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 has figured out Julie’s code. It’s Engel’s code too; they worked together. Engel underlined the instructions in red. The Resistance can get in through the cellars, and during air raids, the hotel is unguarded for hours. The prisoners are upstairs, and Julie gave the locations of the generator and the elevators so the Resistance can fill them with explosives. Julie probably included the story about her great-aunt to give the Resistance permission to blow the place up with her inside, but the Resistance will be able to get in and get the prisoners out first. The number in red at the end of Julie’s account is the city archive reference number for the architect’s drawing of the hotel.
Finally, Maddie unravels the mystery—and confirms again that Engel was working with Julie all along. This is especially clear given that Engel no doubt wrote the archive reference number, since it’s in red. Discovering the code reinforces the idea that writing and storytelling can have many different purposes. Through her account, Julie simultaneously wrote a (platonic) love letter of sorts to Maddie and gave the Resistance the information they’ll need to blow up the Château de Bordeaux.
Themes
A draft of a telegram to England shares that Paul and Julie were killed in action on December 1, 1943. The sender requests that the RAF send a flight over Ormaie on Saturday, December 11, to create a diversion. This will enable Operation Verity.
It’s unclear who sends this telegram, but noting that Julie was killed in action suggests that Maddie won’t get in trouble for killing her friend. Naming the operation Verity is a way to memorialize Julie by finishing her work.
Themes
