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Chapter 16
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
Ned’s ship, the President Adams, and 11 other transport ships inch closer to shore. At 6:45 in the morning, Ned climbs into his landing boat with 29 other men, and the craft is eventually dropped into the waves below. The 15-minute journey to shore feels much longer. After the shelling stops, fighter planes strafe the island. While the other marines cheer, Ned just checks his gear. As the landing craft makes its final approach, Japanese guns open up from the beach.
The naval bombardment and aerial strafing were meant to “soften up” the island, driving back the enemy in order to make the marines’ beach landing easier. Because the Japanese soldiers were often dug deeply into caves and tunnels, however, such “softening up” was not always as effective as leaders hoped.
Themes
When Ned’s craft stops on the beach, everyone stumbles forward, crawling under the crossfire. Though many are confused and afraid, their training takes over. Ned has no memory of digging a foxhole, but he soon finds himself at the bottom of one with Georgia Boy. Georgia Boy has a small shrapnel wound. He tells Ned that Ned dragged him into the foxhole one-handed, though Ned has no memory of this, either.
Ned’s experiences upon landing on Bougainville are a good example of the power of training, as well as the adrenaline that often takes over in combat. Because of these factors, soldiers sometimes find that they have done feats of considerable strength that they do not even remember. The way that Ned’s sense of reality wavers here also foreshadows the way that the ordinary world will feel strange to him after he returns from combat.
Themes
Despite the shelling and bombing, it turns out that the Japanese remained dug in. But the Marines succeeded in bringing 14,000 marines and their equipment ashore, setting up a command post at Cape Torokina. The Navajo net of code talkers begins sending messages. By the end of the day, some Solomon Islanders emerge to greet the Americans. One islander proudly shows off the bow and arrow with which he’s killed two Japanese people. When a mortar shell hits nearby, Ned and Georgia Boy dive into their foxhole, but the islander doesn’t flinch, just calmly offers them some bananas. Later, as Ned falls into an exhausted sleep, he reflects that the strangest thing of all is that they hadn’t seen a single Japanese soldier that day.
The Solomon Islanders have become so accustomed to warfare on their island that they are hardened against bombs, while Ned and his friends are still “green” and jumpy. Despite a good start to the campaign, there’s an eerie feeling about it, as though the operation has begun with deceptive ease. Ned realization that he hasn’t even seen any Japanese people hints at how dehumanizing war can be. It’s easy to forget that one’s enemies are real people, a tendency that Ned will fight against later on.
Themes
