92 pages • 3 hours read
Scott O'DellIsland of the Blue Dolphins
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1960A 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.
Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
That night, Karana and Ramo return to the deserted village, where the “huts looked like ghosts in the cold light” (39). Dozens of wild dogs raid the huts for food, but they return to their cave at the children’s approach. Karana and her brother spend the next two days gathering food. Ramo says he prefers life on the island now that the other villagers have left, declares himself the chief of Ghalas-at, and expresses his desire to retrieve a canoe from the cliffside. Karana teases him for pretending to be a big, strong man.
Ramo sneaks away at night, and Karana is alarmed to discover his absence in the morning. She decides not to look for him because he will have to mature more quickly now that they have to fend for themselves. While she waits for Ramo to appear with the canoe, Karana gathers shellfish and reflects on the measures they will need to take to survive until the ship returns—if it ever does. When hours pass and there is still no sign of her brother, Karana hurries toward the cliff. She finds the pack of wild dogs circling Ramo’s body, which is covered in injuries left by their teeth, including “a deep wound in his throat” (45). The pack’s leader is a dog with gray fur and yellow eyes. Karana carries her brother’s body back to the village and then pursues the dogs to their cave, where she unsuccessfully attempts to set their lair on fire. She returns to her hut and spends a sleepless night sitting by her slain brother. Karana vows to avenge Ramo by killing the entire pack of dogs.
Chapter 9 Summary
After her brother’s death, time blurs for Karana. One winter morning, fog envelops the island, and she has a hallucination—seeing and hearing the dead among the mist. After the sun burns away the fog, Karana sets the empty huts on fire until “only ashes [are] left to mark the village of Ghalas-at” (48). She sets up a new camp on a headland that offers her a view of the harbor and protection from the dogs. She wants a spear and a bow to defend herself from the dogs, but doesn’t know how, as women weren’t allowed to make weapons according to her people’s laws. She searches the canoes and remnants of the village for weaponry—but to no avail. Karana recalls the Aleuts’ black chest, which may contain iron spearheads. When she digs up the chest, she only finds glittering beads and jewelry. She dons a necklace and a pair of bracelets and parades along the cove, feeling “like the bride of a chief” in her finery (50). However, Karana remembers the battle of Coral Cove and casts all of the jewelry into the sea.
The dogs prowl near Karana’s camp at night, so she decides to make weapons—despite the people of her village teaching her that doing so would bring disaster upon her. After much trial and error, she constructs a functional bow and arrows. The pack’s leader watches her from a distance, and she is certain that the dogs will attack her one day. Still, she finds joy in watching the stars, birds, and otters from the vantage point of her new camp. Karana settles into a peaceful, albeit solitary, routine as she waits for the ship’s return, but winter and spring pass without any sign of the vessel.
Chapter 10 Summary
Summer gives way to another winter, and the thought of spending more months alone prevents Karana from eating or sleeping well. She decides to journey east, hoping to find her people in the land their ancestors came from. She prefers risking death and danger on the sea to remaining alone on the island “without a home or companions, pursued by wild dogs, where everything reminded [her] of those who were dead and those who had gone away” (58). Karana sets out by canoe, and the stars allow her to chart a course and calm her fears. In the morning, a crack in the canoe forces her to turn back.
Karana’s spirits lift when a pod of dolphins swims around her canoe, “as if they were weaving a piece of cloth with their broad snouts” (63). Her people consider the animals a good omen, and her loneliness eases because she thinks of the dolphins as her friends. Remembering the dolphins gives her courage through a frightening night, and she reaches the island the next morning. Karana drags her stiff and sore body from the canoe, joyfully hugs the sand, and falls asleep on the shore.
Chapter 11 Summary
Karana gathers her belongings from the canoe and returns to her camp on the headland. She observes the waves, birds, and otters and is surprised to find herself “happy to be home” (65). She decides not to attempt another journey in the canoe and instead tasks herself with building a house. One of the locations Karana considers is near the dogs’ lair, but she will have to kill the pack and its yellow-eyed leader first if she wants to build. Ultimately, she decides against the spot because of the deafening din made by nearby sea elephants. A rainy night leaves the island fresh with the sweet smells of plants. Believing the pleasant day is “an omen of good fortune” for her new home (69), Karana sings as she gathers building materials.
