Compare And Contrast Code Talkers And Farewell To Manzanar

Simone Myrie, a Japanese born writer, once said “They call us dreamers, but we’re the ones who don’t sleep”. During World War Two, there were not as many dreamers, but there were In Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac and Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki, World War Two changed the identity of their protagonists, Ned and Jeanne herself, in few ways that include how they view their cultural traditions, their friendship choices, and how they respond to the discrimination they both face.

During war, tradition can either be the enemy of progress or the teacher of new concepts. To Ned Begay in Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, the traditions and ceremonies of the Navajo culture influenced his identity throughout World War Two. During the war,

As humans, this could mean having a good network of friends. But not just any friends, friends that accept you for who you are; friends you do not have to change your personality for. For Ned, this is not that big of a hassle. First, during basic Marine training, Ned meets Georgia Boy and Ned “knew that I’d made a friend” (Bruchac 67). They immediately bond and become friends for life without Ned having to pretend to not be Navajo or reject his Navajo culture. Another example of this is when Ned becomes friends with the other Native Americans he meets “Lakota, Cheyennes, Cherokees, and Choctaws, even a Zuni” (170). When they are all about to leave Pavavu, another island in the Pacific Ocean, they have a powwow together; Ned did his “ceremonial dance that honored the ancestors”, “the Oklahoma boys did some of their dancing too”, they Zuni even sang a song (171). Ned and the other Indians did not have to change themselves to fit in together even though they come from different cultures and groups. This is what makes them true friends. On the other hand, Jeanne was not so lucky when it came to solving friendship problems. Instead of being able to accept her as a Japanese-American, Jeanne has to almost erase the whole Japanese side of herself just to be slightly liked. Instead of “Miss Hiroshima” she had somehow turned into “Miss America (Houston 147). Even

At the beginning of Code Talkers, before World War Two, while at mission school, Ned acts as a rebel when people discriminate against him and his culture. While at mission school, Ned and the other Navajos were not allowed to speak Navajo. So instead, “[Ned] learned Navajo songs and stories” “in the basement of the school or out behind the woodshed” (Bruchac 26). They may not have taken over the school, but they did do enough to keep their traditions alive, even when they were trying to be suppressed. However, at the end of the book, when he was thrown out of the bar for being a Navajo, he finally accepts that he can’t do anything to change what people think of him. He understands this so much that on page 210 he says “It didn’t matter that I had fought for America. It didn’t matter that I had made white friends who would have sacrificed their lives to save me when we were at war. In the eyes of those prejudiced bilagáanaas in that bar, I was just another stupid Navajo” (210). Instead of being completely offended by the discrimination, he knows that one person could not change all the views of his culture, so he keeps his cool. Jeanne has a bit of a different story. On the other hand, she starts with thinking that she could not control what other people thought of her culture and then changes to not accepting the