Summary

The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell is a story about a girl named Karana trying to survive all by herself on a big empty island. Karana runs into many hard and challenging troubles, but somehow manages to pull through them. Karana is a brilliant, young girl who learns from watching and then doing. Karana does what most people wouldn't even dream of doing, she was able to survive without any assitance. Karana and her tribe live on The Island of the Blue Dolphins. The Aluets are her tribe's enemies. In the begininning the Aluets come to her island and ask to hunt for seal there. The tribe agrees aslong as they get some profit, which the Aluets agreed to. Soon the tribe learned that the Aluets lied and had tried to leave. The tribe's men caught them before they could leave and things quickely turned into battle. The Aluets won, and the trube lost most of their men. The new cheif went to find new land, and one summer later the white men came to the island with a ship saying that their cheif had found new land, and to come with them. The tribe boarded the ship, but Karana released that Ramo, her younger brother, wasn't on the ship. Karana jumped off the ship, and swam to land to be with her brother, while the ship sailed away. The next day Karana woke up and Ramo wasn't with her. She searched until she found Ramo's dead body mauled by the wild dogs. Karana swore that she would kill every last one of the wild dogs. Over the next couple of years Karana learned how to make a very strong house, sharp, deadily tools, how to cook all different types of food, how to hunt, and most importantly how to stay safe from the wild dogs. Karana finally built enough arrows to go attack the wild dogs, she killed the ost of them but the leader was still alive, but wounded. Karana doesnt know what made her decide to nurse the dog back to health, but she did. She and the dog, which she later named Rontu, became very close and never went anywhere without the other. The Aluets came back to the island, and Karana was prepared becuase she had a cave with everything she could possiblely need while the Aluets stayed there. One morning Karana was sitting on the edge of the cave when she saw Tutok. She and Tutok became very close friends, sharing words in their different languages. But Tutok soon had to leave, leaving Karana all alone once again. One day Rontu passed away. Karana didn't leave the house for awhile after the death of her only friend she could talk to. But Karana's missery didnt last long, becuase she found Rontu's son. She welcomed him into her home and they were like peas and carrots. She named this new dog Aru Rontu. meaning son of Rontu. Two summers after that the white men finally came back to get her after 18 years of being alone on the island. She boarded the ship with everyting she held dear to her, includng Aru Rontu, and headed to finally see her people again.