IT mixed with the burning gasoline from the flamethrowers and napalm bombs, the sharp tang of gunpowder, the overheated metal of machine gun barrels, so hot they were melting.” Joseph Bruchac describes setting well in this book, like when he describes Ned thinking back to his time on Iwo Jima on page 186 of the book, “A burning Sherman tank lifted right up into the air and flipped upside down by the explosion of a 500-pound bomb that had been buried as a mine… Then there were the smells. The Navajos would not be awarded or even openly discussed for their efforts during the war until years later. Ned Begay finds that though Navajos have played a major part in the war they are treated just as badly as they did before it. Marine uniform, but when he goes back to his home and sits in a bar he is thrown out for being “Indian”. After the war he is praised by people in the big cities while he is in his U.S. He goes to many different islands in the Pacific, including Iwo Jima. He and the other Navajos are put in charge of radio communication in the field. Ned may not speak of his and the other Navajos’ job as code talkers and are remained top secret. Since the Navajo language is very hard to understand it became a perfect code. Ned later finds that Navajos are needed to create and use a code based on their own language, their sacred language that not too long ago the Navajos were strongly discourage from using. He waits a year and his parents let him enlist. So, he goes to parents to see if they will allow him but they deny it, though they said that if the war continues next year he may. But, since he was born on a reservation there is no way of validating his age. Ned is sixteen and he must be eighteen to join the military. But the government later feels the need not only for Native Americans in general but for Navajos especially. During this time the United States becomes involved in World War II.Īt first Native Americans were not allowed to become soldiers. He though excels in his classes and goes to a Native American high school. Him and his Native American peers are constantly being devalued for being Native Americans and are treated as being unintelligent compared to white children.

At the school they assign each of the Native Americans with new Americanized names.

His Navajo clothes are taken from him and he is a given military style school uniform.

Also, he must learn English and never use his sacred Navajo language. There he must get his cultural long hair shaved. “Code Talker” begins with a young Navajo boy and his journey to a United States government led school. Bruchac uses setting, plot development, and cultural perspective well in this book. The book “Code Talker” by author Joseph Bruchac is a very interesting book about a Navajo Native American and his life being a marine in World War II.

Code talker joseph bruchac book review