Twelve-year-old Karana has grown up in a society with very strict gender roles. Men are tasked with being leaders, hunting, and fishing; women should keep house, attend to children, and gather foods like roots. Karana’s tribe has functioned well for centuries by adhering to these gender roles. After Aleut otter hunters kill more than half the men, however, her tribe realizes that with fewer men around to hunt and fish, things will have to change in order to keep everyone alive and well. And later, when Karana finds herself totally alone on the island, these strict gender roles prove to be one of her biggest obstacles to providing for herself and thriving. Island of the Blue Dolphins shows that gender roles may be able to ensure that all tasks necessary for survival get done—provided there are enough men and women in a given society to accomplish their respective tasks. But as Karana discovers, adhering to gender roles becomes much less important, or even ceases to matter at all, when a person’s goal is simply to survive all alone.
Gender roles are, in the beginning, extremely important to Karana’s tribe. Throughout the novel’s first several chapters, when the Aleuts arrive and begin hunting otter around the island, Karana’s narration makes it clear that there are distinct activities reserved for men and for women. The novel opens with Karana, for instance, digging roots with her little brother, Ramo—an activity reserved for women and children. When the Aleuts and Captain Orlov reach the shore, the tribe divides up along gender lines: the men go to the beach with weapons, while women hide along the top of the mesa—it’s the men’s job to fight the invaders, if necessary. Later, Karana explains the division of labor in more depth: men hunt, fish, and make weapons, while women attend to domestic tasks. These strict divisions keep the tribe functioning smoothly and harmoniously. Everyone has a task, and everyone knows they have to complete their task in order for the tribe to survive—when the Aleut ship arrives, Karana even notes that though she’d like to stop digging roots and go greet the newcomers, like Ramo, she can’t stop. Her tribe is relying on her to provide the roots.
Things begin to change when the Aleuts kill most of the tribe’s men, necessitating a shift in who does what—something the novel portrays as unsettling and difficult for many people. With most of the men gone, the new chief, Kimki, decides to assign some hunting and fishing duties to women. This is necessary, he insists, for the tribe to survive—it would be foolish, he implies, to expect the few men left in the tribe to be able to provide for everyone. Though the women prove themselves to be just as skilled and effective at hunting as their male counterparts (and, Karana notes, are even more effective in some regards), this creates a great deal of strife within the tribe. Men resent that women are performing tasks that were once theirs alone—and they start to respect the women less because of this. In this unusual situation, the tribe’s strict gender roles make it hard for the tribe to both survive and exist harmoniously. It’s worth noting that the fact that the women are better hunters and fishers than the men shows that the tribe’s gender roles don’t exist because women and men are naturally better at certain tasks—instead, it shows that the gender roles existed to ensure that everything got done. This paves the way for Karana to later take on tasks once reserved for men; seeing women hunt at this time shows her that she can indeed accomplish all tasks necessary for survival, even if she is female.
Though Karana struggles at first to balance her respect for her tribe’s gendered division of labor with the need to survive, she ultimately discovers that gender roles become mostly irrelevant when her only goal is to survive alone on the island. Karana feels uncertainty and fear as she wonders whether or not she can make weapons. Her tribe’s laws forbid women from making weapons, and according to those laws, a woman making weapons will bring about natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, or the weapon will break when the woman needs it most. Ultimately, though, Karana’s fears of the wild dogs—which stalk around her camp every night, and which killed her brother—outweigh her fear of natural disasters. Over the course of her time on the island, Karana does all sorts of things that she suggests were formerly done by men, such as building shelters, revamping canoes, hunting, and making weapons. And in all cases, Karana is extremely successful. She crafts a canoe that’s easy for her to handle, she creates several homes to keep herself safe, and she’s able to feed herself and keep herself clothed, thanks to her handmade weapons that enable her to fish and hunt. And as time goes on, Karana thinks less and less about what she’s “supposed” to do, or not do, as a woman. What matters most is her continued survival. It’s somewhat gratifying, then, when a tsunami and earthquakes do hit the Island of the Blue Dolphins—but these disasters do little damage. Indeed, Karana notes that the earthquake doesn’t dislodge the huge rock on the headland—something that indicates, to her, that the gods aren’t too angry with humans (or specifically, with Karana for disobeying the tribe’s rules by making weapons).
