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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
Several years ago, two whales washed up on the sandspit. Karana digs up the whales’ ribs to make her fence. She sets them deep in the earth, curving out, so that nothing can climb them and get in. Then, she weaves kelp between the ribs. Creating the fence doesn’t take too long, as the rock forms part of the fence. Karana digs a hole under the fence, lines it with stones, and covers it with a rock that she can move. Now she’s safe from the wild dogs.
As a single girl, Karana obviously can’t kill a whale all by herself. But she can use her knowledge of the island and its history to find the supplies she needs—this is exactly how she locates these whale ribs. Building up against the rock also creates the sense that Karana is working with the island to protect herself—the rock provides a lot of security.
Themes
The house takes much longer than the fence to build. It rains a lot and there isn’t much wood on the island. According to legends, the island was once covered in trees. But two gods, Tumaiyowit and Mukat, fought about lots of things—and when Tumaiyowit angrily descended to the underworld, this is when people started to die. There were trees when the gods were fighting, but now there are just a few. After searching for several days, Karana has enough poles for the house. She finishes her house when the winter is half over. She feels safe—the foxes and wild dogs circle outside the fence, but they can’t get in. Karana shoots at the dogs, but she doesn’t shoot the leader.
As Karana forges onward to build her house and her new life, she still remains emotionally and spiritually invested in her tribe’s legends and lore. In this way, even though Karana’s tribe is pretty much nonexistent, Karana is still trying to keep customs alive. She can do this in part because she’s willing to find new ways to do some things; this allows her to survive. Staying alive at all gives her the option to choose which customs are still useful.
Themes
Karana also makes some cooking utensils at this time. She makes bowls to save the juices from cooked fish and a woven basket in which to make gruel. Karana creates a fire pit in the middle of her house and unlike in Ghalas-at, she keeps her fire alive through the night. To deal with the pesky mice, Karana cuts out some cracks in the rocks and makes shelves that the mice can’t reach. By spring, Karana is comfortable, safe, and has enough to eat.
Again, Karana casts aside some customs that aren’t useful for her as a single person, such as starting a new fire every day. So even as she manages to survive and make less work for herself, her tribe’s way of life is still disappearing. In this sense, Karana is creating a totally new path, using what she knows of her tribe’s habits and customs.
Themes
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Now, it’s time to focus on killing the wild dogs. Karana knows she needs a bigger spear and a bigger bow. She spends weeks searching for materials during the day and working on the weapons at night. For light to see, she uses small, dried fish called sai-sai as lamps—they stink, but they burn brightly. The bow and arrow turn out well. As Karana works on the spear’s handle and the collar that will hold the point, she wonders if she can use a sea elephant’s tooth for the point. She isn’t sure how to get the teeth, but the more Karana thinks about it, the more determined she becomes to try.
Killing the wild dogs is a major undertaking, but killing them will also give Karana the sense of accomplishment and power that she craves. As she crafts the weapons for this task, it’s notable that she doesn’t mention any fears about performing this work formerly reserved for men. Nothing bad has happened to her yet, and with this sense of security, her tribe’s gender roles cease to matter as much as they once did.
Themes
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