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Elizabeth Costello
Blinky is Sprout’s mother in “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” She takes issue with the way the Navy names their dolphins and finds their silly names offensive. When Officer Bloomington releases a group of dolphins into San Francisco Bay and gives them the chance to stay in the wild, Blinky chooses not to come back.
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Blinky Character Timeline in Only the Animals
The timeline below shows where the character Blinky appears in Only the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Letter to Sylvia Plath: Soul of Dolphin (Died 2003, Iraq)
...could’ve had proper combat names—but instead, the dolphin was called Sprout, and her mother was Blinky.
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Blinky’s cohort trained to protect assets by alerting their handlers to enemy divers. In 1970, she...
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When Blinky returns from Vietnam, she’s allowed her choice of mate and gives birth to Sprout. Blinky...
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...into San Francisco Bay. He levels with them and tells them exactly what’s going on. Blinky and a few other dolphins choose to stay in the wild—the only dolphins ever to...
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