Code Name Verity Theme of Mortality (Death)

Most books about any war will deal with the idea of mortality, if only because lots of people tend to die in war, which puts it on everyone's mind. In Code Name Verity, there's a lot of waiting for death as Julie anticipates her execution or transfer to a concentration camp. She has a lot of time to think about not only her own death, but also about how death is portrayed in literature and how people in history have faced their deaths, too. As readers, it's easy both to feel as though Julie's death is inevitable, and to hope it isn't—and then, of course, to have that hope crushed.

1. How does Julie both dwell on and avoid the idea of her own death as she writes her confession?
2. While Julie's ultimate fate both drives the story and becomes its climax, many other deaths occur. How do these affect the novel's impact?
3. What is the effect of the reader's discovery in Part 2 that Maddie is still alive?
4. Is death a dominant theme in the book, or is it subtler compared to other themes?

Julie's death is both inevitable and necessary for the novel to be realistic.

Julie could realistically have survived the raid as other prisoners did.