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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Island of the Blue Dolphins, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Natural World
Solitude
Friendship
Gender Roles and Survival
Colonialism, Violence, and Indigenous Culture
Summary
Analysis
Karana still hasn’t speared the giant devilfish, so she and Rontu look for him every day. Finally, she gives up and sets to work gathering abalones to eat through the winter. The red ones are the sweetest, but starfish also like them—the starfish sometimes spend days trying to open and suck the contents out of a single abalone shell.
Noting how the starfish hunt the abalones makes it clear that Karana isn’t the only being fighting for survival on the island. She has to compete with all sorts of other creatures for food, even ones as seemingly innocuous as a starfish.
Themes
One morning, Karana and Rontu paddle out to the reef. Karana has been keeping an eye on the reef for the right time to harvest abalone (which is when there aren’t many starfish hunting). There are only a few starfish, so Karana fills the canoe with red abalone. Then, she ties the canoe and climbs onto the reef to spear a fish for supper. There are blue dolphins leaping on the other side of the kelp. Otters are playing in the kelp, and the gulls are busy fishing for scallops. They do this by picking the scallops off the kelp and then dropping them onto the rocky reef. Karana laughs at Rontu, who’s very confused.
This idyllic passage shows Karana and Rontu having a delightful time exploring the natural world—and portrays nature as extremely giving. Karana is able to fill an entire canoe with abalone, which will go a long way toward feeding her over the winter. In addition, without even having to go anywhere, she can find herself dinner for later tonight as well. Rontu’s confusion about the gulls provides some comic relief.
Themes
Karana picks her way to where the big fish live and manages to catch two. She gives one to Rontu and then picks up a few purple sea urchins for dyeing. But then, Rontu drops his fish. The giant devilfish is there in the shallow water, an unexpected spot for a devilfish. Rontu watches the fish silently as Karana prepares her spear and crawls to the edge. She can see the devilfish’s black and gold eyes. She’s right above a crevice where a fish is hiding, and the devilfish reaches an arm in after the fish. As the devilfish grabs the fish, Karana aims for the devilfish’s head.
Picking up the urchins to use as dye highlights another of Karana’s skills and shows how self-sufficient she is. Discovering the devilfish in such a surprising spot shows how unpredictable nature can be. But it also presents Karana with an amazing opportunity to spear it and accomplish this goal. Rontu seems to be helping things by being so quiet and not frightening the fish.
Themes
Karana misses and the devilfish lets loose a black cloud. She starts to pull the spear in, hoping to throw it again, but Karana realizes the point came loose. The string tightens—Karana hit the devilfish. She drops the string coils so she doesn’t burn her hands. In moments, the coils disappear. When the devilfish reaches the end of the string, Karana lets him pull her along. She knows that if he gets back to the cave, she’ll lose him. It’d be ideal to get back in the canoe and make the devilfish pull her, but she can’t untie the canoe one-handed. And Rontu is barking, which isn’t making anything easy.
It's somewhat surprising for Karana that she actually hit the devilfish, when her initial throw didn’t look so good. She can, she discovers, accomplish difficult tasks like this. But she soon realizes that spearing the devilfish is actually the easiest part of this whole thing. Now, she has to balance a frightened, massive devilfish; Rontu’s excitement; and the remaining task of killing the devilfish, all without hurting herself.
Themes
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Karana stops moving so the devilfish can’t enter the cave. Her hands start to bleed. Then, suddenly, the tension disappears and the string circles toward some rocks, where the devilfish can hide. Karana wades into the water on a sandbar and puts herself between the devilfish and the rocks. Finally, after the devilfish has swum back and forth a few times, Karana starts to pull the giant devilfish onto the sand. At first, the devilfish seems dead—but Karana notices his eyes moving.
Karana’s bloody hands illustrate that there are consequences for doing battle with this devilfish; she isn’t getting out of this encounter without injuries of her own. Recall that Karana is used to animals playing dead, which seems to be what the devilfish is doing here. But unlike earlier, when Rontu was the one playing dead, the devilfish seems far more dangerous and less predictable.
Themes
Rontu rushes forward and bites at the fish. Though devilfish are most dangerous in the water, where they can drown a person, their arms and suckers can still cause injury on land. The devilfish flails toward the water, dragging Rontu with him. And because the string is now tangled in Rontu’s legs, Karana can’t pull the devilfish toward her. She pulls out her whalebone knife and gets between the devilfish and the water. Several of the legs whip and burn her, and Karana can hear the devilfish’s beak snapping. As she stabs the devilfish’s body, all the devilfish’s suckers seem to pull at her skin. Finally, the devilfish goes limp. Karana is too tired to drag it out of the water or fetch her canoe. Both she and Rontu are covered in cuts and bruises. Though Karana sees two more giant devilfish that summer, she leaves them alone.
As Karana describes the dangers the devilfish poses to her and to Rontu, she implies that she really should be approaching the devilfish with more caution than she does. But when Rontu rushes the devilfish, putting himself in danger and compromising Karana’s ability to restrain the creature with her spear, it seems like Karana has only one choice. She has to intervene and put herself in danger, or the devilfish might seriously injure—or kill—Rontu, Karana’s only real friend. Deciding to leave devilfish alone going forward shows that now, Karana has decided to prioritize her and Rontu’s safety over the thrill and challenge of hunting such big, dangerous creatures.
Themes
