42 pages • 1 hour read
Erin Entrada KellyLalani of the Distant Sea
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 33-46Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 33-39 Summary
This summary section includes “Chapter 33: Only a Mountain,” “Chapter 34: Buried,” “Chapter 35: You Are Ditasa-Ulod,” “Chapter 36: Waste Nothing,” “Chapter 37: In the Darkest of Night,” “Chapter 38: On the Veiled Sea,” and “Chapter 39: You Are a Goyuk.”
The landslide continues down the mountain and hits the village. Cade and Hetsbi sound the alarm for everyone to take shelter. By the time the avalanche of mud is done wreaking havoc, several fatalities ensue. The entire Pasa family is dead, as are Ellseth and the menyoro. Lalani manages to survive by clinging to an old tree as it slides down the mountain. Afterward, she blames herself for the disaster and resolves to set things right.
That night, she tells Veyda that she is going away and asks the Yuzi family to care for Mrs. Sarita in their hut. Veyda readily agrees, and Lalani disappears. At dawn, Lalani takes a boat and sets forth to find Isa. She doesn’t know how to swim or navigate, but she grabs a paddle and floats away. Once on the water, Lalani becomes disoriented and realizes the Veiled Sea is playing tricks with her mind. A shelled creature with webbed feet struggles to climb into the boat. This is a pahaalusk, and Lalani hits it with the paddle. The creature is obviously frightened, so Lalani relents and shares the boat with it. She falls asleep only to be awakened by a giant eel with the head of a woman. This is Ditasa-Ulod. She protects the sea and all its creatures. Since she mistrusts humans, she intends to drown Lalani by capsizing her boat.
Lalani explains that she is on a mission to set things right by finding a flower in the garden of Fei Diwata. Ditasa-Ulod warns against this: “Fei Diwata sees into the hearts of all living things [...] And she prizes one virtue above all else. If she looks into your heart and doesn’t see it there, you will die” (233-34). The sea guardian then proceeds to swamp Lalani’s boat, but the pahaalusk comes to Lalani’s rescue and floats her to the surface. Lalani asks Ditasa-Ulod if she remembers drowning her father. The guardian says that his fellow mariners drowned, but he ran out of food and water and died alone in his boat. Ditasa-Ulod makes one more attempt to drown Lalani, but she has already safely reached the shores of Isa.
Chapters 40-46 Summary
This summary section includes “Chapter 40: A Distant Shore,” “Chapter 41: In Sanlagita,” “Chapter 42: You Are Whenbo,” “Chapter 43: The Forest,” “Chapter 44: Usoa’s Story,” “Chapter 45: Beintai,” and “Chapter 46: The Whenbo Forest.”
Lalani collapses onshore. Unbeknownst to the girl, she was stung by a flying insect called a goyuk while she slept. These creatures were once a group of powerful sorceresses. They decided that being small was a better way to defend their territory, so they transformed themselves into the goyuk and stung any outsider to the island. Their sting can kill a giant in five days. When Lalani awakens, she finds a mindoren girl called Usoa standing beside her. There is also a large pile of fruit for Lalani to eat, but Usoa protests that she didn’t put it there. The girl agrees to accompany Lalani for five days to show her the way to Fei Diwata. She realizes that Lalani has been stung by a goyuk and only has five days to live, but she doesn’t communicate that information to her new friend.
As they travel, Usoa points out the many strange and curious creatures that inhabit Isa. She also tells Lalani the story of how her mother died. The mindoren had determined to return all the property that Ellseth stole before they banished him. One of these was a talon from an eagle-creature called a bai. Usoa was forbidden to go on the journey with her mother, but she disobeyed and followed, only to see her mother killed by Bai-Vinca, the sister of the bai whose talon was stolen. In telling Lalani that she “would dedicate [her] life to a single purpose: avenging [her] mother’s death” (270), Usoa reveals that she has vowed revenge and intends to kill her mother’s murderer.
