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)

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