Dystopian Island Quotes

Literary Essay - Orphan Island
If you have ever had to experience letting go of something, you know that it is a hard thing to deal with. In the book Orphan Island, Jinny has to go through the same thing. Orphan Island is about 9 kids, orphans and all, who live on a beautiful island where they have everything they need. Each year one toddler comes to the island on a green boat and the eldest leaves on it, but nobody knows where they come from or leave. All they know is that they have to follow the rules on the island. Except when it is Jinny, the eldest child’s turn to leave after taking care of Ess, the youngest, for one “boat” (the time between when the boat comes), she doesn’t want to leave, and this causes problems on the island. In the

One moment when the plot is exemplified is when Jinny thinks about how “there was a reason for everything… Jinny couldn’t think of what most of the reasons were, but she knew the rules and remembered them, usually. At the very least, it was her job to teach the rules to Ess” on page 43. This quote exemplifies how Jinny and the others don’t really question the rules that generations of children on the island have followed, and how she teaches those same things to Ess. This contributes to the plot of the story and proves the theme that sometimes you have to let go of something/someone for the well-being of others because of how at the beginning of the plot, Jinny teaches Ess the rules and follows them too, but later on she changes her choices as the plot ensues. An additional time when plot is demonstrated in the story is when Jinny explains to Ess that “No, the snakes would never bite you… Real snakes are safe. Here, anyway…” on page 46. This quote indicates the knowledge the children on the island have that nothing would hurt them there, and it exemplifies how the plot supports the theme because later on, this isn’t the case anymore because of how Jinny reacts to the the plot of the story, which is that she has to move on and let go of her home, the island. The final piece of evidence that proclaims the theme is when Jinny finally admits that

One moment when this is demonstrated is when Jinny sees a green smudge while swimming and thinks ”The boat? It couldn’t be---not now, like this. What was happening? Jinny began to swim back, away from the green smudge. She swam hard.” on page 126. When Jinny swims away from the boat, it symbolizes Jinny swimming away from the fact that she eventually has to leave the island and the other orphans without knowing what is on the other side of the mist. In this moment, she doesn’t face this fear of leaving once and for all, following in the footsteps of the Elders before her and getting over her intense dread of what her life would be like not on the island. Another example of symbolism that conveys the concept that sometimes you have to let go of something/someone for the well-being of others is when Ess says “Mama is for you now. To fix it. Make you happy.” on page 234. In this quote, symbolism is demonstrated when Ess offers Jinny her special bracelet made of the strings from her shoes, which she calls “Mama”. This bracelet is a very important thing to her, so when Ess gives it to Jinny, it symbolizes another level of love between them, a bond between them, and a bond that Jinny later damages when she accidentally loses the bracelet that meant so much to Ess. The last quote that uncovers the symbolism in the story is when Jinny observes that