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 writes that she spent this afternoon—Thursday, October 14—learning to shoot a revolver. Paul gave her a lesson and taught her the “Double Tap” method, which is to shoot twice, quickly, so you kill your target. Maddie is a good shot, but Paul’s “wandering hands” make things difficult. Now she remembers ferrying Paul around in England—he put a hand on her thigh while they were flying. Mitraillette says he does this to all women.
Maddie isn’t supposed to be in France, but this doesn’t mean that she has to stay hidden all day. Rather, it’ll help her survive if she receives some training in how to defend herself—and starts to overcome her fear of violence and firearms. Paul, though, makes things difficult, as he treats women like objects rather than people.
Themes
Mitraillette isn’t the girl’s real name; it’s her code name. It means “submachine gun.” Her mother, Maman, is from Alsace, so the family speaks fluent German. There’s a little sister, La Cadette, and an older brother, Etienne, who’s a Gestapo officer in Ormaie. Normally collaborators like him are murdered, but having a son in the Gestapo is great cover for the family.
Maddie implies that the family is disappointed and upset in Etienne’s choice to join the Gestapo. They’d hoped, presumably, that he’d agree with them that the Nazis are evil and should be resisted. But despite this, they’re willing to look on the bright side: nobody will suspect them of being involved in the Resistance if their son is a Nazi.
Themes
Last night, Maddie and Mitraillette talked for two hours, though they barely understand each other’s languages. They kept watch on the road while others moved the explosives hidden on the barn’s floor. Maddie is trying hard not to worry about Julie, and it helps that apparently Julie met her first contact. (Maddie has to get in the habit of referring to Julie as Verity in this account.) Verity is part of the Damask circuit, named for the oldest member, a rose grower.
Moving around the explosives is an extremely serious activity—they could blow up the barn and be killed, or be discovered by the Nazis. But this still seems like a relatively pleasant experience for Maddie, as she gets to know Mitraillette and form a friendship with the girl. She’s also learning more about Julie and what Julie has been up to.
Themes
The circuit now knows that Verity and the explosives arrived safely. But Verity is supposed to go to the town archives to look up the plans for the hotel where the Gestapo are headquartered, and she can’t do that without ID. Mitraillette is trying to figure out how to get the documents to her. Hopefully, if things go well, the Gestapo headquarters will go up in flames. Maybe it wasn’t so clever of Verity to call herself Käthe Habicht, “Kitty Hawk,” in German.
More discrepancies between Maddie and Julie’s accounts emerge: Julie told the Gestapo she was a wireless operator and never mentioned blowing up the Gestapo headquarters. Knowing the real reason she’s in France drives home that Julie is in more danger than she let on in her account. The fact that Julie called herself “Kitty Hawk” is a nod to her friendship with Maddie, since Kittyhawk was Maddie’s code name.
Themes
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