Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Island of the Blue Dolphins, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Natural World
Solitude
Friendship
Gender Roles and Survival
Colonialism, Violence, and Indigenous Culture
Summary
Analysis
Now that it’s summer, Karana figures the ship will return for her. She spends most of her time on her rock, watching, but only ever sees a whale spouting. When the first winter storm arrives, she feels hopeless and lonely. Before, she didn’t feel lonely because she trusted that Matasaip was right, and the ship would return. She knows now that it never will. Karana has nightmares and doesn’t eat much.
As the seasons pass and the ship doesn’t return, Karana feels as though her tribe has abandoned her. Now, she has to adjust to being alone on the island, and this is no small task—she essentially has to grieve her friends and family, as well as her former lifestyle and any hopes she had for the future.
Themes
The winds are so bad that Karana can’t keep sleeping on her rock. For five days, she sleeps at the bottom of the rock with a fire going. She kills three dogs when they come, but not the leader. The storm ends, so on the sixth day, Karana goes to find one of the canoes. The food in them is still good. She’s decided to take a canoe and head east on her own. Karana remembers that Kimki asked his ancestors’ advice before heading east, but Karana can’t do this—she’s never been able to speak to the dead. Still, she’s not really afraid. Her ancestors crossed the sea in canoes, and Kimki did the same. She’s too interested in leaving the island, its ghosts, and its wild dogs to worry about what might happen.
These days spent at the base of the rock, fending off the wild dogs, impresses upon Karana how alone she really is. There’s no one else to protect her, and the dogs aren’t going to show her mercy if they manage to get close. So, it starts to seem like a better option to take matters into her own hands and head east alone. Taking the canoe east seems like something that only men could do before. The fact that Karana doesn’t see an issue with going shows how little gender roles matter to her now, when her survival is the most important thing.
Themes
Karana selects the smallest canoe, which is still almost too big for her to handle. Using a slippery bed of kelp, she steers it into the water. She kneels in the back (which allows her to go faster) until she reaches the southern sandspit. Eventually, the Island of the Blue Dolphins disappears behind her. Night falls, and Karana listens to the waves. She’s so afraid that she’s not hungry, but her fear starts to dissipate as the stars come out.
The canoes, it seems, were built for bigger, male bodies; because Karana is still a young girl, she struggles with the canoe. But once the canoe is in the water, Karana demonstrates her skill and her strength. She may not have much practice maneuvering canoes on land by herself, but once she’s in the water, she’s more or less at home.
Themes
About halfway through the night, Karana discovers that the canoe is leaking. She bails out the water in the canoe until she finds a crack as long as her hand. Karana fills it with a piece of her skirt just before daybreak. She realizes she’s going a bit too far south, so she paddles north toward the sun. Karana is tired, but hopeful—another day and she’ll be able to see the shore. But before long, the canoe develops a bigger leak. Karana fills it with more of her skirt, but she realizes that all of the canoe’s planks are weak and brittle. It’s dangerous to keep going.
This canoe may have represented freedom to Karana at first, but now, it starts to feel like it’s trapping her. It doesn’t seem likely that she can rely on it to get her where she wants to go. And even as Karana finds herself in a potentially dangerous situation here in the breaking canoe, she also shows that she knows something about canoes. She can identify the problem, which suggests she also knows how to fix it—assuming she can make it back to the island.
Themes
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Karana lets the canoe drift. The thought of going back after working so hard is painful—and she’s not excited to return to the island to live alone for who knows how long. Finally, when more water starts to seep through the canoe’s cracks, Karana turns back toward the island. There’s no wind, which allows Karana to make good time. And then, when the wind does pick up, a pod of dolphins swims around the canoe. They’re lucky animals and watching them play helps Karana forget that her hands are bleeding. The dolphins feel like friends. The animals disappear just before dusk, and thinking of them keeps Karana from falling asleep. She drifts off several times—but she can see the island in the morning. When she reaches the island, Karana, exhausted, collapses in the sand and sleeps.
It's a difficult decision to turn back, but it is a choice. This makes it easier for her to deal with, especially when the dolphins show up to escort her back. They make it seem like the natural world is rallying around Karana to get her back to the island safe and sound—and they suggest that being on the island alone might not be such a terrible thing. When she thinks of the dolphins as friends, this also shows Karana starting to move away from being friends only with people. If she’s going to live alone on the island, she’s going to have to look for some new friends.
Themes
