REVIEW OF CODE TALKER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE NAVAJO MARINES OF WORLD WAR TWO
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruchac,
Joseph. 2005. CODE TALKER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE NAVAJO
MARINES OF WORLD WAR TWO New York, NY: Penguin Group, Inc. ISBN 0803729219.
B. PLOT
SUMMARY
The story starts with a grandfather recounting events in his life to his
grandchildren. He explains that early in his life he was sent to an
English-language boarding elementary school. It was at this school that he was
given an English name, Ned Begay. Later, when he is at a high school boarding
school for Navajo children, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, and America enters World
War II. Eventually, a Marine Corps recruiter comes to the school. Ned wants to
join; but, due to his age, he has to wait a year. After the year is over, he
joins the Marine Corps. He goes to boot camp. He passes boot camp and is
assigned to code talker school. He completes code talker school and ships out. He
lands on islands in the Pacific Ocean with his fellow Marines. Eventually they
reached the island of Iwo Jima. The marines fight hard and are victorious over
the Japanese defenders. After a period of time, the American drop atomic bombs
on Japan. This causes Japan to surrender. Once the war is over, Ned returns
home.
C.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This historical novel teaches readers about the contributions of one group of
Native Americans in World War II, the Navajo code talkers who served in the
U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. Their contributions helped us win
World War II. The protagonist of the story, Ned Begay, may have been loosely
based on an actual Navajo code talker and Marine at Iwo Jima named Thomas
Begay.
Early in
the book, the grandfather mentions a medal that he was awarded. The description
of the medal in the book matches that of a Fourth Marine Division Association
medal with the inscription “Honoring the American Indian Marine”. While it
doesn’t have any inscription referring to Navajo soldiers or code talkers, it
is an actual medal with the image of a Native American on horseback along with
an image of the Marine Corps flag raising at Iwa Jima. The last soldier in line
raising the flag is Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. This part of
the novel is 100% accurate.
The book
starts with many aspects of Navajo culture mentioned: the hogan, the
traditional Navajo home; the eagle as a good omen; moccasins; silver and
turquoise jewelry; concha belt; the “Long Walk”; etc. Throughout the book are
many references to Native American culture and traditions.
One of the
cultural differences between the Navajo people and the white people is in eye
contact. That is mentioned early in the novel. A white man wants the Navajo
children to look him in the eye when they are communicating. In the Navajo
culture, direct eye contact is impolite and potentially threatening. There are
similar strictures regarding eye contact in other cultures, too, notably Cuban,
Puerto Rican, Asian, and Middle Eastern cultures.
One aspect
of Navajo culture is the polite introductions expected, given, and received. These
introductions are mentioned a number of times in the novel. Within the
introduction is information regarding ancestral clanship. The expression used
in the introduction fall along these lines. “I am born to […] clan and born for
[…] clan.” The first clan mentioned (“born to…”) is the mother’s clan. The
second clan mentioned (“born for”) is the father’s clan. In this way
relationships between Navajo acquaintances can be quickly identified.
One
interesting aspect of the novel is how the school teaches the English language.
The students are not allowed to use the Navajo language at all. Basically, it
is a kind of immersion language program. Today, immersion language programs are
popular because they force the student to learn the new language faster. That
can also be said for the system used in this novel. The difference between a
good immersion program and the program used in this novel is that a good
immersion program does not denigrate a student’s original first-language. A
good language program honors and shows the value of all languages. Unfortunately,
that cannot be said for the program used at the school in this novel. This
banning of indigenous languages occurred frequently in the history of America
and other colonizing countries. Other countries who also have a history of
banning indigenous languages include Canada, Australia, Spain, and Portugal.
Another
cultural difference between the Navajo people and the white American people in
the novel is appropriate hair length. The white people in the novel believed
that boys and men should have short hair. The Navajo belief was that both men,
women, boys, and girls should all have long hair. For Navajo people, their long
hair is a cultural strength, so to have it forcibly cut by the white people at
the school was a horrible thing to occur for the Navajo students.
