Character Analysis: How Fears Changed During World War II

Fear is an everlasting constant in our world, but over the years the magnitude of these fears varied. This level of fear was at an all-time high during World War II, the bloodiest war in the history of mankind. Fear is that gut-wrenching feeling that warns a person of a possible danger, but it is more than just that. Fear changes and evolves, yet it can also be overcome or contained. Through Code Name Verity, Wein depicts on how people’s fears changed throughout World War II, and how they might deal with these fears.

As a result of World War II, people, instead of fearing simple things, like how people might think of their appearance, were worried about being captured or their loved ones being bombed. World War II drastically changed the things

Most of those ‘fears’ [they] talked about in the canteen were just so stupid. Getting old! It embarrasses [her] to think about it” (Wein, 224). To Maddie, at the time, ‘getting old’ was one of her genuine fears. This just proves that over the course of the War, Maddie, and many others during that time, emotionally hardened, and as a result of that change, her fears adapted to her new, and more dangerous, environment. Due to this change, she found that her old fears were ‘stupid’ and ‘embarrasses’ her because she became afraid of much more serious things later on. For instance, Maddie wrote, while in her time in the enemy territory of Germany-France, that she believed “all [her] fears-they seem so trivial now. The quick, sudden terror of exploding bombs is not the same as the never-ending, bone-sapping fear of discovery and capture” (Wein,

For example, Julie, from Code Name Verity, while held captive by German soldiers, the Gestapo, used writing to cope with her stressful and scary situation. As written in her confession, Julie states, “[She] like to write about Maddie. [She] like remembering. [She] like constructing it, focusing, crafting the story, pulling together the memories” (Wein, 166). Julie copes with this because by ‘remembering’ the happier experiences with Maddie she is able to escape from the lurid conditions while held captive. Along with, allowing her to deal the supposed ‘death’ of Maddie, her closest friend. Because of the extreme situation, she was in, it was pertinent for her to use her writing as a coping mechanism due to the fact she probably would have gone insane had she not. Using this coping mechanism was so important to Julie that, “So long as [the cook] could fondle [her] breasts. And-[She] let him do it. For food you might suppose, but no! ... Like an opium addict, [she’ll] do anything for more paper” (Wein, 84). While Julie was held prisoner, she did anything in order to continue to write. Even selling out her body in exchange for more paper like an ‘addict’. This displays how severe her situation was, given by how much she would do to continue to stay remotely sane. In any event, this shows how