Stereotyping In Code Talker, By Joseph Bruchac

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Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac is a book centered around the Navajo Indians in WWII. The Navajos were forced to live on reservations, their only option to further their education and broaden their opportunities were to leave the tribe or to join the military. Caucasian Americans at the time were very stereotypical towards the Navajos, they believed they were drunk, uneducated, wild savages. Caucasian Americans were guilty of only hearing a single story of how their ancestors took the land from the Indians who weren't deserving of it. Non Indians believed they rightfully used the land and saved it from wild savages destroying the land. In reality The Navajos were highly spiritual, and educated people who respected the land. The mindset of the “real Americans” demonstrates “how impressionable [humans] are in the face of a story”. Ned the main character of Code talker without the approval of his parents joined the American Navy and when being trained was “felt sorry for, before [they] even saw [him]”. Adichie's speech can relate to this piece of …show more content…

Stereotyping affects individuals where their view of another is narrow and judging of other cultures. Ned experienced this in training, so did Adichie when attending college. The consequences of stereotyping were spread onto Adichie when visiting Mexico. She at first thought of them as “people who exploit healthcare”. Ned when training met a person from Georgia and like others did to him, he thought of him as “weird” and with a funny way of talking. Code Talker is an example of a single story as a result of many incidents Adichie experienced are represented. Adichie believes and Code Talker demonstrates when “you show people as one, over and over, they will become one thing”. If humans as a whole were to understand the experiences that others are exposed to humans could “reject a single story [and] gain a type of