Chapter 12 Summary
Karana decides to build her house on the headland where she is currently living, and constructs a fence out of whale ribs and kelp. The area within the fence is eight paces wide, which Karana deems sufficient space “to store the things [she] gathered and wished to protect” (71). Trees are small and scarce on the island, and many days pass before she finds enough wood to build a structure. Halfway through the winter, Karana finishes her house. The dogs come to her new home, but the strong fence keeps them out. Karana kills two of the dogs with arrows, but their leader remains alive.
After completing her house, Karana fashions stone cooking pots, a waterproof reed basket, a stone-lined fire pit, and shelves to keep her food safe from mice. When spring arrives, Karana is satisfied with her new home and furnishings. She then turns her energy to the annihilation of the dogs and crafts new, larger weapons. Karana decides to kill a bull sea elephant so she can use its tusk for a spearpoint, even though hunting “one of these great beasts” is a challenge that usually requires “the strength of several men” (74-75).
Chapter 13 Summary
Karana endures a restless night as she reflects on the law that forbids women from making weapons and ponders the dangers of hunting a sea elephant. Nevertheless, she seeks out the sea elephants when morning comes. She observes the animals and their young and compares the six enormous bulls to boulders. Karana selects the smallest and youngest of the bulls as her target, knowing that the creature will be less vigilant because it does not have a herd of its own to protect. She stealthily makes her way along the shore and draws her bow, but hesitates to fire because her “father’s warning that a bow in the hands of a woman would always break in a time of danger” echoes in her memory (78).
Her first arrow misses its target, and then an old bull attacks the young bull for approaching the old bull’s cows. The young bull fights back, and the rivals collide with a noise “like rocks crashing together” (81). Karana hopes that the young bull will win the battle. She injures her leg trying to get out of the path of the brawling animals and heads home without her prize.
Chapter 14 Summary
Karana’s injured leg swells, and she stays inside her house for five days until she is compelled to gather water. As she crawls to the spring, the dogs surround her. She takes shelter in a nearby cave for six days until her leg heals. Karana’s ancestors once dwelled in the cave, and the stone walls are carved with artwork depicting “figures of pelicans floating on the water and flying, of dolphins, whales, sea elephants, gulls, ravens, dogs, and foxes” (85).
Once she can walk again, Karana converts the cave into a house that she can use in case of future emergencies. She stocks the shelter with food, medicine, weapons, seaweed for bedding, and firewood. By her people’s standards, many of these tasks are considered “a man’s work” (85). After Karana finishes turning the cave into an emergency shelter, she returns to the sea elephants’ home. She finds the bones of the old bull and crafts two spears from its tusks. Armed with these new weapons, Karana feels prepared to face the pack of dogs.
Chapters 8-14 Analysis
At the beginning of this section, Karana watches over her younger brother, Ramo; at its end, she prepares to avenge his death. Losing Ramo leaves Karana alone and hungry for vengeance. Because Karana spends most of these chapters alone, The Struggle for Survival and Self-Determination and Learning from Nature are this section’s dominant themes. She battles despondency, danger, and her people’s traditions in her struggle to survive and carve out a new life and identity for herself.
Chapter 8 captures Ramo’s youth. His antics reveal that he does not understand the scope of his situation at all. In Chapter 7, the ship sent by Chief Kimki left him and Karana behind after he wandered off on his own. Instead of learning from this experience, Ramo sneaks off at night while Karana is asleep, and wild dogs kill him. His death may be the most difficult loss Karana experiences; her sacrifice in returning to the island appears to be in vain now that her brother is dead. Compounding the bitterness of the loss, Ramo dies just as Karana’s hope in the ship’s return starts to fade. His death marks a shift in Karana’s relationship with nature. Karana once saw animals, particularly otters, as her friends. Now, the dogs become her sworn enemies.
