The Story Archive

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell · 1960 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

Aleut hunters put in at an island off the California coast for otter pelts, and the argument over payment leaves most of the village's men dead on the beach. When a ship comes to take the survivors off, a girl goes back over the side for her small brother and watches the sail go. Newbery-winning and built from the recorded case of the woman found alone on San Nicolas Island in 1853, it put a girl at the centre of the survival story.

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Attributes

Genre
AdventureHistorical
Theme
SurvivalIsolation & AlienationNature vs CivilizationSuffering & Endurance
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
HeroineExplorer
Plot structure
ChronicleEpisodic
Symbol / motif
The IslandThe SeaThe Beast
Conflict
vs Naturevs Self
Mode / tone
RealistElegiacLyrical
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues