B. Data and the Source of the Data
The main source of the data was Scott O’Dells Island of the Blue Dolphins which is one of teenage novels. This novel was written in 1960 based on the true
research of an Indian girl in Ghalas-at tribes, the primitive dwellers along the seashore of the Island of the Blue Dolphins. This island was named Blue Dolphins
since its shape was similar to the Blue Dolphins. The story was predicted occurred in 2000 B.C and found by white men in 1602. Meanwhile, all the words, phrases,
sentences and paragraphs related to the interdependence between nature and human beings and nature problems, that is faced by the most prominent figure in Island of
the Blue Dolphins —a girl named Karana-- who finally could not speak since there
was no one to talk to. Furthermore, the researcher also used other secondary sources such as books
and articles from journals to support her research. In order to scrutiny the meaning related to human being’ interdependence toward nature and in turn, the researcher
used eco- criticism study, especially by Glotfelty and Garrard’s theories, such as:
ecology, wilderness, biology, geography, ethnography, history and so on. The studies are mingled and cannot stand alone. It is correlated to each other. Thus, the
researcher read several articles or book as she states before, such as Garrard’s Eco- Criticism and The Ecocriticism Reader Landmarks in Literary Ecology edited by
Cheryll Glotfelty and Harrold Fromm.
C. The Research Instrument
As stated by Vanderstoep and Johnston 2009: 211, “the researcher’s interpretation is, therefore, only one of many possible valid interpretations of a
given text”. It means that the best instrument for a qualitative research is the human or in a precise way is the researcher herself. It was expected to attain the deep
analysis of the research. The primary instrument of this research is the researcher herself who used her capacity to interpret and analyze the data. The researcher
interpreted and analyzed the data related to the interdependence toward nature and human being as presented in the story according to the researcher’s knowledge that
was supported by the eco-criticism theory. The second instruments were the data tables. In this research, the researcher
used two tables which are essential to categorize the data. The first table, Table 1, is essential to collect the data related to the natural problems faced by Karana in
Island of the Blue Dolphins. Then, the second table, Table 2, was used to collect the data related to the interdependence between nature and human beings which is
revealed in the novel. Both of these tables can be seen in the following.
Table 1
. The natural problems that are faced by Karana in O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins
No Page
Category Quotation
1 72-73
1. Animal Threat
I would soon kill the wild dogs, but there
were many small red foxes on the island.
They were so numerous that I could never
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