In Chapter 9, Karana chooses to live instead of longing in vain for those who are dead. By burning down the huts, she symbolically destroys her old way of life. To survive in her new, solitary existence, Karana must follow different rules. This connects to the theme of The Struggle for Survival and Self-Determination because she rejects her people’s expectations and gender norms in order to follow her beliefs and protect herself. For example, she throws the jewelry from the Aleuts’ black chest into the sea even though the women of her village prize such finery. For Karana, the beads’ beauty is irrevocably tainted by Captain Orlov and the Aleut hunters’ destruction, and she refuses to compromise her convictions by wearing jewelry that killers brought to her home.
Karana’s decision to make weapons represents a greater defiance of her people’s traditions. As shocking as Karana’s actions would be to the other villagers, these actions align with her previously established traits of being practical and protective. Her people claim that disaster will strike any woman who crafts weapons, but they are no longer present to keep Karana safe from the dogs—so she must adapt accordingly. It’s important to note that Karana is not rejecting her femininity by going against her society’s gender norms. Rather, she is creating a new identity and a new life for herself, one in which she decides what a woman is capable of. Karana’s weapons reinforce the theme of The Struggle for Survival and Self-Determination because they allow her to protect herself, and because they exemplify her choice to build a new way of life.
One of the novel’s most important symbols makes a reappearance in Chapter 10. Overcome with despair and loneliness, Karana makes the perilous decision to seek her people in the east. Her odds of survival look bleak when her canoe develops a leak, but a pod of dolphins appears and leads her home. The animals, which symbolize good fortune, help Karana realize that she is lucky to be alive and restore her appreciation for the Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Chapter 11 represents a new beginning and a change in perspective for Karana. She builds a permanent shelter, and this new house symbolizes her acceptance of her new life on the island. Nature inspires her to claim the island as her home by helping her recover some peace and happiness after the losses she’s experienced. Rain often represents rebirth in literature, making it a fitting symbol for Karana’s sense of renewal as she sets out to build a new home. The sight of otters at play and birds in flight fills her with joy and helps her realize that she can thrive on the island. However, not all animals are Karana’s friends. The large, yellow-eyed dog that leads the pack appears again in Chapter 11, and Karana reaffirms her vow to kill them all.
Karana’s character development is evident in the skill, patience, and hard work with which she constructs and furnishes her new home. This undertaking highlights her maturity, strength, and confidence. After she finishes the house, she feels ready to begin her mission of revenge. Karana even sets her mind on killing a bull sea elephant, a challenge that not even the men of her village would attempt alone. By setting this task for herself, Karana clearly shows that she does not want to limit herself based on her people’s laws and norms.
Chapter 13 presents a hurdle to Karana, illustrating the theme of The Struggle for Survival and Self-Determination when her attempt to claim a sea elephant tusk ends in injury and frustration. The sheer size and ferocity of the sea elephants make them extremely dangerous for a lone hunter. The laws that restricted women’s behavior still affect Karana, especially because her father instilled them in her. Despite everything she’s achieved during her time on the island, she has yet to overcome these limitations. When Karana is pursued by the dogs and forced to convalesce with little food or water, she resolves to learn and grow stronger from this experience. By taking on the “man’s work” of converting a cave into a backup shelter, she proves to herself that she has what it takes to survive on her own, and that she should not feel limited by tradition.
When Karana returns to the sea elephants’ home, she finds evidence that the young bull (her original target) won the fight against the old bull. Her survival depends on her ability to defy traditional beliefs about women’s capabilities. Because of this, she sees a reflection of her own struggle in the sea elephants’ battle between young and old. Thus, the young bull’s victory represents Karana’s hope that her newfound self-belief will triumph over the old laws she was taught. The chapter ends on an auspicious and suspenseful note, as Karana gathers the old bull’s tusks and prepares to battle the pack.
In this section, Karana struggles with loneliness—to the point of risking death at sea in her desperation to leave the island. However, various forms of nature—such as the dolphins and the smell left by rain—help her regain hope. By constructing weapons and a permanent shelter, Karana demonstrates her determination to survive. In a suspenseful sort of symmetry, this section opens with the chapter in which the wild dogs kill her brother and ends with the chapter in which she gains the confidence needed to face the pack. In the next section, the fallout of Karana’s conflict with the dogs will shape the story in ways that not even she could predict.
Related Titles
By Scott O'Dell
