Son of Rontu

Karana thinks about the fact that women making weapons is forbidden by her tribe. She goes looking around for weapons that have already been made. Karana is concerned with the wild dogs. They are part of a pack that roams the island, having become wild after their owners died.

Black Cave is near the place where the people of Ghalas-at stored their canoes to escape the Aleuts. While rowing, Karana sees a hawk fly out of the cave and goes in to explore. Inside, she and Rontu find a row of figures made from reeds and clothed in gull feathers.

By Scott O’Dell The villagers pack all of their things: Karana fills two baskets with her needles, knife, pots, and a box for her earrings. Ulape, the vainer of the two sisters, brings many earrings. Ulape puts a thin smear of blue clay across her nose to indicate that she’s unmarried.

Ulape draw a mark in blue clay across her face to signal that she in unmarried. A storm is gathering, and so they must be quick, lest the white men’s ship run against the rocks.

The waves will destroy their canoes if they wait. He is disobedient. 22 What does Karana drop when swimming back to the shore? His canoe capsizes.

Why did Karana sleep on a high rock? She wanted to be way from the wild dogs and to store food.

She wants to escape the Aleuts. D. She is frightened.

In chapter 13, Karana has gone to the cliffs to kill a bull sea elephant to make arrows from their teeth.

Karana puts a bunch of supplies in the canoe, patches up the tiny boat with strips of kelp, and sets off. All is looking good, but she soon discovers that the canoe has a leak. She stuffs it as best she can with her skirt.

All she has left are her memories of ‘all the people who were dead and those who were gone. ‘ So, Karana burns down the village so that the desolate image of the empty huts will not haunt her consciousness.

After she has finished her new house in the cave, Karana returns to the beach, where she finds the corpse of the old sea elephant. From his teeth she makes four new spearheads.

How does Karana feel when she realizes Tutok and the Aleut hunters had left the island? Since the Aleuts had hunted so much, the otter population had decreased. The Aleuts knew they should have looked else where to hunt otter.

In chapter 20, we have further evidence that Karana takes great pride in her appearance. We are told that she kills and skins cormorants from Tall Rock so that she could one day fashion a skirt for herself from cormorant feathers.

What is the “great discovery” that Karana and Rontu make? The great discovery is that Karana finds a cave with 3 different stories and another house to store her canoes.

Lesson Summary The devilfish, a giant octopus, serves as both a climactic opponent for Karana and the prompt for a change of heart. The one Karana hunts is huge, with stinging tentacles and a sharp beak.

Some species of Octopus have been able to successfully kill large types of fish and sharks. Sometimes it is called the Devil Fish due to the appearance of it. In earlier times this particular appearance was considered to be evil by men on fishing boats. Should an Octopus lose an arm it can grow another in its place.

The devil fish or giant devil ray (Mobula mobular) is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae. It is currently listed as endangered, mostly due to bycatch mortality in unrelated fisheries.

Their two cephalic lobes or “horns” on the sides of their mouth help direct plankton-rich water into their mouths. These horn-shaped lobes are the reason why mantas are also called “devilfish.” A single manta can consume about 60 pounds of plankton and small fish each day.