Code Name Verity - Post Reading

           "Careless talk costs lives” is a quote that is often repeated throughout Code Name Verity. If you tell someone something that is secret, it will soon make its way to someone who should not know. In wars, this is especially important. Code and important information is kept closely guarded so that it is harder for it to get to the enemy. This is also true today, in different situations, such as school. If you tell someone a secret, they might accidentally tell someone else, who they trust. That person might tell another of their friends, not knowing that you did not want the information to get to that person. Of course, it does not “cost lives” in that situation, but the idea is basically the same.

In Code Name Verity, if Julie or Maddie, or anyone else, were to be too loose with information, the enemy would probably get it. Both of them are involved in very secret missions. They often say that careless talk costs lives, meaning that they do not want to talk about what they do.

Julie gives false information to her interrogators. However, she tells it in such a way that they believe it to be true. She pretends that she is upset about writing it out, while, in reality, she is faking all of it. She is able to do this because she is good at acting, and uses that for her job.

Maddie, however, has a more practical job as a pilot. Still, she takes the people who have secret missions, such as Julie, to where they need to be. While she is in hiding, she writes out all that has happened as an “Accident report”. This is foolish because the papers could fall into the wrong hands.

If “careless talk costs lives”, then we should all be more careful about what we say. We never know who it could get to, and how fast.