Storytelling Theme Analysis

Though Code Name Verity is fictional, it’s ostensibly written by its two main characters, best friends Julie and Maddie. Julie (a British spy) writes the first part of the novel for the Ormaie Gestapo (Nazi secret police) while she’s imprisoned in their headquarters, and Maddie (a military pilot and Julie’s best friend) writes the second part of the book in her pilot’s notebook when she’s stranded in France. For Julie, writing her story is a way to buy herself more time—and eventually, a way to pass on the instructions for blowing up the Ormaie Gestapo headquarters and express her deep love for her best friend. For Maddie, who begins writing when she’s stranded in France, her frantic diary entries allow her to process the trauma of knowing that her best friend was captured by the Nazis, as well as to detail the Resistance’s search for Julie. Ultimately, though, Maddie ends up shooting Julie to save her from the Nazis’ torture as the Resistance fighters are trying to rescue her, and Maddie is later given Julie’s packet of writing. Reading it, Maddie is able to put together the story of Julie’s final weeks of life and come to a greater understanding of who her friend was, as well as start to come to terms with Julie’s death. Code Name Verity thus frames storytelling as a method of healing, processing trauma, and connecting with others—and writing one’s story is, as Julie’s account shows, a way to stay alive long after one is dead.

Initially, the novel frames storytelling just as a way of straightforwardly conveying information. Julie begins writing her account while imprisoned by the Ormaie Gestapo. Though she implies that writing the story is something she wants to do, she’s also writing under duress for a very specific purpose: for her Nazi captors, her story is supposed to convey information about the British military and its goals and strategies. Julie embeds information about British airplanes, airfields, and organizations within the story of how her friend Maddie learned to fly, and how she and Maddie became friends. But later, when Maddie obtains Julie’s writing and reads it, she discovers that Julie didn’t betray anyone: all the information she gave was false, and the document actually contains instructions to the Resistance about how to complete Julie’s assignment to blow up the Ormaie Gestapo headquarters. When the Resistance successfully uses Julie’s instructions to do just that, it reinforces that storytelling, first and foremost, can convey important information—but that a reader’s takeaway necessarily depends on how much context they have.

However, through both Julie and Maddie’s stories, the novel shows that beyond conveying information, telling one’s story can also be a good way to process trauma. As Julie writes, she remains fixated on the fact that she knows she’s going to die when she’s done telling her story, something that’s naturally traumatic. One of the ways that Julie processes her own impending death is by leaving clues that Maddie later interprets as permission to kill Julie (such as an anecdote about a family member not getting in trouble for killing her husband when he requested it, since his cancer made his life miserable). Julie’s hope is that despite having been cruelly tortured by her captors, she’ll be able to avoid dying slowly and painfully if she gives her allies the go-ahead to kill her quickly, if they can’t rescue her. At the same time, Maddie similarly processes trauma by keeping a diary in her pilot’s notebook. She describes needing to write everything down—it’s the only way she can deal with her wild emotions about being trapped in France and knowing that Julie has been captured by the Nazis. In a country where Maddie is constantly in danger, and where she doesn’t speak the language to be able to communicate well with her protectors, writing becomes her only outlet.

In addition, both women’s accounts are a way for them to connect with each other and gain some closure—and for Julie to achieve a kind of immortality after she dies. In both Maddie and Julie’s accounts, the other person’s story essentially guides the writing. Maddie’s diary entries are about herself, but they’re also about her deep love for Julie and her desire to figure out what happened to her friend. Julie, meanwhile, writes her story mostly about Maddie and never even uses her own real name until the final pages of her account. Writing about her best friend initially gives Julie the strength to keep trying to stay alive. Then, when she sees photos suggesting Maddie is dead (though unbeknownst to Julie, Maddie is actually alive), Julie frames her narrative as a way to memorialize her best friend. Reading Julie’s account also helps Maddie find some closure after killing Julie. Maddie believes she did the right thing by shooting Julie and saving her from further torture by the Nazis, and Julie’s story as much as confirms this: if Maddie hadn’t killed her swiftly and humanely, Julie would’ve suffered another six weeks as a test subject for Nazi medical experiments. As Maddie shares Julie’s writing, first with Jamie and then with Julie’s mother, the account essentially justifies Maddie’s actions better than anything else could. In addition, Julie’s story gives Maddie one final gift beyond easing her guilt at having killed her friend. As Maddie reads Julie’s writing, she remarks that it feels like Julie is still alive. So, through her story, Julie ensures that she’s not forgotten—a written record of her final days will live on.