An Analysis Of Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Maine

War! Horrid War! The atrocities of World War II that the Germans committed in the confines of their concentration camps are all but forgotten. The American novelist, travel writer and journalist Martha Gellhorn knew all too well about the atrocities that occurred at the infamous Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany. She gives an expository recount from the point of view of herself and the surviving prisoners of war. She details the prisoners’ stories and her own visit to the camp from after the Americans had liberated it from the Germans in 1945. Gellhorn does so with attention for detail and uses language techniques such as personification to bring the abhorrent scene to life in the reader’s mind. We also learn about the awful treatment of the prisoners and the abominable experiments the Germans conducted.

Human nature is truly a complex thing to understand. Jackie French has lured us into a world bursting with vital historical information, she has entangled in the novel, a series of facts about the many events that occurred in World War II. French has taken the time to structure this novel with sensitivity and sophistication. She has shown great sympathy towards the Jewish people throughout this captivating novel. The author then leads us onto a path to teach us the importance of history and the endless lessons we may learn from the mistakes of previous generations.

The main character throughout most of the book is “Verity”, or Julie. She is actually telling the story of Maddie, however, although her presence seems to still be main focus throughout the story. Halfway through the book, however, it switched to Maddie’s point of view, or “Kittyhawk”. With both of the girls, you can see the changes in them. They both develop greatly and you can see it through them by just looking at what they are afraid of. It mentions once in the story that Julie once said that she was afraid of growing old, and then she say’s later that she could eat her words: she is now afraid of never growing old. “But mainly so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old” (114). With Maddie, you can see her

Novels and texts about war, or more specifically the World Wars, are often written in a glamorized manner, and are told in the perspective of the victors. Consequently, seldom are readers allowed a glance at the losing side’s perspective. In the case of the World Wars, Germans are rarely cast sympathetically in literature, however, in All The Light We Cannot See and All Quiet On The Western Front, they are humanized rather than vilified. Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See is about a blind French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, and a German boy, Werner Pfennig, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Erich Maria Remarque’s, All Quiet On The Western Front deals with a group of German

Has there really ever been a time in your life when everything has been all quiet? No matter who you are, there is always something on your mind, or something that you have to deal with. There is really only one way to achieve absolute quiet, and that is by death. War unfortunately gives millions of people just that. All Quiet on the Western Front is a book that tells a story of young men and their journey throughout WW1 from the German perspective. Three main points of war that will be mentioned in this paper are betrayal, horror, and friendship.

It is a well known fact that experiencing war changes people; there is an innocence that is forever lost. In Tim O’Brian’s, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Mary Anne Bell is an unusual example of the innocence that is lost in war because unlike the rest of the soldiers, she is a woman. Mary Anne’s transformation from innocent “sweetheart” to fierce warrior left readers with mixed emotions because although Mary Anne felt at peace with her transformation, she was also disconnected from reality.

War is always the worst tragedy of mankind in the world. We, as human beings, were experienced two most dolorous wars that were ever happened in our history: World War I and World War II. A young generation actually does not know how much hardship the predecessors, who joined and passed through the wars, undergo. We were taught about just how many people died in the wars, how much damage two participations in the wars suffered or just the general information about the wars. We absolutely do not know about the details, and that’s why we also do not know what the grief-stricken feeling of people joining in the wars really is. But we can somewhat understand that feeling through war novels, which describe the truthfulness of the soldiers’ lives, thoughts, feelings and experiences. All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, which takes World War I as background, is the great war novel which talks about the German soldiers ' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the hopeless of these soldiers about the “future” – the time the war would have ended.

Adelaide Hautval was born in France. When her mother died, who had lived in occupied Paris, she was wanting to attend her mother’s burial. When she asked the German authorities for permission to enter the “Occupied zone” they refused for her to enter. She then decided to risk crossing the demarcation line to enter the Occupied Zone. When she tried to enter, her attempt failed, and Hautval was captured by German police and transferred to the prison in Bourges.

As a well known writer, teacher, filmmaker, and much more, Susan Griffin has had a lot of experience expressing herself through her work. In her essay “Our Secret” from her book “A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War” , Griffin covers many topics to help emphasize her points. Throughout her essay she covers the topics of art, journals, secrets, Heinrich Himmler's Life, war, development, relationships among others primarily centering around World War II and the Holocaust. Griffin involves many unconventional writing techniques. Her narrative flows almost like poetry, as she incorporates different topics involving missiles, biology, Himmler's life, and her life itself. Throughout her work, she uses these topics to connect them to her own life, making her experiences vivid through her writings.

