Summer reading review
 Historical
Fiction
 World
War II (1939-1945)
 The novel takes place in a few different
places:
Gallup, NM
 The Indian Reservation
 Military training camps
 Pacific Theater of WWII

 Ned
Begay
 Major Conflict:
 Despite being told his whole life that using
his sacred Navajo language was wrong, Ned
must use it to create and implement a code
that will help the United States during
World War II.
 Ned
Begay
 Johnny Manuelito
 Georgia Boy
 Smitty
 Frank “Hosteen” Mitchell
 Joan Roanhorse
 Phillip Johnson
 Corporal Radant
 Sam Begay
 Ned’s Grandchildren
 Protagonist
and narrator (telling his
grandchildren about his experiences)
 Smart Navajo Boy who is sent to American
boarding school where he is told to forget
his traditions and language.
 Is eventually recruited as one of the
Navajo Codetalkers for his fluency in both
English and Navajo.
 One
of the first Codetalkers.
 Does not go into combat, but is chosen to
recruit more Navajos and teach them about
the code.
 Recruits Ned.
 Young
Marine from Georgia.
 Meets Ned in bootcamp and asks Ned to
teach him how to read.
 They are separated, but then reunited on
Bougainville Island where they fight side by
side.
 Injured on Iwo Jima. Ned is afraid he has
been killed, but the medic was able to save
him.
Fights with Ned in the Pacific.
 Is assigned to protect Ned during combat and
calls a medic when Ned is injured, saving his
life.
 One of the few white men Ned calls a friend.

 Singer
from the Navajo community where
Ned lives.
 Performs a Blessingway ceremony to pray for
Ned’s protection as he joins the Marines.
A
boy from Ned’s boarding school.
 Is punished severely (beatings, soap in
mouth, solitary confinement) because he
refuses to stop speaking Navajo.
 Son
of a white trader, knows some basic
Navajo.
 Showed the Marines how Navajo could be
used as a code in war.
 Is sometimes credited as the father of the
Navajo Code, but never spoke fluent Navajo
and did not participate in its creation.
A
beloved teacher at Camp Ellison.
 One
of the early code talkers.
 Talks to Ned and his friends about what it’s
like to be in combat and how to protect
themselves.
 Also tells them of some trouble they may run
into with the white commanders and how
they could overcome it.
A
group of unnamed children to whom the
book is addressed.
 Ned uses the story to teach them to be proud
of their heritage.
 Ned
has gathered his grandchildren around
and is telling them the story of his WWII
medals.
 As a young child, Ned was sent to boarding
school, mostly at the insistence of his uncle,
who believed that Navajo people need to
know English to avoid conflict.
 The teachers at the boarding school
mistreated the students and told them that
their language and culture was wrong. They
tried to force them to learn English language
and culture.
 Ned,
a good student, survives the boarding
school and goes on to high school.
 While Ned was in high school, Pearl Harbor
was attacked by the Japanese, essentially
forcing the United States to join World War
II.
 The US government begins recruiting Navajo
men who could speak both Navajo and
English.
 Excited about serving his country, Ned lies
about his age and enlists in the Marines at
the age of 16.
 After
boot camp, Ned and the other Navajos
set about to create the Navajo code.


The code used Navajo words to represent letters,
which then spelled out messages.
It was considered top secret and was never
written down—all code talkers had to commit the
code to memory. This was especially difficult
because the code was constantly changing, to
keep the enemy from breaking it by recognizing
any patterns.
 After
learning the code, Ned is sent into
combat in the Pacific.
 Ned
is assigned to group of Marines who end
up capturing several important islands in the
Pacific, including Bougainville and Guam.
 He also finds himself a part of the invasion
on Iwo Jima, one of the major turning points
of WWII.
 Ned
follows the Marines onto Okinawa.
 When the war eventually ended, Ned and the
other code talkers were some of the first to
know.
 Ned and the other code talkers were forced
to keep silent about their role in the war
until 1969.
 Years
after the war, Ned is finally able to
speak freely and proudly about both his
service in the war and the value of his
Navajo language.
 Cultural
Pride
 Racial Discrimination
 At
first, Ned is told to look at his heritage
as something shameful. The boarding
school try their hardest to strip him and
the other students of their cultural
identity by cutting their hair, taking away
their traditional clothes and jewelry and
forbidding them to speak their language.
However, Ned’s pride in his culture
survives and proves valuable to the very
same government that tried to take it
from him.
 Due
to the conflicts between Native
Americans and the American military, there
are many misconceptions about Native
Americans. Many white people believed that
Native Americans were savages who could
not be taught. Ned faces this discrimination
at the boarding school, where he and the
other students are treated almost like
criminals. He faces similar attitudes at the
high school, where it is implied that he is
smart for an Indian, but will never be as
good as a white student. Even in the military,
many Navajos are seen as dumb and lazy
because they don’t speak English and don’t
perform well at the boot camp activities.
 Corn

Pollen
Ned follows Navajo tradition by using corn pollen
in his prayers each morning. The pollen
dissipates in the wind, as if carrying the prayers
to heaven.
 Clothing

Clothing comes to represent identity in the
novel. At the boarding school, the students are
stripped of their traditional Navajo clothes and
made to wear American. While Ned is at war, he
sends back pieces of his clothing for his family to
use as they pray for him—these clothes are used
like a substitute for the person.