Island of the Blue Dolphins: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Karana doesn’t remember much of this time. Many days pass and she only leaves the village to gather more food. Eventually, she decides she won’t live in the village anymore. The fog creeping through the silent huts reminds Karana of the dead villagers. She can almost hear them speaking. So, she builds a fire and burns the huts, one by one. Karana takes a basket of food with her to a headland west of Coral Cove. There’s a sheltered spot between a big rock and two trees, and there’s water nearby. Karana sleeps on the rock that night; the wild dogs can’t get her there.

It’s still winter and the ship might return any day, so Karana doesn’t bother storing much food. Instead, she makes weapons to protect herself from the dogs and ultimately to kill them all. She found a club in a hut, but she needs a bow, arrows, and a spear. Ghalas-at’s laws state that women can’t make weapons, so Karana searches for any left behind. She checks the village and then the hidden canoes. Finding nothing, she heads for Coral Cove, hoping to find spearheads in the chest the Aleuts left on the shore.

It’s low tide. Karana starts to dig small holes in the sand, figuring the storms covered the chest up. Finally, she finds the chest. Karana digs all morning until the tide comes in, and she resumes digging when the tide turns. Eventually, Karana can lift the lid. The chest is filled with jewelry. Karana puts on a long string of beads and two matching bracelets to walk the shore. When she reaches the spot where the villagers and the Aleuts fought, Karana remembers those who died. She returns to the chest, knowing she can never wear this jewelry. Karana flings all the beads into the waves and discovers no iron spearheads underneath.

Karana forgets all about weapons until, days later, the dogs howl under her rock. She watches them slink through the brush all day and dig up her buried supper that evening. Karana is afraid of the dogs, but she’s also afraid of what might happen if she makes the weapons she needs. Will the winds smother her, or will an earthquake bury her in rocks? Will the sea flood the island? Will the weapons break just when she needs them, as her father said? After two days of thinking, Karana decides she has to make weapons.

Karana needs a sea elephant’s tusk for her spear tip, but she doesn’t have a weapon—or three men—to kill one. So, she fashions a tree root into a point and ties it to a long shaft. The bow and arrows are harder, but Karana eventually finds the right kind of wood for the bow. What’s even harder than finding the materials, though, is making the weapons. She’s only ever watched them being made, and she never paid close attention. But finally, Karana crafts a useable bow and arrows. She carries it everywhere. The dogs don’t visit her camp while she’s making weapons, but once, when the weapons are done, Karana notices the dogs’ leader watching her.

Having weapons makes Karana feel secure, and she’s certain that the dogs will eventually come to the camp. She makes herself a bed of seaweed on her rock. Karana watches the gulls, pelicans, and otter every morning. At night, she thinks about the white men’s ship, but it never returns for her. Though the village used to wake up and get to work early, Karana starts sleeping in. She doesn’t have much to do as winter and spring come and go.