“To the world, you may be only one person, but to one person, you may be the world” (Unknown), in the eyes of the thirteen individuals that Stefania Podgorska saved from the clutches of the Nazi regime, she meant the world. Stefania, a young Polish national, made a decision at a young age that the comfortable farm life was not the life for her to live. She traveled to a nearby town to visit relatives, after the death of her father. Stefania found the town “quiet and peaceful” (Fogelman 2), and vowed to stay and not return to her old life. In Eva Fogelman’s book, Conscience and Courage, Stefania, a young Polish national, dedicates her teenage years to save Jews during WWII. When presented with the question, which reading had the greatest impact on myself, Stefania’s story immediately came to mind. For an individual to yearn for more than a comfortable life, to then assist those in need, to then risk their personal well-being in order to help save the lives of strangers, speaks volumes about their character. Stefania’s selflessness, courage, and cunning actions not only helped save the lives of those in need but also helped her mature into an extraordinary and thoughtful human being.

“They have sent me here because I am so good at telling lies. But I have told the truth.” (Wein 200) She’s known as Verity by her superiors, Queenie by her friends, Julie by her family, and Officer Beaufort-Stuart by those who have imprisoned her. Born as one girl out of many brothers in a Scottish castle, she later became an adventurous woman supporting the British War Effort, and finally, a broken spirit captured by the Gestapos. What they want? Every scrap of information she can give them. What she wants? To make the pain stop. As Officer Beaufort-Stuart writes out her twisting tale, the reader uncovers more and more of the truth, and lies beneath those truths. We all want to know what happened to Maddie, how Officer Beaufort-Stuart was captured, and how they’ll be reunited. But the truth isn’t what we’ll expect, and it soon isn’t the only thing we’ll want. Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity is a story of how two girls, who are only a blip on the monitor of World War II, can still have a massive effect on the world around them.

As long as there has been war, those involved have managed to get their story out. This can be a method of coping with choices made or a way to deal with atrocities that have been witnessed. It can also be a means of telling the story of war for those that may have a keen interest in it. Regardless of the reason, a few themes have been a reoccurrence throughout. In ‘A Long Way Gone,’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ and ‘Novel without a Name,’ three narrators take the readers through their memories of war and destruction ending in survival and revelation. The common revelation of these stories is one of regret. Each of these books begins with the main character as an innocent, patriotic soldier or civilian and ends in either the loss of innocence and regret of choices only to be compensated with as a dire warning to those that may read it. These books are in fact antiwar stories meant not to detest patriotism or pride for one’s country or way of life, but to detest the conditions that lead to one being so simpleminded to kill another for it. The firebombing of Dresden, the mass execution of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone and a generation of people lost to the gruesome and outlandish way of life of communism and Marxism should be enough to convince anyone. These stories serve as another perspective for the not-so-easily convinced.

Beneath the nurses apron Eve Marche wears to tend German and Allied troops, beats the heart of a MI6 spy. Pinned to it is the Iron Cross she was awarded for saving Major Otto Reinhardt. While the cross provides an element of protection from the Bosch it also invites scornful glares from fellow Belgians. She can't tell them the truth, no one must know—no one outside her family—of her involvement in the La Dame Blanch network.  In her third novel, Kate Breslin dials up the danger and intrigue for a story I could not put down!

‘Spies’ by Michael Frayn is a compelling novel, set in world war II about a boy called Stephan and his friend Keith suspecting that Keith’s mum, Mrs.Hayward is actually a german spy. We follow Stephan life as he and Keith unveil many mysteries within the close. Stephan and Keith are two lonely boys who are only friend with each other until Barbara Berrill tries to befriend Stephan. Barbara is an observant and somewhat nosey girl who lives in the close with them. Frayn uses minor characters such as Barbara to emphasize Stephan’s development as a character throughout the course of the novel.

“‘KISS ME, HARDY! Kiss me, QUICK!’ Turned her face away from me to make it easier. And I shot her” (Wein 285), desperately yelled Jullie in Elizabeth Wein’s book, Code Name Verity. Throughout this tale of two female companions in World War II, the theme of friendship was portrayed through the bond between Maddie and Julie, the alliances with those around them, and the events that tie these two together.