97 pages 3 hours read

Joseph Bruchac

Code Talker

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Essay Topics

1.

Code Talker is told from the perspective of Ned Begay, and he addresses the narrative to his “grandchildren.” Why does the author present the narrative this way? Do you imagine Ned means Navajo youths or a broader audience when he says “grandchildren”?

2.

At many points in the book, Begay reflects on his experiences at boarding school and in war, and how he maintained his Navajo rituals and prayers even when pressed to abandon them. How do you think that being Navajo shapes Ned’s experience of the war? How do you think a non-Indian account of the code-talker experience would differ?

3.

The Navajo people occupied North America for a long time before white settlers came and displaced them, bringing suffering and hardship to Native Americans. The history of the American Indian relationship to the US government is fraught with broken promises and cruelty. And yet during World War Two , many in the Navajo tribe are eager to serve in support of the United States. What do you make of this Navajo patriotism?