The Horrors of War Theme Analysis

As a novel about World War II, Code Name Verity naturally considers what it means to live through a devastating war. For Maddie, an aspiring pilot, the entire process of learning to fly, getting her pilot’s license, and then joining the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary is overshadowed by the war in Europe. Julie, meanwhile, is forced to drop out of college and work in radar when the war closes her school. As the war progresses, neither woman shies away from describing the horrors they’ve heard about and experienced firsthand, such as Julie’s brother Jamie losing several fingers and all his toes when his plane is shot down over the North Sea, or the torture Julie suffers when the Nazis in the fictional town of Ormaie, France capture her. Throughout the novel, both Maddie and Julie’s narration implies that war forces people to grow up long before they’re ready. But at the same time, being in a warzone can also make grown adults feel like small, helpless children due to the horror and cruelty involved, and the nonsensical nature of war.

Code Name Verity shows how the horrors of war force young people to grow up faster than they perhaps would have otherwise. One of Maddie and Julie’s first adventures together, not long after they meet, is an outing to a pub about five miles away from their base. Maddie wants to teach Julie to navigate—and to get Julie to play along, Maddie tells her to pretend to be a German spy. As the girls wander through the countryside, laughing and sharing their fears, their behavior (and particularly the imaginative nature of their game) makes them seem young and innocent. But Julie credits this outing with helping her become a spy with the SOE and helping Maddie take on more responsibility as a ferry pilot with the ATA, as they meet the Machiavellian English Intelligence Officer at this time and he recognizes how competent they are, despite their youthful behavior. And ultimately, rising up the ranks like this results in Julie being captured by the Ormaie Gestapo (Nazi secret police) and being tortured, something that robs her entirely of her innocence and youth. Maddie sees much the same thing happen with Amélie, a young French girl whose family hides Maddie when she’s stranded in France. Amélie is innocent and charming when Maddie meets her—she’s the one who’s willing to make conversation with von Linden, the captain of the Ormaie Gestapo, when the Gestapo join the family for Sunday dinner. At first, Amélie thinks of von Linden as being like a priest and playing fairly, by the rules. But Amélie is extremely disturbed—and quickly abandons her belief that the Nazis are bad, but not that bad—when she discovers that von Linden is responsible for sticking pins under men’s toes or into women’s breasts, and even more so when she witnesses the Gestapo execute her old school friend. Amélie’s transformation is disturbing for Maddie, as Maddie realizes that French kids are forced to confront terrible horrors long before they’re ready to do so.

At the same time, the novel shows that war can also make adults feel young and helpless—as though escaping into youthful distractions is the only way to deal with the horrors of war. In their accounts, both Maddie and Julie express the fact that at various points, the war and their jobs make them feel out of control and more like children playing at war than adults fighting real battles. Julie suggests that the Machiavellian Intelligence Officer “chose” her for the SOE, word choice that implies that, like a child, Julie herself didn’t have a choice in the matter. And for Maddie, simply being in France makes her feel less competent and mature, in part because she’s so afraid of dying or of Julie dying, and in part because she doesn’t speak enough French or German to defend herself if she is caught. Alongside this, the characters turn to lighthearted, childish things—primarily children’s stories and poems—to cope with the horrors they witness. When Jamie is shot down over the North Sea and loses many fingers and all his toes to frostbite—a horrific, painful event—the loss is softened and minimized somewhat by his siblings referring to him as The Pobble Who Has No Toes, after a children’s poem by Edward Lear. In addition, frequent references to the novel Peter Pan, about the titular character who doesn’t grow up, add a lighthearted feel to Code Name Verity at first. The Moon Squadron pilots who fly Julie to France all use name from Peter Pan as their code names, and the first line of the novel, “All children, except one, grow up,” is the radio signal for the pilots to head out on their mission. The pilots are, of course, adults—but using the names of child characters suggests that they are choosing to view the flight to France as something of a lark in order to endure the mission and convince themselves everyone involved will return happy and in one piece, like in Peter Pan.

Together, Code Name Verity suggests that one of the things that makes war so disturbing is this interplay between feeling young and helpless but also old and far too wise to the horrors of war. Some of the novel’s most tragic and heart-wrenching moments are when Maddie, for instance, describes things starting out as fun and innocent—such as that flight to France—that then devolve into horror. Indeed, even the references to Peter Pan become horrifically dark when everyone who flew to France that night ultimately returns to England—except for Julie, whom Maddie eventually kills to save her from being tortured by Nazis. Julie is, in this sense, like Peter Pan, a child who will tragically never grow up. And while the novel never goes so far as to suggest that it’s a good thing to lose one’s innocence by confronting how horrible war is, it does imply that growing up—even under such horrible circumstances—is a privilege not afforded to everyone. And for those who do proverbially grow up, like Maddie and Jamie, their relationships to fun, innocent, childish works (such as Peter Pan and “The Pobble Who Has No Toes”) can help ease the trauma they experienced during the war.