Part 6
With Rontu at her side, Karana’s life on the island grows fuller and, for a while, content. She explores, gathers abalone and roots, catches and raises young birds who become tame pets, and sews herself a beautiful skirt from the glossy black feathers of cormorants. She feels, for the first time since her people left, something close to happiness. But one danger has long haunted her: in a deep cave in the sea lives a giant octopus, which she calls the devilfish, a creature so large and strong that she both fears and admires it. Over a long winter she carefully carves a special spear point strong enough to pierce it. When the season is right, she and Rontu set out to hunt the devilfish, and the battle is long, dangerous, and exhausting — the great creature wrapping its arms about her line as she struggles, Rontu helping at her side — before at last she wins. Then, in the spring, the danger she thought was gone returns: the red ship of the Aleut hunters sails back to the island. Karana knows what these men once did to her people, and she hides herself away, watching and waiting to see what they will do.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Island-life words: content, cormorant, devilfish, tentacle, conceal… |
| Literary Elements | Suspense, the devilfish battle as climax, and the feather-skirt symbol |
| Cross-Curricular | The giant Pacific octopus |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 20–21 | A Fuller Life — with Rontu, Karana raises tame birds, sews a cormorant-feather skirt, feels content, and carves a special spear point to hunt the devilfish. |
| Chapters 22–23 | The Devilfish and the Ship — Karana and Rontu win a long, dangerous battle with the giant octopus; then in spring the Aleut ship returns and she hides. |
Reading “Words of a Fuller Life” as a word map reveals how the language of Chapters 20–23 follows the part’s turning point. Readers can infer content, used as an adjective, to mean happy and at peace with what one has; this scene supplies the clue: For a time Karana felt content. Readers can infer cormorant, used as a noun, to mean a dark seabird that dives for fish; this scene supplies the clue: She gathered cormorant feathers for a skirt. Readers can infer devilfish, used as a noun, to mean karana’s name for the giant octopus; this scene supplies the clue: She feared and admired the great devilfish. Readers can infer barb, used as a noun, to mean a sharp point that catches and holds; this scene supplies the clue: She carved a barb onto her new spear. Across the episode, the selected language converts conflict into a developing verbal texture.
ⓘ 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.
Careful sequence reading reveals the textual evidence, the structural pivot, and the resulting consequence in Chapters 20–23. With Rontu at her side, Karana’s life on the island grows fuller and, for a while, content. She explores, gathers abalone and roots, catches and raises young birds who become tame pets, and sews herself a beautiful skirt from the glossy black feathers of cormorants. She feels, for the first time since her people left, something close to happiness. But one danger has long haunted her: in a deep cave in the sea lives a giant octopus, which she calls the devilfish, a creature so large and strong that she both fears and admires it. Over a long winter she carefully carves a special spear point strong enough to pierce it. Reading evidence around the pivot turns “Contentment and a Great Fight” into meaningful convergence.
- She and Rontu set out to hunt the devilfish.
- In spring, the Aleut ship returns and she hides.
- Karana lives contentedly with Rontu and tame birds.
- After a long battle, she defeats the giant octopus.
- She carves a special spear point over the winter.
The pressure of Chapters 20–23 is crafted through suspense, climax, and symbolism working in combination. The fight with the giant devilfish is the great action climax of this stretch of the book — the peak of danger toward which the chapters build. O’Dell prepares it carefully: first the long fear of the creature, then a whole winter spent carving the one spear point that might pierce it, then the choice of the right day. By the time the battle comes, the reader is as tense as Karana. Notice how the author draws the fight out, making it long and uncertain, with the great arms coiling around her line and Rontu battling at her side — this is how a writer builds suspense to a breaking point. That authorial design makes “The Long Devilfish Battle” a lesson in deliberate perspective.
Historical or scientific grounding matters here because giant, pacific, and octopus change how the conflict can be judged. The creature Karana calls the devilfish is real: the giant Pacific octopus, the largest octopus in the world, which lives in the cold waters off the California coast. A big one can stretch its arms wider than a room and weigh as much as a grown person, and each of its eight arms is lined with hundreds of powerful suckers that grip and taste at the same time. Despite its fearsome look, the octopus is not a monster but one of the most intelligent animals in the sea — able to solve puzzles, remember, use tools, and change the color and texture of its skin to vanish against rock or sand in an instant. This context turns Part 6 from a private adventure into a broader question of empathy.
Think back over these chapters. A girl who once had nothing now has a home, a dog who loves her, birds that eat from her hand, and a shining skirt she sewed from black feathers just because it is beautiful. She is, for a while, content. But out in a deep sea-cave waits the thing she fears most, a giant octopus so huge she calls it the devilfish, and all winter she shapes a single spear point strong enough to face it. When the day comes, she and Rontu fight the great creature through a long and desperate struggle, and she wins. Then spring brings back the red sails of the Aleuts, the men who took her people, and the girl who can defeat a devilfish slips quietly into hiding, watching, waiting to see what these old enemies will do.
The creature Karana calls the devilfish is real: the giant Pacific octopus, the largest octopus in the world, which lives in the cold waters off the California coast. A big one can spread its arms wider than a room and weigh as much as a grown person. Each of its eight arms is lined with hundreds of powerful suckers that can grip and taste at the same time. For all its fearsome look, it is not a mindless monster. In fact, the octopus is among the most intelligent animals in the sea, able to solve puzzles, remember, and even use simple tools.
The octopus defends itself in clever ways. It hides in a rocky den, and when threatened it can squirt a cloud of dark ink to confuse an attacker and cover its escape. Its greatest trick, though, is camouflage: in an instant it can change the color and even the texture of its skin to match rock or sand, seeming to vanish before your eyes. It hunts crabs, clams, and fish with its strong arms. When Karana spends an entire winter carving a spear point strong enough to face such an animal, she shows real respect for its power. Her long battle with the devilfish is not cruelty but survival, and it reflects a true fact about the island’s waters: they hold wonders as strange and formidable as any creature on land.
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 6 “Facing a Fear”
Karana gathers her courage over a long winter to face the giant devilfish. Write about a time you prepared for and faced something that frightened you. What was the challenge, how did you get ready, and what happened? 6–10 sentences. End with how you felt 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 6 Complete!
You finished Chapters 20–23 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.
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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.