Code Talker Language and Communication Quotes

As a young kid, Chester doesn't want to go to school. But he's smart enough to realize that English is important, and he'll only learn it if he goes to school. This quotation foreshadows Chester's work as a code talker. His knowledge of English—and Navajo, of course—will come in handy when he joins the Marines later.

Chester's punishment for speaking in Navajo at school is a reflection of the way that his schooling isn't just aimed at educating him. It's aimed at wiping out his Navajo culture.

Even though Chester has to suffer a lot in order to learn English at school, he reaps the rewards later when he can prove to the Marine recruiters that his grasp of English is just as strong as his grasp of Navajo. He'll need both languages for his work as a code talker.

Here we get an understanding for why the Navajo language was chosen as the basis of the secret military code. It's unwritten and spoken by few people, so chances that the Japanese will manage to break it are slim.

This quotation expresses the self-doubt that the new Navajo Marines feel about developing the code. Can they live up to the difficult task that they've been assigned, especially given that most of them have never even had any experience in the military?

It's a good thing that Chester and his buddies have a good grasp of both English and Navajo, as they need both to develop the secret military code. While Chester was torn between the two languages growing up, here we see the two languages coming together.

Chester and his buddies draw on the natural environment of Navajo land to come up with the code. This is another way in which their cultural and environmental heritage comes in handy in helping the Marines beat the Japanese.

It's one tough code that the Navajo Marines come up with. The fact that even American code breakers can't break the code shows us what a good job the Marines have done.

This is the first time that Chester uses the code and witnesses it in action. It works! Chester will never forget this moment because it's the first time he sees all of his (and the other Navajo Marines') work paying off.

It becomes pretty clear pretty soon that the code is a weapon that the Marines simply can't do without. Which means, of course, that the Marines can't do without the Navajo code talkers. This quotation suggests just what an important role the code talkers played in the battle over the Pacific.