Setting
Island of the Blue Dolphins is inspired by the true tale of The Lost Woman of San Nicolas, who survived alone on an island from 1835 to 1853. The novel opens on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, seventy-five miles southwest of modern-day Los Angeles. Karana, a twelve-year-old girl from the village of Ghalas-at, and her six-year-old brother, Ramo, are collecting roots near a small harbor called Coral Cove. A ship with two red sails appears, stirring excitement among the villagers. Karana's father, Chief Chowig, hesitantly strikes a deal with the ship's captain, a Russian named Orlov. The agreement allows Captain Orlov and his Aleut hunters to hunt otters in exchange for half of their catch. However, when Orlov and his crew break the agreement, a conflict ensues. Twenty-seven of the forty-two Ghalas-at men, including Chowig, are killed, while Captain Orlov and his crew escape to their ship and leave Coral Cove. The new chief, Kimki, departs the island in search of a new home for the villagers. He never returns, but a ship of white men, sent by Kimki, arrives to rescue the people. Karana boards the ship with the others but realizes her brother Ramo is missing. Despite the pleas of her people, she jumps into the water and swims back to shore. By the time she reaches land and finds Ramo at the water's edge, the ship has disappeared, never to return. Soon after, her brother is killed by wild dogs, leaving Karana to survive alone on the island for eighteen years until another ship finally rescues her. The majority of the story unfolds on the island, detailing Karana's years of solitary survival.
Literary Qualities
Island of the Blue Dolphins is told from a first-person perspective. O'Dell's skill lies largely in his ability to let his characters narrate the story themselves. Through Karana, he paints a vivid picture drawn from her limited world on a small island surrounded by a vast ocean. Her language and straightforward comparisons are fitting for a teenage Native American girl who has known only island life. She expresses herself using imagery of rocks, sand, sea, wind, birds, and fish. O'Dell leverages the inherent beauty of this viewpoint to create a rich depiction of Karana's experiences and emotions. Her innocence adds simplicity and directness to the narrative, allowing readers to know as much as Karana does and feel almost like participants in the unfolding events.
O'Dell is adept at character development, and one of the novel's greatest successes is the believable and seemingly natural evolution of Karana's personality throughout the story. She adopts new attitudes and experiences emotions that often need to be inferred from her understated way of speaking. For instance, she doesn't explain why she hesitates to kill the wild dog after tracking and wounding him. However, readers grasp her motivation through O'Dell's careful selection of gestures and imagery that powerfully suggest meaning without explicit statements. This method of characterization is also evident at the story's conclusion, where readers realize that Karana's need for social approval and love has endured despite her isolation. This need is highlighted by her efforts to make herself look attractive—wearing an otter cape and a skirt made of cormorant feathers—and in a poignant scene after her rescue, where she dons facial markings indicating she is still unmarried.
Literary Precedents
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a recent contribution to the extensive literary tradition of the "Robinsonnade" — those countless works influenced directly by Robinson Crusoe. Since Crusoe's debut, the "castaway" narrative has been immensely popular, resurfacing in varied forms often aimed at young readers. Examples include Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson (1812), Marryat's Masterman Ready (1841), Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1858), Verne's The Mysterious Island (1875), and Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954), among others (not to mention Gilligan's Island). The primary distinction of Island of the Blue Dolphins from these earlier works is that they typically depict castaways in groups or families rather than as individuals — even Crusoe had his Friday — whereas Karana is mostly alone. She can be compared to Treasure Island's Ben Gunn, who spent years in isolation, and The Mysterious Island's Ayrton, who was solitary for so long that he regressed into savagery. Karana, however, had the advantage of being on her home island, not foreign soil, and her mission was to sustain her existing life rather than start anew. Despite their differences, these stories share many common elements, all of which are present in Island of the Blue Dolphins: catastrophic events leading to the castaway situation, the need to discover inner reserves of courage and resolve, the creativity required to manage with limited resources, and the always fascinating aspect of a detailed, often technical, "how to do it" account of daily survival on a primitive island.
A significant difference is that the protagonist is a heroine, and a very young one at that. This posed a challenge for some agents and publishers, but O'Dell had an advantage in that his novel was based on a true historical event. Moreover, having a girl as the central character added a unique interest to the story and introduced a new dimension to the tradition.
For Further Reference
Buell, Ellen Lewis. "Review." New York Times Book Review (March 22, 1960): 40-41. Summarizes Island of the Blue Dolphins and its sources; includes commentary on the book's style, theme, and substance.
Georgiou, Constantine. Children and Their Literature. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Suitable for readers of all ages, this work provides commentary on O'Dell's adept use of source material.
Jackson, Charlotte. "Review." San Francisco Chronicle (May 8, 1960). A positive review that commends O'Dell's restrained writing style.
Kingston, Carolyn T. "The Tragic Moment: Loss." In The Tragic Mode in Children's Literature. New York: Teachers College Press, 1974. Offers a mature examination of Island of the Blue Dolphins as a tragedy.
Libby, M. S. "Girls' Romances of Today and Yesterday." New York Herald Tribune Books (May 8, 1960): 8. An appreciative review focusing on the sources of the book's appeal.
Meigs, Cornelia, et al. A Critical History of Children's Literature. Rev. ed. New York: Macmillan, 1969. Contains a chapter that places Island of the Blue Dolphins within the context of survival stories, noting it as "unusual... both for subject and for beauty of literary style."
Milton, Joyce. "Beyond the Blue Dolphins." Washington Post Book World (May 2, 1976): 12. Primarily a review of Zia, providing insightful commentary on both books.
Stott, Jon C. "Narrative Technique and Meaning in Island of the Blue Dolphins." Elementary English 52 (April 1975): 442-446. Offers a detailed analysis primarily for teachers, serving as a useful reference for explaining the book's framework to students.
Sutherland, Zena. "Review." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (April 1960): 134. This summary and commentary on Island of the Blue Dolphins for teachers critiques the book's attention to detail but generally speaks favorably of the novel.
Wersba, Barbara. "Review." New York Times Book Review (May 2, 1976): 38. Discusses the success of both Island of the Blue Dolphins and Zia.
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