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 her pen doesn’t work; she wants her pencil back. Thibaut takes over writing and explains to von Linden that the narrator, the English Flight Officer, is telling the truth; the ink has now been thinned with kerosene. Taking over writing again, the narrator curses Thibaut—she’s Scottish, not English. She writes that Thibaut and Engel have been laughing at her, because she got so upset when they came with kerosene (to thin the ink, but she was afraid they’d kill her with it).
The narrator is currently living and writing in fear that her captors are going to kill her—probably in a slow, torturous way. That Thibaut and Engel laugh at the narrator’s fear of kerosene and being killed makes them seem entirely unsympathetic. Thibaut’s note that the narrator is telling the truth is interesting: it suggests that her captors might not believe that she’s telling the truth in her account, except when it comes to details they can verify (like her pen not working).
Themes
The narrator notes that Engel was nervous last night because Engel was afraid the narrator hadn’t revealed enough British secrets for von Linden. But von Linden called the narrator’s account an “interesting overview of the situation in Britain over the long term.” The narrator also believes he hopes she’ll share information about Thibaut and Engel—he distrusts Thibaut for being French and Engel for being female. In exchange for her account, the narrator will now get water and a blanket.
Engel may be cruel and unfeeling when it comes to the narrator, but again, it seems like the two women have an adversary in common in von Linden. And the narrator also suggests more generally that there are trust issues and divisions among the Nazis who are keeping her captive. While the narrator’s trustworthiness seemed to be in question moments ago, now it seems like von Linden might trust her more (or, at least, differently) than he trusts his own cronies.
Themes
The other prisoners despise the narrator. Thibaut has forced the narrator to watch them torture other French prisoners. The other prisoners all know that the narrator is a collaborator, and the boy she watched them torture yesterday called her a “Little Scottish piece of shit.” Another French girl regularly spits at the narrator. They hate Thibaut too, because he turned on his own countrymen. But perhaps the narrator, with her sniveling, makes it easier for the others—they can vow to be braver than her.
The narrator seems to be trying to make herself feel better about her choice to share important British secrets with the Nazis. Maybe, she seems to reason, she’s doing her fellow prisoners a favor, as they can strive to do better than she’s doing under pressure. She even likens herself somewhat to Thibaut, who is French. (The French were one of the Allied powers who fought against Nazi Germany, but as with the earlier anecdote about Oswald Mosley in England, there were pockets of fascists everywhere during World War II.)
Themes
The Civil Air Guard (Some Figures). Returning to Maddie’s story, the narrator writes that while Maddie’s granddad was well-off, he couldn’t afford flying lessons for his granddaughter. Dympna was the first to take Maddie flying with Beryl in the back (Beryl vomited in her handbag). Though Maddie couldn’t afford lessons, she haunted Oakway, and the mechanics were happy to let her help. In October, her situation improved when Britain started the Civil Air Guard. It offered free flight training, mostly to men. But Maddie’s engineer friends recommended her, and in January of 1939, Maddie made her first solo flight. The timing was perfect: Hitler invaded Poland in September of 1939, and Maddie got her basic pilot’s license six months before civil aircrafts were grounded.
To some degree, Maddie’s working-class upbringing does hinder her. But the friends she makes at Oakway make it possible for Maddie to get her pilot’s license—seemingly without any thought for the fact that Maddie is female. Again, World War II looms large over Maddie’s journey to becoming a pilot. It’s impossible for her to ignore that she only gets training because the Civil Air Guard is starting to prepare pilots for impending war. And then, the war seems poised to dash Maddie’s dreams when Britain grounds civilian aircrafts. The implication is that, as a woman, Maddie will never be able to fly for the military.
Themes
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Only a few days before Britain declared war on Germany, Maddie flew alone over the Pennines and Newcastle. She followed the coast; the narrator knows the area well because she regularly took the train from Edinburgh to London to school, and it follows that beautiful route. Maddie followed Hadrian’s Wall, noticed the mountains and the ponds that inspired poets, and observed the old Roman roads. She landed sobbing with love for her home and climbed out of the Puss Moth. Then, Maddie ran her post-flight tests and scraped bugs off the windshield.
Maddie’s deep love for her country shines through here—and with this, the narrator implies that Maddie’s desires are twofold. Maddie wants to be able to fly, but she also wants to defend her beautiful country, if only so she can keep flying.