Next, the girls journey through the whenbo forest. It contains trees that absorb the memories of the dead sailors who drowned while trying to reach Isa. Now, the trees care for their spirits and use them for their own nourishment. Lalani can hear each tree trunk whispering a name, and she eventually finds the tree holding her father Beintai’s spirit. She also discovers all names of his fellow mariners. Lalani becomes so entranced listening to the whispered names in the trees that she doesn’t realize Usoa has left. In the distance, Lalani hears what sounds like an injured animal crying, so she rushes to help.
Chapters 33-46 Analysis
The book’s third segment marks a turning point in Lalani’s life. The mudslide intervenes to save her when it sweeps Ellseth away before he can take her eyes. This natural disaster also rids the island of other villains. The vicious Pasa boys are killed, as is the menyoro. Unfortunately, Lalani blames herself for the torrential rains; if she hadn’t made a wish, the disaster would never have happened. This juncture and many others illustrate the downside of The Virtue of Compassion. Frequently, there are unintended consequences attached to an action that was meant to be kind. Lalani wanted to end everyone’s suffering, but she only increased it because the village is now buried in mud, and many are dead. Rather than giving up, the girl resolves to travel to Isa to find the flower that can end the island’s woes.
Another test awaits her on the boat when a pahaalusk climbs aboard. Lalani is instinctively afraid of the creature, not knowing if it means to attack her. She hits it with her boat paddle but relents when she sees the fear in the creature’s eyes. Her empathy and compassion allow her to step back from more fear based impulses. Instead, she allows the pahaalusk to stay onboard. Her behavior stands in contrast to the sailors who preceded her on this journey. When they found Ziva as a stowaway, they feared that she would bring them bad luck. Rather than showing compassion toward a girl who simply wanted a better life, they threw her overboard. Lalani has the same choice with the pahaalusk, but she isn’t ruled by anger or fear. In this instance, her compassion works in her favor because the animal saves Lalani when Ditasa-Ulod tries to drown her. Because Lalani can’t swim, she must depend on the shell-backed pahaalusk to float her to the surface.
The Duality of Life suggests that sometimes compassion is rewarded, and sometimes it is punished. In a later chapter, the reader learns that Usoa’s mother tried to right a wrong by respectfully burying the bai talon that Ellseth stole from Bai-Vinca’s sister. Rather than being rewarded, the mindoren is killed by Bai-Vinca, who thinks the woman is the original thief. This violent act sets in motion a legacy of hatred as Usoa vows to avenge her mother’s death. Duality again comes to the fore with the vengeful Usoa exhibiting kindness toward Lalani. She knows that a goyuk sting is fatal and offers to accompany Lalani to Mount Isa, realizing that the girl will probably die along the way but refusing to inform her of her imminent death.
The theme of The Duality of Life is also illustrated in events that transpire on each of the islands. Mount Kahna has always been a frightening place to the Sanlagitans; they pray to it and fear it. In these chapters, Kanha sends a mudslide that some see as a misfortune. However, it rids the island of its worst malefactors: Ellseth, the Pasa boys, and the menyoro. In the long run, the villagers will be better off because of this natural disaster. Similarly, Lalani was led to believe that no misfortune could befall anyone on Isa, yet this island contains a fresh set of terrors. Immediately upon arrival, she is fatally stung by a sorceress insect. Shortly afterward, she learns about Usoa’s tragic family history. Although the mindoren are generally peaceful, Usoa has vowed vengeance against her mother’s killer. Further, a creature as fearsome as Bai-Vinca hardly seems a fitting inhabitant for the island of good fortune. Ellseth may be a scoundrel, but he told Lalani the truth in an earlier segment when he advised, “It’s dangerous everywhere [...] Danger lurks in dark places. Danger lurks in beautiful places. You can never escape it” (113). Lalani is only midway to her destination, and she has already discovered the dark side of paradise.
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By Erin Entrada Kelly