An
interesting moment in the novel is when the Navajo children are assigned their
new English names. Many boys’ names in the Navajo language include the
expression “son of”. If the father’s name was “the one with the gray mustache”,
then the son’s name might be “son of the one with the gray mustache”. The white
man in charge of assigning new names to the Navajo children would ask them for
their Navajo name, and then give them a new English name based on their Navajo
name. The Navajo word for “son of” sounds like “begay”, so the white man ended
up giving many of the boys the family name of “Begay.” That is how the
protagonist of the story got the name Ned Begay. This reflects what actually
did happen in Native American history. In fact, it happened so often that today
the most common family name of Native Americans is Begay. However, giving boys
names that start with “son of” is not the exclusive domain of Native Americans.
These kind of names that tie a child’s name to a male ancestor are
linguistically known as patronyms. (The equivalent for female ancestors are
matronyms.) The name Wilson is an example of a patronym, which means “son of
William”. This naming convention happens in many cultures around the world.
At one
point in the novel, the author mentions Jim Thorpe. It’s when the author is
discussing sports at the school which Ned Begay attends. This sparked my
interest because I’ve always been a student of athletic history, and Jim Thorpe
is well known to any student of athletic history. Without going into the detail
that he deserves, I will simply say that there is a great argument in favor of
saying that Jim Thorpe was the greatest male athlete of all time. Regarding
being included in this novel, Jim Thorpe was a Native American who’s sporting
exploits would have been common knowledge for the boys of this school. He was a
success in every sport in which he participated, including football, baseball, basketball,
track & field, and others. He was even a champion ballroom dancer, no
common feat for anyone, let alone a Native American. He was the only man to
ever win both the pentathlon and decathlon (in the same Olympics!)
Before he
leaves to join the Marines, Ned has the Blessingway sung over him. This
ceremony is one of the most important in the Navajo culture. It is a ceremony
to bring positive things into one’s life, and to help prevent negative things
from happening to the recipient. This would definitely be a ceremony to be
conducted for someone entering the military to go to war.
The
all-Navajo Platoon 297 mentioned in the novel really did exist. It was the
second all-Navajo platoon. (The first one was Platoon 382.) There were no more
all-Navajo platoons created after Platoon 297. It was the last. Interestingly,
there were four men in the platoon with the family name Begay.
The
author’s description of Ned and his fellow Navajo marines beginning their
training in code talkers is historically accurate, including the beginning of
Navajo code talkers. The roles of Johnny Manuelito, John Benally, Philip
Johnston, and General Vogel were all depicted accurately and historically
correct in the novel. Later, when the author describes Iwo Jima and the raising
of the flag, all details are accurate, including the names of Pima Indian Ira
Hayes and the other important figures in that historic moment.
The events
recounted in the story that occurred in 1969 actually happened. The Navajo code
talkers were allowed to tell their stories. Just as the novel says, they were
invited to the White House and the President of the United States presented
medals to them for their duty.
The
Author’s Note at the end of the book provides a lot of good information about
the history of the Navajo people. The author also talks about why the story of
the Navajo code talkers was one that he wanted to share with the world. One
important point that he makes is that, even today, people can discuss World War
II in the Pacific theater without mentioning the role of the Navajo code
talkers. Because their roles were such a closely guarded secret, both at the
time and also later after the war, it was easy to think that they never
existed.
The author
wrote this story to try to right this wrong. He says that two things spurred
him to write the book. The first was the author’s interest in American Indian
languages. The second was being commissioned to write a book about the Navajo
people. That experience led him to realize how important the Navajo code
talkers had been to the United States, as well as to their own people after
they returned from the war. The author decided to tell the story of the Navajo
code talkers, and the result was this book.
D. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
ALA Best Books for Young Adults award (2006)
Note
– I’ve done a lot of reviews for my library science coursework. I’ve also read
many book reviews by credible sources such as School Library Journal, Booklist,
Horn Book, Kirkus, etc. Often many reviews agree on the overall quality of a
book. This particular book is an exception to that generality. The reviewer for
Horn Book didn’t like this novel, unlike most other review sources.
School
Library Journal: “In the
measured tones of a Native American storyteller, Bruchac assumes the persona of
a Navajo grandfather telling his grandchildren about his World War II
experiences. Protagonist Ned Begay starts with his early schooling at an Anglo
boarding school, where the Navajo language is forbidden, and continues through
his Marine career as a "code talker," explaining his long silence
until "de-classified" in 1969. Begay's lifelong journey honors the
Navajos and other Native Americans in the military, and fosters respect for
their culture. Bruchac's gentle prose presents a clear historical picture of
young men in wartime, island hopping across the Pacific, waging war in the
hells of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Iwo Jima. Nonsensational and accurate,
Bruchac's tale is quietly inspiring, even for those who have seen Windtalkers,
or who have read such nonfiction works as Nathan Aaseng's Navajo Code Talkers
(Walker, 1992), Kenji Kawano's Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers (Northland, 1990),
or Deanne Durrett's Unsung Heroes of World War II: The Story of the Navajo Code
Talkers (Facts On File, 1998). For those who've read none of the above, this is
an eye-opener.”
Booklist: Starred Review - “Six-year-old Ned
Begay leaves his Navajo home for boarding school, where he learns the English
language and American ways. At 16, he enlists in the U.S. Marines during World
War II and is trained as a code talker, using his native language to radio
battlefield information and commands in a code that was kept secret until 1969.
Rooted in his Navajo consciousness and traditions even in dealing with fear,
loneliness, and the horrors of the battlefield, Ned tells of his experiences in
Hawaii, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The book,
addressed to Ned's grandchildren, ends with an author's note about the code
talkers as well as lengthy acknowledgments and a bibliography. The narrative
pulls no punches about war's brutality and never adopts an avuncular tone. Not
every section of the book is riveting, but slowly the succession of scenes,
impressions, and remarks build to create a solid, memorable portrayal of Ned
Begay. Even when facing complex negative forces within his own country, he is
able to reach into his traditional culture to find answers that work for him in
a modern context. Readers who choose the book for the attraction of Navajo code
talking and the heat of battle will come away with more than they ever expected
to find.”
Horn
Book: “Unconvincingly framed as reminiscence that a WWII veteran
shares with his grandchildren, this novel is larded with military history,
information about the Navajo code-talkers, and awkwardly set passages about the
beauty and natural wisdom of Navajo life. There is no plot, characterization is
generic, and while real people are part of the story, their dialogue is
fictionalized and unlikely.”
Kirkus: Starred Review - “Sixteen-year-old Ned Begay detested life in the Navajo
mission school where he was sent. There, “anything that belonged to the Navajo
way was bad, and our Navajo language was the worst.” However, in one of the
greatest ironies in American history, when WWII broke out, Navajos—victims of
the US Army effort to destroy them in the 1860s and the harshness of the
mission schools in the 20th century—were recruited by the Marine Corps to use
their native language to create an unbreakable code. Navajo is one of the
hardest of all American Indian languages to learn, and only Navajos can speak
it with complete fluency. So, Ned Begay joined a select group of Navajo code
talkers to create one code the Japanese couldn’t break. Telling his story to
his grandchildren, Ned relates his experiences in school, military training,
and across the Pacific, on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa. With its multicultural themes and well-told WWII history, this will
appeal to a wide audience.”
E. CONNECTIONS
This story is about the Navajo code talkers in World War II.
Here are other books about the Native
American code talkers in World War II:
Hunter, Sara. THE UNBREAKABLE CODE. ISBN 978-0873589178
Aaseng, Nathan. NAVAJO
CODE TALKERS. ISBN 978-0802776273
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