Themes
Dympna found Maddie hours later and told her not to worry about the bugs. After a minute, Dympna noted that soon the Royal Air Force was going to need girls—they’d run out of men eventually. They were already forming the Air Transport Auxiliary, a civilian unit that took men and women. Dympna’s name was already in, and she promised to get Maddie in once they opened training to girls. Dympna then said that tomorrow, she was taking Maddie to the local Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) office to sign up. The WAAF now allows women to do all the jobs men do, but at the time, they needed women to do radio work. Maddie became a radio operator.
Dympna recognizes that Maddie is taking so much time with the Puss Moth because Maddie is grieving the fact that she just completed what she believes will be her last flight. But Dympna also believes that the war is going to help women move forward and achieve some equality in male-dominated fields. For now, though, Maddie will have to settle with serving her country from the ground by becoming a radio operator with the WAAF.
Themes
Some WAAF Trades. Being in the WAAF, according to the narrator, was a lot like being in school (the narrator went to a Swiss boarding school, though, so maybe Maddie felt differently). Maddie was first stationed at Oakway. It was 1939 and into 1940 then, and not much was happening in Britain.
Likening being in the WAAF to being in school suggests that the WAAF makes the narrator feel a bit like a child with all its rules, regulations, and authority figures.
Themes
Telephonist. The narrator says that Maddie was working one day when a man told her to take her headset off. Maddie coolly finished her switchboard transfer and turned to the chief flight instructor for Oakway’s Royal Air Force squadron. He briskly said that tomorrow, she’d start in the radio room; an operator was out with the flu.
It seems like chance that Maddie gets moved up to the radio room—but it’s still a promotion. Maddie’s attitude with this flight instructor suggests that her main goal is to do her job well. She’s not going to give him her full attention until she’s done with the call she’s on.
Themes
Radio Operator. The narrator relates a conversation between a training pilot and Maddie, who was on the ground. The pilot was struggling to identify a reservoir and where he was—and when Maddie was done helping him, she swore and groused that he’d never be able to find Berlin if he couldn’t even identify Manchester. The radio room went quiet—and the radio officer told her she was still transmitting.
As a pilot who’s good at navigation, Maddie is possibly more experienced than this pilot she’s helping. In any case, it’s clear in this conversation that Maddie has a much better handle on the situation than the pilot does, regardless of the fact that he’s a man and she’s a woman.
Themes
Later, when everyone else was leaving, a man asked Maddie to stay behind. He asked if Maddie was the one who “talked down” a new pilot in a Wellington bomber earlier, guiding him through low clouds and the barrage balloons. Maddie admitted that was her. She broke the rules to help the pilot, so she expected to be court-martialed. But instead, the squadron leader complimented Maddie and asked if she’d flown before. Maddie admitted she had her pilot’s license and had flown at night. This was all unusual. Finally, the squadron leader asked if she’d like to fly in a Wellington to see what it was like.
Maddie was, presumably, able to help the new pilot because she’s a pilot herself and is more familiar with the area than the pilot was. And Maddie also seems to have decided that making sure the pilot didn’t die by hitting the barrage balloons (huge balloons designed to explode if a plane hit them) was worth the possibility of getting in trouble. Fortunately, Maddie is actually praised for breaking the rules, and this experience opens up new opportunities for her.
Themes
Stooge. The narrator notes that a “stooge” is a person who goes in an aircraft just for the ride—though Maddie was probably more of a backseat driver. Her joyrides weren’t totally secret, but they weren’t authorized either. Once, the boys on a plane carried Maddie off; she was white and faint. She told them to put her down and then explained that they were fired on—by their own men, who apparently can’t recognize their own country’s planes. It was the spring of 1940 then; things were tense, but English skies were still safe from the Germans.
Maddie seems incredulous that Englishmen serving their country can’t even recognize their own planes—the implication being that these men aren’t as competent or knowledgeable as Maddie is. This is complicated by the fact that Maddie is a woman, and so presumably can’t hold the same positions as these incompetent men.
Themes
Signals Branch. Not long after, Maddie’s WAAF section officer praised her and asked if she was interested in further secret training. Maddie, of course, agreed. The narrator confesses that she’s making up a lot of names and planes in her account; she can’t remember every bit of Maddie’s life, of course. And this is all she can write today. Now she has to endure several hours of watching Engel struggle to translate for von Linden, and von Linden’s questioning. Hopefully she has some bad soup and a blanket to look forward to later.
The narrator seems to want to be honest about the fact that she doesn’t know everything, which will probably give her some credibility with her Nazi readers. If she clearly marks what she doesn’t know, then the implication is that whatever else she says will, in contrast, be truthful. The narrator’s closing statement suggests that the nightly translating session is arduous, but that she’s trying to make the best of things.
Themes