Even as Karana accepts that her tribe’s gender roles no longer apply, though, she never gives up on being feminine—in fact, she does the exact opposite. And in many ways, her focus on feminine tasks, specifically creating her shimmery cormorant-feather skirt, shows just how effective Karana is at marrying her femininity with performing traditionally masculine tasks. She killed the 10 cormorants that make up her skirt herself, with weapons she made. Her skirt, and her continued survival more generally, show that she’s capable of surviving and thriving outside the confines of her tribe’s strict gender roles.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Gender Roles and Survival ThemeTracker
Gender Roles and Survival Quotes in Island of the Blue Dolphins
“Most of those who snared fowl and found fish in the deep water and built canoes are gone. The women, who were never asked to do more than stay at home, cook food, and make clothing, must now take the place of the men and face the dangers which abound beyond the village. There will be grumbling in Ghalas-at because of this. There will be shirkers. These will be punished, for without the help of all, all must perish.”
During this time other women were gathering the scarlet apples that grow on the cactus bushes and are called tunas. Fish were caught and many birds were netted. So hard did the women work that we really fared better than before when the hunting was done by men.
Life in the village should have been peaceful, but it was not. The men said that the women had taken the tasks that rightfully were theirs and now that they had become hunters, the men looked down upon them.
As I lay there I wondered what would happen to me if I went against the law of our tribe, which forbade the making of weapons by women—if I did not think of it at all and made those things which I must have to protect myself.
Would the four winds blow in from the four directions of the world and smother me as I made the weapons? Or would the earth tremble, as many said, and bury me beneath its falling rocks? Or, as others said, would the sea rise over the island in a terrible flood? Would the weapons break in my hands at the moment when my life was in danger, which is what my father had said?
Why I did not send the arrow I cannot say. I stood on the rock with the bow pulled back and my hand would not let it go. The big dog lay there and did not move and this may be the reason. If he had gotten up I would have killed him. I stood there for a long time looking down at him and then I climbed off the rocks.
On the first day of spring I went down to Coral Cove with my new spear. I knew it was spring because that morning at dawn the sky was filled with flocks of darting birds. They were small and black and came only at this time of year. They came out of the south and stayed for two suns, hunting food in the ravines, and then flew off in one great flight toward the north.
Often I would put on the skirt and the sandals and walk along the cliff with Rontu. Sometimes I made a wreath of flowers and fastened it in my hair. After the Aleuts had killed our men at Coral Cove, all the women of our tribe had singed their hair short as a sign of mourning. I had singed mine, too, with a faggot, but now it had grown long again and came to my waist. I parted it and let it fall down my back, except when I wore a wreath. Then I made braids and fastened them with long whalebone pins.
I also made a wreath for Rontu’s neck, which he did not like. Together we would walk along the cliff looking at the sea, and though the white men’s ship did not return that spring, it was a happy time. The air smelled of flowers and birds sang everywhere.
It was dark in the cave, even when the sun was high, so I burned the small fish I had stored. By their light I began to make a cormorant skirt, working every day on it. The ten skins I had taken at Tall Rock were now dry and in condition to sew. All of them were from male cormorants whose feathers are thicker than those of the females and much glossier. The skirt of yucca fibers was simple to make. I wanted this one to be better, so I cut the skins carefully and sewed them with great care.
Night came, but the earth still rose and fell like a great animal breathing. I could hear rocks tumbling from the cliff, falling down into the sea.
All night as we lay there in the house the earth trembled and rocks fell, yet not the big one on the headland, which would have fallen if those who make the world shake had really been angry with us.
