perhaps it was his first flight to England. Maddie asked if it was terrible questioning the pilot, but Queenie answered with “Careless talk costs lives.” Then, the air raid siren went off.
In this passage, the narrator makes it clear that both Maddie and Queenie are compassionate—they can understand how scared the German pilot must have been. And Queenie, for her part, is dedicated to her work and seems to take confidential information extremely seriously.
Themes
