Courage

Karana, an Indian girl, lives happily with her people on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. It is an island in the Pacific that gets its name from its beautiful shape — from above it looks like a dolphin lying on its side, "with its tail pointing toward sunrise," sunning itself in the sea. Around it blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds thrive. Karana's people live in harmony among the other animals on and around the island as they have for generations. Her father is the chief of the village. And then one day a boat comes captained by a Russian man, who "looked at the little harbor as though it already belonged to him." The captain and his crew wish to hunt sea otter on their own terms. Their disregard for the ways of the Indians leads to bloody consequences, and Karana's family is destroyed, and eventually with the arrival of more white men, the entire community disappears from the island, save Karana.
For years she lives on the island alone, using the skills of her people to survive. For the first time, she modifies the skills only the men of her village had mastered. She makes a fence from the ribs of a whale. She builds a house. Eventually she becomes comfortable alone. She befriends one of the wild dogs, and the blue dolphins still give her strength. But she will not be alone for much longer.
1.http://content.scholastic.com/browse/book.jsp?id=2353

Based on the true story of the last woman of San Nicholas, ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHIN is written as a first person account of a young woman's survival. The Aleut hunters who came to the island to hunt otter killed most of the men of Ghalas-at and plundered the villages. When the remaining islanders departed for a nearby haven, twelve-year-old Karana, realizing her younger brother Ramo has been left behind, jumps from the boat and swims back to the island to take care of him. She gathers food, builds shelter, and makes tools to survive. In order to take revenge against the wild dogs that killed her brother, Karana must make weapons, something that had been forbidden to the women of the tribe. After many moons and suns, she realizes that her people won't be coming back for her. As the years go by, Karana learns to respect all of the animals of the island, and eventually tames Rontu, the dog who had killed her brother. Based on the true story of the last woman of San Nicholas, ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHIN is written as a first person account of a young woman's survival. The Aleut hunters who came to the island to hunt otter killed most of the men of Ghalas-at and plundered the villages. When the remaining islanders departed for a nearby haven, twelve-year-old Karana, realizing her younger brother Ramo has been left behind, jumps from the boat and swims back to the island to take care of him. She gathers food, builds shelter, and makes tools to survive. In order to take revenge against the wild dogs that killed her brother, Karana must make weapons, something that had been forbidden to the women of the tribe. After many moons and suns, she realizes that her people won't be coming back for her. As the years go by, Karana learns to respect all of the animals of the island, and eventually tames Rontu, the dog who had killed her brother.
2.http://www.literatureplace.com/bookfolios/bookfolio.asp?BookfolioID=138

Karana progresses through several states of loneliness during her time on the island. When she is first stranded, and he brother is with her, she does not mention feeling any loneliness at all. Though she is worried about herself and her brother, she does not feel any lonelier than she did with her people. This is because she has the benefits both of human companionship and of the hope that the white men's ship will return to take them away. After Ramo is killed, Karana is sad, but still not so lonely, because she knows that any day she could see the white men's ship on the horizon. Karana's first winter on the island is the most difficult for her, because her hope of being rescued any time soon dies with the coming of the first winter storm. This is Karana's point of deepest despair in the novel, when she sets out on her own for the land to the east. When Karana returns from her trials on the sea, she sees her island in a whole new light; she sees it as her home. The familiarity of the island reduces her loneliness, but does not replace what she had before. When Karana meets Rontu, she finally has someone to talk to. Not until then does she realize how lonely she had been on the island. Rontu is nice to talk to, but he never talks back. It is not until Karana meets Tutok that she has someone to talk with. Again, Karana had not known how lonely she had been without Tutok. Each level of loneliness is tolerable until Karana experiences something better. This is a problem for Karana when Tutok leaves, because she now feels the empty space in her life that Tutok had filled. The desire to have someone to talk with lingers with Karana for the rest of he story, and it is probably the main reason she decides in the end to leave her home and go out into the unknown.
3.http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dolphins/themes.html

Summary
After the death of karana's father,Karana and her tribe decided to leave the island for good,but knowing that her brother was not on board she quickly search for him and found out that he was not on board and thinking that the ship will turn back for her brother but did not she jumped of the ship showing not only how strong her kinship is with her brother but also courage to live with her brother although she was furious that she spoiled her best handmade skirt.Having a thought that the ship will return for them one day,Karana and her brother have a light hope for the returning ship but little do they know that on the way to the white men's island they ship sunk into the sea for there was a storm on their way on.Karana and her brother hunted food to keep on surviving but on one faithful day Karana's brother was killed by the dogs and she swear that she will take revenge for him.Never the less did she knew that he became friends with a dog that is the leader of the wild dogs,they became best friends and whenever Karana felt lonely she can always chat with Rontu-her dog's name.She was given alot of trust by Rontu and his son.Keeping her save from dangers while keeping her company.Giving her courage to live and stay healthy untill one day the white men came to take her to their island which is the place where she can start a new life.