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
Maddie isn’t sure if she can write what happened like an accident report, but she has to write something. There’s going to be a trial, and she has to get this all down. Mitraillette tried to dose Maddie to knock her out earlier, for what would be the second time. Maybe Maddie will take the medicine when she’s done, since she won’t want to think anymore.
It's clear something terrible has happened, if Mitraillette is trying to drug Maddie—and if there’s going to be a trial. Deciding to try to write this like an accident report suggests that Maddie is trying to distance herself emotionally from what happened and put it in a format she can understand.
Themes
The “incident” was an attempted sabotage of a river bridge. The Resistance intended to stop a Nazi military bus carrying prisoners on December 1, 1943. They did stop the bus and made a hole in the bridge. Maddie hates the Nazis. She has to remember Paul, whom she hated but who was brilliant. He made up the plan on the fly and rounded up an army in about an hour. They all biked into town and hid the Rosalie in a garage. The garage belongs to the rose-grower whom the Damask Circuit is named after. Hopefully this woman won’t get in trouble for helping.
The way Maddie talks about Paul here suggests he doesn’t make it through this evening—but this isn’t entirely clear yet. Maddie doesn’t seem to be telling the story entirely in order (presumably, they stopped the bus after hiding the Rosalie), and this reflects her frantic emotional state. Meeting the rose-grower introduces Maddie to another person who is quietly helping resist the Nazis.
Themes
The group borrowed the rose-grower’s boats and canoed up the river to the bridge, explosives in tow. They had to use muffled oars, which Maddie has only read about in pirate stories like Peter Pan. The river was foggy, fortunately, so they wired the bridge and then waited. Maddie doesn’t know where things went wrong. They weren’t outnumbered, but maybe they should’ve guessed that the Germans would be more ruthless than the Resistance. Or maybe it was just too dark and foggy.
For Maddie, using the muffled oars, like in a children’s book, makes the mission seem somewhat childish—as if they’re children playing at war, rather than adults. And then, Maddie’s inability to identify what went wrong confirms that something did go terribly wrong. Her noting that it was dark and foggy is also sinister, as it connects back to Julie’s designation as a Nacht und Nebel prisoner—a “night and fog” prisoner.
Themes
In any case, the bridge explosion went as planned; it only harmed the bus. Paul and his friends immediately shot out the bus’s tires, and then Paul shot the guards who got out to inspect. Maddie missed a lot of this because she was curled into a ball, terrified of the guns. Mitraillette had to sit on Maddie to get her to stay quiet, and Paul told her to pull herself together and get ready to shoot at the Germans’ equipment. At this point, the last guards got onto bus and a few minutes later, they ushered every prisoner onto the bridge and made them lie face down. Then, before anyone could do anything, a guard shot six of the prisoners. The guard shouted in French that they’d kill two prisoners for every German the Resistance killed.
Maddie has already made it clear that this isn’t going to end well—the Resistance doesn’t win in this engagement. The Germans, on the other hand, show that they’re ruthless and don’t value their prisoners’ lives—they’re merely tools to get the Resistance to back down. For Maddie, this is terrifying because of her fear of gunfire, but the stakes are also high because she knows Julie is on the bus. For all Maddie knows, Julie could be one of the six murdered prisoners.
Themes
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It was a stalemate. A guard went back down the road while Paul rounded up a few people to move to the other side of the bridge and try to shoot the remaining three guards. Maddie was terrified, as one of the prisoners still on the ground was, presumably, Julie. She saw that Julie was still alive when the guards set up a floodlight on the prisoners—Julie’s blond hair and bright sweater stood out. Nothing happened for an hour. The guards kept moving and flashing their flashlights toward the Resistance, blinding them. When one of the female prisoners started to cry, the man next to her tried to put an arm around her. A guard shot the man in the hand. In that moment, Maddie knew the Resistance wasn’t going to win.
It’s a bit of a relief that Julie is still alive—this means she still has a chance. But it’s telling that Maddie knows the mission has failed when the Nazi guard shoots the prisoner in the hand. The prisoner is essentially punished just for showing compassion to another person—something the guards can’t allow, as their power comes from keeping people distanced from one another. Maddie has likely realized that Julie will inevitably be treated the same way.
Themes
The fourth guard returned, and then Julie picked her head up and said something that made the guards laugh. One guard knelt down in front of her, grabbed her chin, and asked her something. Julie bit him. He pointed his gun at her as if to shoot, but another guard told him not to. Mitraillette translated for Maddie: if they shoot her, “there will be no—fun.” Julie’s plan seemed to be to get herself shot quickly.
Recall that Julie wrote in her account that her goal is to convince someone to shoot her—that way she won’t have to suffer. In this moment, Maddie has the opportunity to see how Julie has been trying to manipulate her captors for weeks now, attempting to gain any power or advantage she possibly can.
Themes
Then, two German military trucks with guards arrived. The Germans managed to get the bus out of the hole in the bridge—but then, several of the prisoners suddenly came to life. A few that weren’t chained got up and ran straight into Paul. Shots rang out, and Maddie shot at some chains and freed a few men. The guard Julie bit kept his heel on the back of her neck. There were only seven living people on the ground, and the German soldier in charge decided it was time for a display of force.
Maddie starts to overcome her fear of violence and gunfire here, as she frees several prisoners. But at this point it’s still impossible, it seems, for her to free Julie. Saying that the Germans now believe it’s time for a “display of force” is extremely ominous—something terrible is about to happen. But Maddie seems fully engrossed in telling her story, given that she’s not making any comments about what happened.
Themes
The soldier picked up two men and Julie. Julie was wearing the same clothes as when she and Maddie landed in France, but she looked different: as though she’d aged 50 years, but also like a small child. Then, the guards shot the two men, first between the legs and then in each elbow. Julie cowered; she was next. As the guard was finishing with the second man, Maddie couldn’t help it—she sobbed. Julie suddenly smiled; she’d heard Maddie. She shouted, “Kiss me, Hardy!” and Maddie shot her. Julie died instantly.
In shooting and killing Julie, Maddie saved her friend from further torture—so while she did something terrible, she also did something very compassionate and kind. Julie essentially asks Maddie to do this when she yells “Kiss me, Hardy!” because she knows that Maddie will understand the reference. In this way, the phrase (and Maddie’s mercy killing of Julie) is a final testament to the women’s deep, enduring friendship. It also draws an interesting parallel between Julie and Maddie and Nelson (the originator of this quote) and Hardy. Hardy, of course, didn’t kill Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar—but he did ease his friend’s death by being there for him, just as Maddie’s presence likely made Julie’s last moments a bit brighter.
Themes
