Code Talker Literary Elements

Historical Fiction

Set in the 1930s and 1940s - Navajo reservation, Hawaii, and Japan.

The novel is narrated in first-person from the perspective of Ned Begay.

Grim, Reminiscent, Sad, Angry

The protagonist is Ned Begay and the antagonist is the Japanese Army.

In the wake of World War II, the U.S. had to develop a secret code as a military strategy from the Navajo native language. Akin to other code talkers Ned is tasked with using the same mother tongue that was deemed of no use in his childhood to save the lives of many.

The climax happens when Ned gets assigned to the Marines and shipped to the Pacific islands to decipher coded messages in the war.

“But I am getting ahead of myself. I have not even explained to you yet why we made up such names. I have not told you why being able to speak our Navajo language, the same Navajo language they tried to beat out of me when I was a child, was so important during World War Two. It was because I was a Navajo code talker.”

N/A

The novel alludes to the Navajo code talkers in the Second World War and vital in decrypting and sending coded messages, with the protagonist molded after the code talker Chester Nez.

“The wind was coming in from over the ocean and the palm trees were swaying. A little bird with a curved beak was flying around our heads. It was as blue as the sheen of water and it just kept buzzing back and forth among the bloodred flowers of a tall bush that arched over me.”

N/A

“Even though I was now sixteen and even though I was still small for my age, I knew in my heart that it was my time to serve as a warrior. I would wear a beautiful uniform and go to see strange places. I would wait no longer. Soon, very soon, I would finally become a Marine!”

“I don’t remember digging a foxhole, but I found myself inside one”

“The whole sea ahead of us was alive with fire and drifting smoke.”