Island of the Blue Dolphins

Survival is a logical, even predictable, theme for O’Dell to explore. Island of the Blue Dolphins is an adventure story, with Karana being the only human on the island for the majority of the novel. O’Dell adds to the novel’s suspense and resonance by pitting his protagonist against grief and loneliness, as well as more tangible hardships. To weather the island’s physical dangers and her own difficult emotions, Karana must move past the laws that governed her old life and seize control of her destiny.

In her struggle for survival, Karana faces many physical threats that fill the novel with suspense. At times, just securing the essentials of food, water, and shelter is a deadly challenge. When a leg injury forces Karana to crawl to a spring, the island’s wild dogs pursue her, leading to this chilling description: “The pack had split up and were waiting on both sides of the ravine for me to pass them” (84). Karana takes shelter in a cave, where she is forced to hide from the dogs for six days without a fire and with little food and water.

Even after survival becomes second nature to Karana, O’Dell finds new ways to challenge his protagonist and create suspense. In Chapter 27, massive tidal waves and earthquakes batter the island. Karana survives the waves by clinging to a cliff, and weathers the earthquakes by taking shelter in her house while “the earth […] rose and fell like a great animal breathing” (163). By this point, Karana has lived on the island for many years, but this is her first time seeing the elements in such an uproar. Moments like these make the story more thrilling.

Despite her unusual circumstances, Karana contends with universal human experiences in her battle to survive. Few people know what it’s like to be stranded on a deserted island, but readers can relate to the pain of missing friends and losing loved ones. In Chapter 9, Karana experiences visual and auditory hallucinations of “all the people who were dead and those who were gone” (47). Her mind clears when the fog lifts, and she burns the empty huts to ash rather than remain among the remnants of her old life and let her will to survive disintegrate.

In Chapter 10, despair once again threatens to overwhelm Karana. She loses all hope of rescue, her appetite wanes, and “terrible dreams” keep her awake (57). Karana feels so forlorn that she tries to leave the island and nearly perishes at sea. However, she survives this frightening experience and returns to the island with a reinvigorated sense of joy and purpose. Karana’s grief and loneliness help ground the novel, proving as great an obstacle to her survival as more tangible threats.

Ultimately, Karana survives because she achieves self-determination. This accomplishment is even more impressive than surviving tidal waves and wild dogs because it forces Karana to grapple with her people’s traditions and find her own beliefs. At the beginning of the novel, the villagers laugh when Karana’s older sister Ulape reports that there is a girl among the Aleut hunters; they see no reason why “hunters would bother to bring their wives with them” (10), and the idea that the Aleut girl might be a hunter herself never occurs to them. The intense physical labor of hunting and the precise skill of crafting weapons fall exclusively under the purview of men in their culture. Therefore, to survive alone on the island, Karana must become someone her people could never imagine. She finds the courage to craft spears, bows, and arrows even though her father taught her that disaster would strike any woman who dared do so.

If Karana had followed her people’s laws, she would not have gained the confidence or tools needed to protect herself from the island’s dangers, especially the wild dogs. Near the novel’s end, Karana demonstrates her self-determination again by deciding to stop hunting and killing animals. After years of learning, she now knows her survival need not come at the cost of other creatures’ lives. This triumph shows that people can thrive outside of others’ expectations and discover their true capabilities and convictions.