Metaphor for Hope
The Code that Chester and the rest of the Navajo Marine recruits develop give the US forces the breakthrough they needed in order to gain the upper hand over the Japanese forces. The code they use is based on the Navajo language, a culture so foreign to the Japanese cryptographers that they don’t even know where to start looking for a linguistic base to unlock it. It allows the American troops to safely send transmissions giving them an unparalleled advantage in the battlefield and because of this The Code becomes a metaphor for hope.
Metaphor for Power
The Pacific theater of war tested the creativity of everyone that participated in it. Prior to World War II no one had fought extensively in the tropics, over such vast distances, or needed to coordinate such a vast number of troops. The logistical and administrative challenges that arose during the war suddenly made it very clear that communication as well as the ability to continuously communicate without being intercepted and deciphered was of central importance, on par with the very real need to ammo and supplies. When The Code was finally developed and implemented this gave the US forces the advantage that they needed to communicate and keep communicating with their soldiers without fear of discovery. Communication thus ceases to be a mere necessity but a metaphor for power, real power, on the battlefield.
Metaphor for Strength
Chester always carries with him a small pouch carrying some corn pollen that had been blessed by a Navajo medicine man. It is symbolic of his ties to his native people but more than that it is a metaphor for strength for him. The Navajo revere corn as a guardian or an ancestral spirit because corn is their staple food, the source of their strength as a people---their fuel in a very literal sense---as without it they could not exist and flourish. During highly stressful situations Chester takes a pinch of pollen from the bag to place on his tongue. Although largely a symbolic gesture, psychologically it serves to steady him allowing him to focus on the task at hand and function well enough to achieve his objectives. From a mere talisman of emblematic meaning it becomes a real enough metaphor for strength through his connection to Navajo traditions.
Metaphor for Maturity
The novel is an autobiography of Chester Nez, the eponymous Code Talker. Although it is an autobiography it also reads very much like a coming-of-age story because it chronicles his personal development from his days as a goat herder to career soldier to civilian. When he is recruited into the US Marine Corp his maturation as a person is suddenly kicked into overdrive as he is given a mission of national---if not global---importance. His time at the Marine Corps boot camp can thus be viewed as a metaphor for maturity because it is here where he sheds much of his youthful mischievousness.
Metaphor for Death
The battle cry “banzai!” usually came before a terrible massacre, both of American as well as Japanese soldiers. These suicide charges provided the Japanese forces with Pyrrhic victories and as such merely hearing the words banzai had an immense demoralizing effect upon the American troops. It comes to a point where to hear the cry banzai becomes synonymous with death.
