Response To Literature: The Cay By Theodore Taylor

The Cay
Response to Literature Essay

The Cay is a novel by Theodore Taylor in which the main character is presented with racial relations and the subject of war when World War II comes to his small island of Curacao. Being a boy of almost twelve, Phillip’s outlook on these subjects is greatly influenced by his parents and his ignorance of the realities. When the book first opens his perspective on the topics of racism and war are very different than the reality of things.

In a way Phillip is blind at the beginning of the story because he doesn’t quite understand the actualities of war: he was “not frightened just terribly excited,” (pg 10) which comes from Phillip just being young. Nevertheless, Phillip’s ideas of war do change as he experiences first hand the effects. After seeing an oil tanker go down he says, “I was no longer excited about war; I had begun to understand that it meant death and destruction.” (pg23)

His views of people of a different skin color or race are that they are strange and different from him.

He once described Timothy, his black companion on the cay, as a “very old Negro” and being ugly. These views of race obviously are adopted from Phillip’s mother who appears to the reader as being racist. Phillip comes to agree with his mother after being with Timothy for a few days saying, “ I was now beginning to believe that my mother was right. She didn’t like them. She didn’t like it when Henrik and I would go down to St. Anna Bay and play near the schooners. But I always thought it was fun. The black people would laugh at us and toss bananas or papayas. She’d say, when she knew where we’d been, “They are not the same as you, Phillip. They are different and they live differently. That’s the way it must be.” (pg

36)

When the S.S. Hato is torpedoed by German submarines and Phillip and his mother are fleeing the ship, Phillip is injured and knocked out. As time passes on the raft with Timothy, Phillip has increasing pain in his head and one morning wakes to nothing but blackness. Phillip is blind. However, Philip’s blindness enables him to see Timothy as not ugly or black but as a person. He is able to look past Timothy’s skin color to realize who he really is. Moreover, a lighthearted, touching moment while on the cay shows how Philip has changed as he says, “Timothy, are you still black?” (pg 100)

After his experience on the cay Phillip is changed. He views himself differently, he views others differently, and even with his sight back he doesn’t let skin color be a barrier to those around him. With the West Indians back on Curaçao, he views them as friends and people rather than strange and different. He gives voice to his new views with, “I liked the sound of their voices. Some of them had known old Timothy from Charlotte Amalie. I felt close to them.” (pg 136)

At the end of the story Phillip undergoes a surgery in New York to restore his vision. He will always need glasses because the operation could not restore his sight perfectly, but Phillip expresses his gratitude for sight, “I would always have to wear glasses, but I could see again.” (pg 136) His new glasses might represent the fact that he doesn't see the world perfectly still or that with help he was able to see things as they really are. Back on the cay, Timothy was Phillip’s glasses, helping him ‘see’ things clearly. With Timothy gone, Phillip needs “glasses” still, most likely the new people he will meet and the events he will experience.