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
The hunters leave many otters wounded. Karana watches some die, and she kills others to save them from their suffering. But one day, she finds a young otter that isn’t wounded too badly. Rontu barks at the young otter; at first, Karana thinks it’s just sleeping in the kelp. Then, she sees a deep cut across its back. Karana paddles close and reaches for the otter. Its eyes are huge from pain and fear. Karana cuts it out of the kelp and takes it to a tidepool near the reef. She spends the day catching fish live and leaving them in the pool. The otter sleeps on its back and Karana knows the saltwater will help it heal.
Karana shows how compassionate she is by killing the otter she knows are just going to suffer, and then by rescuing this one that she believes will heal with some help. Rescuing this otter and caring for it, though, also gives Karana the opportunity to make another friend—something that seems important to her, especially now that she’s alone again after Tutok’s departure. Karana is trying to recreate that feeling of companionship.
Themes
Over the next few weeks, Karana discovers that the otter needs to eat six fish per day. She fishes for it every day, no matter the weather. Its wounds heal and, after a while, the otter takes fish from Karana’s hand. Though Karana knows it can leave the pool, it doesn’t. Eventually, it grows as long as Karana’s arm. It watches her with its huge eyes and responds when she speaks to it. This makes Karana’s throat hurt: the otter, like her, seems simultaneously happy and sad. Eventually, she names the otter Mon-a-nee, which means “little boy with large eyes.”
The relationship that Karana forms with Mon-a-nee shows her that she and the animals on the island aren’t all so different from each other. They all, she believes, want to be part of a community of their own kind. But Karana and Mon-a-nee also end up having to look outside their own species to find friends—and this, she suggests, is both fulfilling and extremely sad. She implies her animal friends don’t quite cut it, and that she probably isn’t enough for Mon-a-nee, either.
Themes
Fishing for Mon-a-nee is hard work, especially in bad weather. He gives Karana dirty looks if she can’t catch a full six fish. One day, the waves are so high that Karana can’t fish, so she doesn’t go to the pool. The bad weather continues for three days. On the fourth day, when Karana returns to the pool, Mon-a-nee is gone. She’s sad, as she’ll never catch fish for him again or be able to recognize him amongst the other otter. He looks just like all the others now.
On the plus side, Mon-a-nee gives Karana a purpose for a while; fishing for him every day seems like a fulfilling undertaking. And fishing in this inclement weather also shows how skilled Karana is at navigating the island during every season. Mon-a-nee’s departure is difficult for Karana, even as she knows it’s a good thing on some level. Unlike Mon-a-nee, she probably won’t be able to do the same thing and rejoin her tribe.
Themes
Soon after the Aleuts leave, Karana moves back to the headland. She fixes her fence and puts her house back together, but she does worry about what will happen now that she had to throw out all the abalone she gathered over the summer. She’ll have to fish daily to feed herself. This task becomes easier once Mon-a-nee swims away.
Even if the Aleuts didn’t purposefully do anything to harm Karana, they’ve still made it much harder for her to get through the winter by forcing her to throw out her abalones. But again, Karana shows that she’s resourceful and knows how to work with the natural world, and she can feed herself no matter what.
Themes
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The Aleuts’ presence meant that Karana couldn’t catch and dry fish for light. So, all winter, she only works during the day. She spends the winter making string, fishhooks, and earrings to match the necklace from Tutok. The earrings are time-consuming. Karana finds pebbles on the beach that are the right color and soft enough to work with. When she’s finished with them, Karana puts them on with her cormorant skirt and the necklace. She and Rontu walk the cliffs, and Karana thinks of Tutok. Karana wishes Tutok were here to talk to, so she imagines their conversations in her head.
The Aleuts’ visit to the island influences how Karana spends her winter, not just how and what she eats. Even as Karana lives alone on the island, she still has to change her behavior to respond to these colonial forces. Making the earrings to match Tutok’s necklace is a way for Karana to make sure she remembers Tutok. Meanwhile, imagining conversations with Tutok shows that Karana is feeling increasingly lonely without a human friend on the island.
Themes
