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The Cay

Ethan Kennedy

7th Hour Reading

February 5th, 2010

Final Project

Themes

Prejudice Hope War Adventure Death Survival Fear Loneliness

Timothy’s SurvivalTechniques

P34, #1: Timothy made shelter from the sun.P36, #3: Rations there supplies while on the raft.P38, #4: Caught raw fish for food.P38, #4:Used fish for water.P46, #5: Cold cloth to sooth Phillip’s pain.P44, #1: Told Phillip to get sleep for rest to survive.P44, #5: Gathered Phillip against him to keep him warm.P41, #1: They'd stayed in the middle of the raft so the

water could not touch them.P33, #4: He told Phillip not to look at the sun.

Phillip Enright Jr.

Phillip Enright is an eleven year old boy who is in a toughsituation right now. He is in the middle of the ocean witha man he does not give much because of his color witch isone of his unlikable traits. He does not take anyresponsibility for his actions and finds someone toblame. Even though he is being well taken care of byTimothy (The African-American man on the raft with him) hestill acts like a racist toward him. Perhaps he changes hisfeelings

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Timothy

Timothy is a very friendly man. Hetakes care of Phillip ignoring hisrudeness. Timothy told Phillip thathe is within the age of sixty butinforms him later that he is in hisseventy’s. Though he is older he stillmaintains good shape. Timothy holdshis ground when Phillip tries to takecontrol. I hope in the end thatPhillip excepts Timothy for who he is.

Other Main Characters

Phillip Enright Sr. : Phillips father,works for an oil company, wouldn’tleave the island

Grace Enright: Overprotective mom,wanted to leave the island becauseof the war

Stew Cat: Chefs cat, jumped on theraft with Timothy, good to Phillip

Phillip’s Rudeness

P38, #2: I yelled over at him, “ Yoursaving all the water for yourself.”

P39, #4: I blurted out, “ I wouldn’teven be here if it wasn’t for mymother.”

P48, #6: Fear turned to angertoward Timothy.

P37, #3: I said defiantly, “A schoonerwill find us.”

P36, #8: “ That isn’t enough,” Icomplained

Theme

One theme of importance is racism. Throughout the book Phillip has shown thishorrible personality trait. Like all racist’s in the world he also inherited it fromhis parents. In the beginning Phillip refers to Chinese sailors as “barefootedChinese sailors”. This is the slang term he learned from his parents that refersto poor people. However, he now has to trust his life to a black man.

Halfway through the book Phillip shows signs of losing his prejudices towardTimothy. He starts to trust him and give him the respect of an adult. Phillip evenasked him if he was still black. One example of this is Phillip says to Timothy thathe should call him Phillip instead of young baahs. Phillip also starts takingresponsibilities on the island. Instead of expecting Timothy to do all the work.When Phillip could not figure out how to work while being blind he yelled atTimothy, so Timothy slapped him. This knocked some sense into Phillip.

Near the end of this book Phillip does not have one trace of racism in his body.He loses Timothy in the hurricane and realized how much Timothy cared for him..He then realizes that just because Timothy has a different skin color it didn’teffect how much they cared for each other. Later in the book Phillip regains hissight and returns home. When he returns home he still talks to the natives. Buthe grew up in a way in how he communicates. Instead of avoiding them heapproaches them.. Skin color didn’t mater to Phillip anymore and he knew Timothywould be proud.

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Main Character In the book The Cay one of the main characters is Phillip Enright. At the beginning of

the book he was childish, then as the story progresses he slowly matures. During hisisland’s preparation for attack, he was told to stay in his yard. Of course, like thechild he was, he didn’t follow the rule and left his home. When he got to the place hewanted to play, he found soldiers with guns. Again, Phillip put himself in harms way.Ignoring his mother’s rule, he went to the docks. There were submarines in the waterwaiting to strike! From then on, he was carefully watched by his mother.

In the middle of the book, Phillip was still showing childlike traits. For example, hewas having difficulty understanding his dangerous situation. Phillip was stuck on araft, with no supplies and injured, but thought his family was going to rescue him atany moment. Luckily, he was not alone. If it wasn’t for Timothy, he would have died.Phillip was very disrespectful to Timothy and acted like a bratty kid. When Timothyonly gave a little water to ration supplies, Phillip always demanded more. However,Timothy refused because he wise enough to save what little bit they had left. Also,Phillip took no responsibility for jobs on the island, such as: collecting food andsetting up the shelter. He left that all to Timothy, which is not what a mature personwould do in that situation.

In the final chapters of The Cay, Phillip finally shows signs of growing up. He takesresponsibility on the island. He also knows his dad can’t save him. Timothy taughtPhillip how to fish and made a path to the fishing hole. Therefore, he would be able togo fishing independently. After the hurricane and Timothy’s death, Phillip is forced tomature. For example, he had to build a new hut for protection and fish for himself.Occasionally, he would even catch longasta. Without the teachings of Timothy,Phillip would not have survived or matured.

Epilogue

I could not believe it. I was standing on the island thathad housed me for months. I didn’t open my eyes until Icircled the island. I did not feel the need to see with myeyes, only by touch. Then I visited Timothy's grave. Thememory of his life broke me down to tears. I rememberedthe mournful day after the hurricane when Timothypast away. “I was amazed to see the work I could dowithout seeing. Then I went to inspect my work on thehut. It was better than I thought. While walkingaround the island with my eyes open I came across anabandon nesting ground. This was the place that I wasattacked by birds. That was a scary experience becauseof my blindness. Before leaving the Cay, I went to thefishing hole that Timothy showed me. I remembered thesharp sting of the Moray eel. To me, the Cay is morebeautiful when I can’t see it. I hope to return soon.

Musical Connection

Dedication

To DR. King’s dream, whichcan only come true if the

very young know andunderstand.

April 1968

Laguna beach, California