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
The narrator writes that last night, von Linden stormed in and made the guard stop forcing the narrator to write. He must read more English than he lets on, because he recognized the narrator’s “irrelevant nonsense” and “English doggerel” as poetry. And for some reason, Engel has been crying. What could possibly make Engel cry on the job?
As a prisoner, the narrator only has a very small grasp of what’s going on around her—but still, something is going on. Noting that Engel is crying again suggests that the narrator is perhaps more sympathetic to her than the narrator’s account has implied thus far. She also implies that she isn’t sure now if she can trust that von Linden is telling the truth about what he does and doesn’t understand.
Themes
Special Operations Training. Back in the story, Queenie got a week off to think about things after the disastrous interrogation. Essentially, this was an opportunity to bow out if she wanted to. Queenie spent the week with her mother, who was extremely upset about the bruises. Queenie said she was captured by pirates and refused to say more, which impressed the Glaswegian evacuees listening in. That week, Queenie’s old French nanny started to knit Queenie a sweater out of sunset-colored wool from an old, unraveled suit. It’s the sweater the narrator is still wearing. At the end of the week, Queenie decided to return to work—she loved being Eva Seiler.
Queenie is no doubt forbidden from sharing what she’s actually doing for work with her mother. Saying she was captured by pirates is a way to evade the question—but it also reads as childish and fantastical, and it increases the sense that the war is, in some ways, a bit of a game. This final trip home also allows Queenie to connect one final time with her mother and her nanny. Being cared for like this by her mother and nanny makes Queenie feel loved—and as though, like a child, the adults around her will take care of things.
Themes
When Queenie returned to work, it was decided she needed a few weeks on the Continent for a change of scenery. Life expectancy for agents on the Continent is only six weeks, which is how long it usually takes for the Nazis to find the hidden radio set. Radio operators, like the narrator, are especially vulnerable because unlike others in the Resistance, they sit still with their radios. Today marks six weeks since the narrator arrived in France—she’s doing pretty well. Obviously her stats would be better had she set up a radio before being caught. There’s not much more to tell, but the narrator suspects Engel will appreciate hearing about Maddie’s flight to France. Someone will get in trouble for Maddie’s flight, but who knows who.
Calling a trip to France a “change of scenery” minimizes what’s really going on here—especially when the narrator reveals that agents on the Continent (Continental Europe) only survive for about six weeks. While it’s framed as a fun jaunt, really, sending the narrator to France is essentially a death sentence. And interestingly, the narrator suggests that at this point, she’s writing for Engel’s amusement, not necessarily for von Linden. This again implies that the women are developing some degree of respect and sympathy for each other.
Themes
The Special Duties squadron leader was supposed to take Queenie to France. The Moon Squadron was down to only four pilots, and one was sick with the flu. Queenie trained for months, putting together radios, finding the right clothes (her sweater was ideal since it has no tags), and learning all the codes, which were set to poems. They simulated interrogations, which went poorly (Queenie laughed unless a gun was held to her head). Then, she packed her supplies and waited for the full moon.
As the narrator describes her preparations for the trip to France, she again combines elements that seem lighthearted with those that seem deadly serious. Especially in terms of the interrogations, Queenie is unable to take anything seriously unless she legitimately fears her life is in danger—which implies that at this point in the story, she’s still quite naïve.
Themes
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An Irregular Ferry Flight. Unlike Queenie, Maddie didn’t have to prepare or wait—she just got her assignment and knew she’d be ferrying Queenie around. It was just an ordinary day for her. Jamie and Michael were supposed to fly out that night (their code names all came from Peter Pan; Jamie went by John). The narrator thinks that telling this story feels like the end of Romeo and Juliet; she just wants to tell Romeo to put the poison down, but he never does.
The narrator portrays Maddie as far more innocent—and therefore, childish—than the narrator, since she doesn’t know what exactly is going on. Using code names from Peter Pan again gives the impression that this flight to France is just a fun lark. But by then mentioning the end of Romeo and Juliet (where both titular characters die by suicide), the narrator implies that she now knows this night is just the beginning of a disaster. This mission won’t be easy for her, no matter how fun things feel in the moment.
Themes
Operation Dogstar. The narrator wonders how many accounts like hers are scattered all over Europe, hidden in boxes as their writers disappear. She asks that if von Linden doesn’t burn her account, she’d really like to capture how excited she was to be going to France. Her grandmother’s family is from Ormaie, so the narrator and her family have been there before. It used to be beautiful—she remembers a rose garden in the Place des Hirondelles planted in honor of her grandfather, for instance—but now the roses are gone, and there are tanks in their place. There are bodies hanging from the Hôtel de Ville (the first letters of Hôtel, de, and Ville are underlined). The Germans ruin everything.
The narrator wants to capture the fact that at first, the trip to France was exciting—it was a lark, or a “change of scenery.” This seems to be in part because the narrator was familiar with Ormaie before the war. But upon getting to France, the narrator’s innocence seems to disappear entirely. Seeing that the roses in the Place des Hirondelles are gone so tanks can park there shows the narrator that the Germans are more interested in might and power than in preserving beauty or innocence.
Themes
Back in the story, everyone was waiting for dark. Jamie and Maddie were studying maps by the fire, and they were all listening for their code on the BBC, the first line of Peter Pan in French (“All children, except one, grow up”). Then, the phone rang with news that one of the pilots, Peter, was in a car accident and couldn’t fly to France. Queenie suggested that Maddie fly the plane instead. Jamie laughed and argued, but he gave in when Maddie said she could call her commanding officer and get him to authorize a flight to an “Undisclosed Location.”
That the BBC code is the first line of Peter Pan seems both lighthearted and ominous. If the narrator dies (as she believes she will), she will become like Peter Pan, who is the “one” child in the story who never grows up. Maddie’s insistence on flying the plane is a bid to prove herself—and also spend this time with her best friend.
Themes
