Island of the Blue Dolphins

Summary

Island of the Blue Dolphins is narrated by Karana, a girl of about twelve who lives in the village of Ghalas-at on a small island off the California coast in the early nineteenth century; her people call it the Island of the Blue Dolphins. A red-sailed ship brings Captain Orlov, a Russian, and a crew of Aleut hunters, who ask Karana's father, Chief Chowig, to let them take sea otter in exchange for goods. When the hunt ends and Orlov tries to sail off without paying fairly, a battle on the beach kills Chowig and most of the village's men. The new chief, Kimki, paddles east alone to look for a new home, and Matasaip leads the survivors until a ship of white men arrives to take them to the mainland. As the ship sails in a rising storm, Karana sees that her little brother Ramo has run back for his fishing spear, and she jumps overboard and swims ashore. Within days wild dogs kill Ramo, and Karana is alone. She breaks her people's law forbidding women to make weapons, fashions a bow, arrows and spear, and tries to cross to the mainland in a leaking canoe; when she turns back, a school of dolphins escorts her home. She builds a house on the headland behind a fence of whale ribs, stores food, and wounds the leader of the dog pack with an arrow, then nurses him back to health. She names him Rontu, and he becomes her companion. She hunts a giant devilfish, is injured attacking a sea elephant, and finds a cave for shelter. When the Aleuts return to hunt, she hides, but an Aleut girl, Tutok, finds her camp; slowly the two become friends, exchanging gifts and words, and Karana tells Tutok her secret name. After they go, Karana nurses a wounded young otter, whom she calls Mon-a-nee and renames Won-a-nee on learning she is a mother; she tames two birds, Tainor and Lurai, and resolves to kill no more animals except for need. Rontu dies of age, and she captures and tames his son, Rontu-Aru. An earthquake and great wave strike the island. At last a ship comes; Karana dresses in her cormorant-feather skirt and leaves with Rontu-Aru and her birds. At the mission in Santa Barbara, Father Gonzales tells her that the ship that carried her people away sank, which is why no one came back. Houghton Mifflin published the novel in 1960, and it won the 1961 Newbery Medal.

Top Lessons

• Courage without witnesses

  No one sees Karana build her house, face the wild dogs or turn her canoe back to shore. Her courage is the steady kind that does each day's work, and the novel shows that bravery is often patient labor rather than one dramatic act.

• Mercy toward an enemy

  Karana means to kill the leader of the dogs that killed Ramo, but when she finds him wounded she carries him home and nurses him. Rontu becomes her truest friend. Her mercy changes her own life as much as his.

• Friendship across a divide

  The Aleuts killed Karana's father, and she hides from them. Yet Tutok, an Aleut girl, becomes her friend through small gifts and shared words. Karana learns that a person is more than the people she belongs to.

• Care for creatures

  After nursing the otter and watching her raise her young, Karana decides she will no longer kill animals except as she must for food and clothing. The book shows how caring for a creature changes the way a person sees all living things.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Medicine appears only as self-care and care for animals. Karana treats her own injuries alone, nurses Rontu through an arrow wound and later a wounded otter, and grieves for Ramo and later for Rontu. The historical Lone Woman behind the story died about seven weeks after reaching Santa Barbara in 1853, possibly from a change of diet, dysentery or new infections, a common fate of isolated peoples brought suddenly into contact with mainland disease; the novel's ending does not tell this.

• Chapters 13-14

  Karana carries the wounded leader of the wild dogs home and tends the arrow wound until he recovers.

• Chapter 7-8

  Ramo is killed by the wild dogs and Karana is left alone with her grief.

• Middle chapters (sea elephant hunt)

  Karana is injured in her attack on a sea elephant and must recover alone in her shelter.