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Chapter 19
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 fills the canoe twice more with red abalones, cleans them, and dries them on shelves. There are no children to protect the abalones from the gulls, so for a while, Karana leaves Rontu at home to chase the birds. He hates this and howls, so eventually, Karana ties some bright abalone shells to poles, which keeps the gulls away. Karana also catches small fish for light during the winter.
Karana doesn’t want to make Rontu miserable, since he’s her friend. She’s able to call on her resourcefulness and knowledge of what’s going to frighten the gulls so that he’s able to accompany her, and the drying abalones will remain safe.
Themes
Karana spends each morning gathering food for winter, and in the afternoons, she and Rontu go out on the sea. They spend their afternoons visiting the sea elephants, Black Cave, and Tall Rock, where cormorants roost. At Tall Rock, Karana kills 10 birds and prepares their flesh—she wants to make herself a cormorant feather-skirt.
As a single person on the island, Karana doesn’t have to spend every moment of every day trying to survive. Rather, she only needs to work in the mornings and can then spend the afternoon exploring the island and surrounding rocks. Her goal of making a skirt from cormorant feathers symbolizes a marriage of feminine and masculine tasks, since Karana killed the birds herself and is now going to make a garment that will make her look and feel extremely feminine.
Themes
Karana discovers Black Cave on the south coast of the island one day. She only notices it because she sees a sea hawk fly out of it. Even though Karana has a long way to go to get home, she’s curious about the cave. She paddles through the small, low entrance and comes out in a room with shiny black walls. There’s an opening in the back, but on the other side of the narrow passageway is a bigger, brightly lit room. Rontu starts barking and then howling—and it gives Karana chills. She makes him stop.
Karana’s curiosity about Black Cave suggests that prior to seeing this sea hawk, she thought she knew about all the caves on the island. Now, she has to confront that she doesn’t know everything and set about figuring out what this cave is all about. Her curiosity, though, starts to turn to fear and dread when Rontu has such an intense reaction to the cave and makes such a disturbing racket. It raises the question of why he reacts this way, and if Karana should be afraid for herself.
Themes
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As Karana turns the canoe to leave the cave, she notices a deep shelf with two dozen strange figures on it. They’re Karana’s height, with bodies made of reeds, gull feather clothes, and abalone eyes. The figure in the middle is a skeleton, and it’s playing a pelican bone flute. Karana paddles for the opening, but the canoe won’t fit. The tide is coming in, and she’ll have to spend the night in the cave. Karana doesn’t look at the figures’ glittering eyes and instead watches stars through the crevice at the top of the cave. The water against the walls sounds like flute music, and Karana barely sleeps. She knows the skeleton and the others are her ancestors, but she’s still afraid. She leaves in the morning and tells Rontu they’ll never return.
Karana still can’t escape the ghosts of her ancestors, even in a new-to-her cave on the island. Her ancestors clearly knew about all the nooks and crannies on the island, and now, Karana can’t avoid acknowledging that she’s the last one left here. Spending the night with these representations is disconcerting in part because they’re so ghostly, and in part because of the sad reminder that Karana is the last of her tribe on the island. Deciding to never return to Black Cave is, in a way, a sign of Karana’s discomfort with her tribe’s past.
Themes
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Karana continues to hide the canoe in the cave below the headland every time she returns from an outing. It’s now been two summers since the Aleut hunters came, but Karana keeps an eye out for their sails. She never goes any further than a half-day’s journey away. Finally, the last time Karana and Rontu go to Tall Rock, the Aleuts come. As Karana climbs the cliff with the 10 cormorant skins, she gazes at the sea. One of the clouds on the water is a ship, but Karana can’t tell what color the sails are. She tries to scout from several places, but then realizes that the white men’s ship came from the east. This one is coming from the north.
Even as Karana does fun, exciting things like explore sea caves and hunt devilfish, she still lives with the constant threat that the Aleuts might return and make life miserable for her again. Seeing this ship, and realizing it’s coming from the north, pretty much confirms that it’s the Aleuts. So, in order to preserve the life she’s carved out for herself on the island, Karana will have to take evasive measures and try to keep herself safe.
Themes
Karana isn’t sure the ship belongs to the Aleuts, but she packs her things anyway and leaves them by the fence. Then, she returns to the headland. The ship traveled faster than she expected, and she can see clearly that it has a bow like a bird’s beak and red sails. Even though Karana knows the Aleuts won’t come to shore in the dark, she spends the night carrying her things to the cave. In the morning, when everything else is at the cave, Karana tosses her abalones that aren’t dry, gets rid of the shells to scare the gulls, and brushes her footprints away. The house now looks deserted.
In Karana’s experience, it’s not smart to trust newcomers to the island—even if they’re not the Aleuts. Newcomers have, for the most part, proven themselves to be violent and mainly interested in exploiting the people and natural resources on the island. But Karana’s anxiety is surely heightened as she remembers how violent the Aleuts were when they were here last time. It’s also worth noting that it’s a huge loss that Karana has to throw out her abalones; because of the Aleuts’ arrival, she’ll no longer be prepared for winter.
Themes
Karana climbs the rock to check on the Aleuts. Now, the ship is anchored in the cove and men are bringing supplies to the shore. Others are already hunting otter—and there’s a girl cooking on the shore. Karana has taken care not to create a trail to the cave; this time, she takes a circuitous route through the brush. Rontu is hesitant to enter the cave, but he finally follows Karana in. She closes the opening with stones behind them and sleeps all day.
Karana might have lost the abalones she was drying for the coming winter, but she has prepared well enough to survive while the Aleuts are here. This illustrates her resourcefulness—but again, it also shows that outsiders, and the potential threats they pose, are a constant concern for Karana.
Themes
