Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Code Talker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, Language, and Identity
The Navajo Way and the Life of the Warrior
Culture and Patriotism
War, Healing, and Peace
Summary
Analysis
Even as the 29 men are recruited, nobody knows what their so-called special duty will be. After the all-Navajo platoon is bused away from Fort Defiance, nobody hears from them for months. Eventually, a couple of influential fathers write to the Marines with questions, only to be told that their sons are well, but that they cannot communicate with anyone. People joke uneasily about their fate. But four months later, one of those men reappears at Fort Defiance—Johnny Manuelito. He is now a corporal, having finished his training and been sent back to instruct the next batch of recruits.
The seeming disappearance of the new recruits would naturally be unsettling for the families back on the reservation. Nobody has a clue why the Navajos have been specifically called into service, their work having been classified as top-secret. This sequence of events has eerie echoes of the U.S. government’s previous efforts to crush the Navajo, and it highlights the potential risk that Ned is taking on by trying to serve that same government.
Themes
When Johnny Manuelito makes his recruitment speeches around the reservation, everyone is impressed. He looks like a different person, not just because of his spotless uniform, but because of his confident carriage. During one speech, he looks to Ned “like an eagle staring down from a high mountain crag.” He explains to the audience that if a man is drafted, he won’t have a choice about which branch of the armed forces he joins, but if he enlists now, he can hope to become a marine.
Ned is thrilled by Johnny’s words, his confident posture, and his self-assurance. After the talk, he walks to the front to listen more. He hears Johnny explain that the average white man usually washes out of boot camp. But not a single member of the Navajo platoon washed out. Ned is not surprised to hear this. The skills tested in Marine boot camp are things many Navajos do every day. After Johnny’s speech, Ned’s mind is made up—he’s ready to become a warrior.
Marine boot camp, besides providing basic training to new recruits, was also a way of weeding out those who couldn’t handle the physical demands of being a Marine. Many of those demands are things Navajo men take for granted as part of daily life—here, they have an advantage over most white recruits.
Themes
