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Karana’s Canoe
The skirt that Karana makes out of cormorant skins represents her comfort with breaking her tribe’s established gender roles. Karana grows up adhering to her tribe’s strict gender expectations, which stipulate that women should gather food and keep house, while men should hunt and fish in addition to making weapons. When Karana finds herself abandoned on the island, she soon discovers that she can no longer adhere to these rules, particularly the rules forbidding women from making weapons. She’s able to find a few weapons that were left behind, but they’re not enough to allow Karana to survive—let alone thrive—on the island.
The cormorant skirt that Karana makes, out of skins from cormorants that she shot herself with a bow and arrows that she made, represents her ability to thrive by stepping outside of her tribe’s rules about what women can and can’t do. While Karana has made a number of lovely skirts out of yucca—a plant fiber that she, as a woman, can gather herself—the fact that she killed the cormorants herself speaks to her comfort with tasks formerly reserved for men. And the cormorant skirt is more beautiful than any skirt Karana has ever made before. Cormorants’ feathers are iridescent, so the black skirt shines green and gold in the sunlight. The skirt itself does several things. It shows off Karana’s skill as a seamstress and allows her to feel even more beautiful and feminine than she ever has before, while also making it clear that she’s comfortable performing—and is extremely competent at—tasks that were once the sole responsibility of the men in her tribe.
The Cormorant Skirt Quotes in Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Island of the Blue Dolphins quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Cormorant Skirt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 21
Quotes
It was dark in the cave, even when the sun was high, so I burned the small fish I had stored. By their light I began to make a cormorant skirt, working every day on it. The ten skins I had taken at Tall Rock were now dry and in condition to sew. All of them were from male cormorants whose feathers are thicker than those of the females and much glossier. The skirt of yucca fibers was simple to make. I wanted this one to be better, so I cut the skins carefully and sewed them with great care.
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Chapter 23
Quotes
On sunny days I would wear them with my cormorant dress and the necklace, and walk along the cliff with Rontu.
I often thought of Tutok, but on these days especially I would look off into the north and wish that she were here to see me. I could hear her talking in her strange language and I would make up things to say to her and things for her to say to me.
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The Cormorant Skirt Symbol Timeline in Island of the Blue Dolphins
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Cormorant Skirt appears in Island of the Blue Dolphins. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 20
...Rock, Karana kills 10 birds and prepares their flesh—she wants to make herself a cormorant feather-skirt.
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Chapter 21
...up. But he soon gets used to it and watches Karana work on her cormorant skirt. She works in the light of the fish lamps and carefully cuts the cormorant skins,...
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This is the first time Karana has seen the skirt in the sunlight. The black feathers shimmer green and gold, and it’s so beautiful that...
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...Karana ignores this and calls Rontu to her. Tutok smiles and points to the cormorant skirt. She says a word that sounds a lot like the word for “pretty” in Karana’s...
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Chapter 23
...to work with. When she’s finished with them, Karana puts them on with her cormorant skirt and the necklace. She and Rontu walk the cliffs, and Karana thinks of Tutok. Karana...
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Chapter 28
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...
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Chapter 29
...in the morning. She bathes in the spring and dresses in her otter cape, cormorant skirt, and her necklace and earrings. Then, with clay, she draws her tribe’s mark across her...
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...one man all day to sew. Karana pretends to like it, but she doesn’t—her cormorant skirt and otter cape are way more beautiful. But Karana puts on the scratchy, long dress....
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