Code Talker Sparknotes

The book Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac is a historical fiction novel about the Navajo Marines in World War II.The navajo code talkers were real people in the world wars that conveyed messages in their native language to help with the wars. The main character, Kii (or Ned) unfortunately was not a real person. He is based off of real people that were in the war. It begins with a man telling his grandchildren about how he won all his medals in the war .Ned Begay (also known as Kii) was born on a Navajo reservation but sent to a boarding school at the age of six to learn English. When Kii Yazhi gets sent to school, away from his family, he has no idea what’s in store. Imagine being sent away to a school where they don't even speak the same language as you. The

teachers only speak English, and the students are only allowed to speak English. They spoke their native language, Navajo, in secret. The students would be punished if they were caught, so they had to be careful. Kii Yazhi was given a new name, Ned Begay. Ned soon became an excellent student, and had ambitions to be a teacher.
Ned is ecstatic to graduate to high school.

His teachers are nicer and better in general. But when the marines come, in need of recruiters, he has his heart set on joining. So, Ned waits one year until he is old enough to join. His village had a special ceremony where they blessed him with corn pollen, then he was sent away to the rines.

Ned goes to boot camp where they whip him into shape, but all of the challenges are not as hard for the Navajos because they had to do them in everyday life in their village. After they complete boot camp, a few Navajo soldiers are sent to more training, training to become code talkers. The training was very secret because they had to speak the code that no one else would know.

After their intensive training, they were put out into the war where they would send and receive codes. They had to be very careful and precise because if they did it wrong the Japanese could figure it out. Ned and the code talkers used their native language to help win the war. When the war ends, Ned is one of the first to know because of his experience as a code talker. He is forbidden to speak about anything that happened during this time until 1969, when he is finally permitted to tell

others.
The author's purpose for writing this book is to give information and another look on World War II. If it weren’t for this complex navajo language, we could live in a totally different world. We could live in a world where the axis powers won. The author chose to write about Navajo marines because if it weren’t for them playing their part, the war would have lasted longer and there could have been a different outcome.The intended audience for this book would be anyone who wants to have a different look at the war. The book is organized in chronological order. Each chapter name is a few words describing what each is about. Reading this book gave me a different look on world war II. I honestly didn’t know the Navajos were used in the war until i read this. I feel like they should be more known for what they have done. I feel like everyone should read this book because I’m sure most people don’t know they existed either.
The main theme of Code Talker is always be yourself and never change just because someone asks you to. This is because if Ned did change, and if he did forget his language, then he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to join the war as a marine.