Island of the Blue Dolphins: Chapter 28 Summary & Analysis

The earthquake doesn’t cause much damage; the spring stops flowing for a few days, but it comes back stronger than ever. It does destroy all Karana’s food and weapons stored in the cave, and her canoes. The canoes are a huge loss. Rather than spend all spring and summer looking for wood to make a new one, Karana goes looking for any of the canoes that the waves might’ve washed up. Finally, on the south of the island, Karana finds parts of one canoe. She digs it out and scrapes it clean. Then, she has to make a choice: cut it apart and carry it to Coral Cove in pieces, a process that will take days; or build the canoe here. Karana decides on a third option: floating the canoe pieces around the island and into the cove.

Karana finds the remains of her other canoe stuck so far in the cave that she can’t get it out. She manages to find enough new wood to build a whole new canoe. It’s now late spring, and Karana needs the canoe to gather shellfish. She isn’t worried about the Aleuts anymore, but she does feel unsettled without reliable transportation. The work on the new canoe is difficult, but the big waves did help by washing long strings of black pitch onto the shore. These are normally hard to find. Once the pieces are prepared, the work goes fast. By late spring, Karana is ready to finish the seams.

To do this, Karana builds a fire to soften the pitch. It’s windy and cold, so the fire takes a while to start. While Karana is on the beach looking for dry seaweed to help the fire, she looks up at the sky. The clouds look like a storm might be coming—but in the cloud’s shadows, Karana sees a ship. She drops her seaweed and races to the headland for a better look. It’s moving fast, but it doesn’t look anything like the Aleuts’ ship or the white men’s ship.

Karana doesn’t know what to do. If these men are here to hunt otter, she has to hide. They’ll find her fire and her canoe, but she’ll probably be safe in the cave. Alternatively, if Karana’s tribe sent these men to get Karana, she shouldn’t hide. She watches the ship move into Coral Cove; it’s close enough now that she can tell the men aren’t Aleuts. They lower a canoe and head for the beach. Soon after, Karana hears a shout and knows they found her canoe. The men shout, but not at each other—so Karana knows they’re calling to her.

Karana goes home. She puts on her otter cape and her cormorant skirt and grabs her jewelry. Then, she and Rontu-Aru head for Coral Cove. When she comes to the place where her ancestors sometimes camped in the summer, she thinks of all the happy times she’s had here. But Karana desperately wants to be with other people. When she gets to the beach, though, the men have already gone back to the ship. The wind is loud, so Karana shouts. The men don’t see her. It starts to rain, but Karana wades out into the water. The ship moves away, and Karana watches it go.