Part 2
With so many men dead, the grieving village must choose a new path. In council the people elect Kimki to lead them, and after a hard, hungry season he makes a bold decision: he will paddle a canoe alone across the open sea to the east, hoping to find a country where the tribe can live in safety. Time passes with no word, and Ghalas-at waits, uncertain and afraid. At last a ship of white men appears — sent, it seems, to carry the remaining people away to that far land. The tribe gathers its baskets and belongings and boards, and the ship begins to pull away from the island. Then Karana sees, with horror, that her little brother Ramo has been left behind on the shore, running after them. She cannot bear it. As her sister Ulape sails on with the others, Karana leaps from the moving ship into the cold, heaving sea and swims back to the island to stay with Ramo. In one desperate moment she trades a place in the wider world for loyalty to her brother — and the two children are left utterly alone on the Island of the Blue Dolphins.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Departure words: council, voyage, flee, leap, loyal… |
| Literary Elements | The story’s turning point, internal conflict, and rising suspense |
| Cross-Curricular | Leaving a homeland — the real Nicoleño people |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 5–6 | Kimki Sails East — the tribe elects Kimki, who then paddles off alone across the sea to seek a safe new land while the village waits. |
| Chapters 7–8 | The Leap — a ship comes to take the people away; as it sails, Ramo is left behind, and Karana leaps into the sea to stay with him while Ulape sails on. |
The word choices in Chapters 5–8 trace the movement suggested by “Words of Departure,” not merely a list of definitions. As a noun, council identifies a meeting where leaders decide together; its part-specific use appears in this line: The tribe held a council to choose a new leader. As a verb, elect identifies to choose someone by agreement or vote; its part-specific use appears in this line: The people elected Kimki to lead them. As a noun, canoe identifies a narrow boat moved with paddles; its part-specific use appears in this line: Kimki set out alone in a canoe. As a noun, voyage identifies a long journey over water; its part-specific use appears in this line: He began a dangerous voyage to the east. This word field sharpens the dangers and decisions of Part 2, giving them lexical resonance.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
The events of Chapters 5–8 become clearer when readers separate a character’s motive from the obstacle encountered and the response that follows. With so many men dead, the grieving village must choose a new path. In council the people elect Kimki to lead them, and after a hard, hungry season he makes a bold decision: he will paddle a canoe alone across the open sea to the east, hoping to find a country where the tribe can live in safety. Time passes with no word, and Ghalas-at waits, uncertain and afraid. At last a ship of white men appears — sent, it seems, to carry the remaining people away to that far land. The tribe gathers its baskets and belongings and boards, and the ship begins to pull away from the island. Following motive through response reveals why “The People Sail Away” forms a consequential sequence.
- A ship arrives to carry the people away.
- As the ship sails, Ramo is left behind on shore.
- Karana leaps into the sea to stay with Ramo.
- Kimki paddles east alone to find a safe land.
- The tribe elects Kimki as its new leader.
The craft of Part 2 works through point, conflict, and suspense, each shaping how readers judge the new conflict. Karana’s leap from the ship is the great turning point of the whole novel — the single choice that sets everything after it in motion. Up to this moment, Karana is one of many, a girl among her people, carried along by what the tribe decides. When she jumps into the sea to stay with Ramo, she steps out of the group and into her own story: from here on, she will not be a member of a tribe but a girl alone. Notice how O’Dell makes the choice split-second and physical — a body flung into cold water — rather than a long, careful decision. That authorial design makes “The Moment Everything Turns” a lesson in deliberate suspense.
To evaluate Part 2, place its conflict beside three contextual anchors: leaving, homeland, and nicoleño. The scene of a whole people boarding a ship to leave their island is not only powerful fiction — something very like it truly happened. The Native people of Karana’s island are remembered today as the Nicoleño, named for Remote San Nicolas lies far off the California coast; there they had lived for thousands of years. They were skilled boat-builders and fishers, deeply at home in a world of ocean and stone. In the early 1800s that long life came apart: after years of conflict with outside hunters, and after their numbers fell terribly low, the last survivors were carried away by ship to the California mainland around 1835. This context turns Part 2 from a private adventure into a broader question of context.
Think back over these chapters. A wounded village gathers to choose who will lead it now, and a brave man paddles off alone into the sunrise, swallowed by the sea, while everyone waits for a word that does not come. Then sails appear, and the people carry their baskets aboard a ship that promises safety far away. The island slips backward across the water — until a girl sees a small figure racing along the shore, her little brother, left behind. There is no time to think. She flings herself off the deck into the cold waves and swims back toward the emptying island, choosing a brother and a hard, lonely life over the safe world sailing on without her.
The people of Karana’s island were real. Today they are remembered as the Nicoleño, named for San Nicolas Island, the most far-flung of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. For thousands of years they lived there, fishing the rich waters, hunting sea mammals, and trading with other island and mainland peoples. They were skilled boat-builders who were deeply at home in a world of ocean, wind, and stone. Their long life on the island was not a story of a few years but of countless generations.
In the early 1800s that long life was shattered, for Aleut hunters, brought from the far north to take sea otter, came into conflict with the islanders, and many Nicoleño men were killed. Their numbers fell so low that, around 1835, a ship carried the last survivors away to the California mainland. It was a forced exodus — the end of thousands of years of island life. Yet the removal did not go smoothly, and at least one person was left behind: a woman who would go on to live alone on the island for many years, and whose true story inspired this book. To leave a homeland is to lose more than a place. It is to lose the graves, the familiar paths, and the shared stories that a people has gathered over uncounted generations.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 2 “A Hard Choice”
Karana leaps from the ship to stay with Ramo, giving up safety for love. Write about a time you made a hard choice to help or stay with someone you cared about. What did you give up, and why did you do it? 6–10 sentences. End with how you felt about your choice afterward.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 2 Complete!
You finished Chapters 5–8 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Here are your auto-graded results:
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Scott O'Dell. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Scott O'Dell’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.