Islands of The Blue Dolphins Summary

This is a text by Scott O’Dell. Here is a simple plot overview. The book is about a girl who loses her family through death and separations, and she copes with living on her own through a series of troubles.

Here Is the Summary for Island of the Blue Dolphins: Book Review

Here is a quick summary of the details of this book

Karana and Ramo are brother and sister living on the island of the blue dolphins. They also have a sister named Ulape. A group of Aleutians (Russian hunters) arrives at the island with the intent of hunting otters. The residents want to split the spoils of the hunt equally with them, but the Aleuts do not want this.

The Aleuts relationship with the natives grows worse and leads to an argument that results in a war. Chief Chowig, Karana’s father and Aleutian captain Orlov engage in battle, and the former dies together with 40 natives. The Aleuts leave.

With only 15 people left in the tribe, every member is forced to pick up extra roles to survive. There is new chief, Kinki and he sails to the mainland in search for a place they could relocate. After some months, Kimki sends white men to retrieve the remaining tribe members to the mainland.

Karana and Ramo are left by the ship after Ramo tries to fetch his spear. They would soon encounter a food shortage. They have to fish to survive as wild dogs roaming the islands had eaten a lot of the food the tribe left. All is well until the wild dogs kill Ramo. Karana is left devastated and swears to avenge her brother by killing the dogs. She burns down her village since it reminded her about her family. She makes weapons for her defense, contrary to their tribe’s women culture and camps on a large rock at the edge of the beach.

The ship does not return, and she eventually decides to escape on her own through a canoe that she modifies. She fails to reach the nearest island when the boat starts leaking and turns back.

Karana accepts the island as her home after the failure and builds a permanent settlement for herself. She develops more weapons to fight the dogs. She even tries to kill a sea lion for its teeth which would make good spears but ends up getting injured.

She finds a sea lion dead after some time and harvests its teeth. She targets the leader an of the pack, a gray dog, wounds it and kills the others. She spares the gray dog, and it becomes her pet.

Karana prepares for the return of the Aleuts by building a canoe to escape is she needed to. The Aleuts return to the island and Karana spies on them while hidden. She secretly bonds with a girl that the Aleut brought with them and even learned some words of the Aleut language.

The Aleuts leave one day. Karana adopts another pet, an injured otter and nurses it back to health. She keeps adopting pets to deal with her loneliness. Her pet Rontu the wild dog dies, and in grief, she gives it a funeral.

She kidnaps and adopts another dog and names him Rontu-aru. Karana misses her friends and family even after creating a secure habitat for herself. She is rebuilding her canoe after it was wrecked by a tsunami when she spots a ship in the horizon. The men call out to her. She hides not knowing whether they were good or bad. They decide to go back to the canoes, and she misses her chance to civilization again.

The men return two years later. This time Karana is ready and gathers her things including her dog Rontu-aru and songbirds. They welcome her and give her clothes which were uncomfortable for her. They leave together after hunting. Karana hopes for the best in her future as she looks back from the ship.

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