The Cay
by Theodore Taylor
Revision Notes
© irevise.com 2016
1 The Cay – Revision Notes.
© irevise.com 2016.
All revision notes have been produced by mockness ltd for irevise.com.
Email: [email protected]
Copyrighted material.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, reprinting,
or otherwise without either the prior written permission of irevise.com or a license permitting copying
in the United Kingdom issued by the copyright licensing Agency.
2 The Cay – Revision Notes.
Table of Contents
The Cay by Theodore Taylor .................................................................................................... 4
Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Themes and Supporting Quotations ......................................................................................... 7
Race.................................................................................................................................................... 7
Friendship ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Violence ........................................................................................................................................... 16
Transformation ................................................................................................................................ 20
Man and Nature ............................................................................................................................... 24
Appearances .................................................................................................................................... 28
Sacrifice ............................................................................................................................................ 32
Contrasting Places............................................................................................................................ 35
Family ............................................................................................................................................... 38
3 The Cay – Revision Notes.
Get A – Grade Membership
Why become A-Grade member?







Access unlimited Revision Premium revision notes Created by
top class teachers and subject experts.
Access revision content across a wide range of subjects.
Access almost 1000 maths tutorials helping you understand,
learn and approach maths questions to ace your exams.
Access A – Grade Sample Answers to help steer you in the right
direction.
Access mock exam papers (unseen) and marking schemes to help
you continuously practice.
Access revision notes any time any where and on your mobile
device.
Only €5.99 per month.
"My daughter was a member of mocks.ie last year, she found it great and excellent value.
She got access to revision notes, A grade sample answers and exam papers. I would have
no hesitation in recommending any parent signing their students up for the year!! All in all an
excellent revision resource" - Sinead Leonard, Sligo."
Get A – Grade Membership
4 The Cay – Revision Notes.
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Summary
The novel opens, and we're given the initial setup. It's 1942. We're on the Caribbean island
of Curaçao, and World War II is under way. The island is being stalked by German
submarines that arrived during the night-time and are targeting the area's oil refineries and
tankers.
We're also introduced to the protagonist, Phillip, a young schoolboy who has never seen
war before. He's "not frightened, just terribly excited". Don't worry; that will change. We
also meet Phillip's father, who works for one of the oil refineries and is the reason the family
relocated from Virginia to Curaçao. Phillip and his dad have always been close – unlike his
relationship with his mom. She's a bit of a nervous type and (as we will find out later) kind of
racist. There's also Henrik van Boven, Phillip's school friend who is Dutch and with whom he
plays around the city of Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao.
The arrival of the German submarines spells trouble for Willemstad. The oil tankers are in
danger and many of the sailors refuse to get on board for fear of being torpedoed and sunk.
Phillip's mother wants to go back to Virginia with her son, which creates tension with
Phillip's father. Once the German submarines blow up the S.S. Empire Tern, a big British
tanker, she decides to leave once and for all and is determined to take Phillip with her.
Phillip wants to stay on the island with his dad, but his mom books passage for him to sail
with her on a ship called the S.S. Hato.
As luck would have it, the Hato is torpedoed by the Germans. Phillip is knocked out during
his evacuation from the ship. When he finally comes to, he is no longer on one of the
lifeboats. Instead he's on a raft with a black West Indian man with a very thick accent
named Timothy and a cat named Stew Cat. Timothy builds a shelter on the raft for the two
to rest under.
Timothy and Phillip don't really get along at first. For one thing, Timothy rations the water
instead of letting Phillip gulp as much as he pleases. To make matters worse, Phillip loses his
sight from his injury during the torpedo blast. He goes completely blind.
5 The Cay – Revision Notes.
The man, boy, and cat drift in the sea and finally happen upon a small cay (island). Timothy
steers the raft to the island, even though Phillip wants to stay at sea (better chance of
rescue, he thinks). On the island Timothy builds a hut and catches langosta (lobster) for the
castaways to eat. Timothy eventually reveals that the two of them are probably in an area
known as the Devil's Mouth. The place is rarely accessible by ship, so they realize that their
only chance of rescue is that a plane might see the smoke from a signal fire.
Tensions build between Timothy and Phillip as the two attempt to live together on the
island. Phillip realizes that Timothy can't spell, causing Phillip to feel all high and mighty.
Timothy, meanwhile, pushes Phillip to do tasks that he doesn't want to do. Eventually the
situation blows up. Phillip calls Timothy ugly and stupid and Timothy smacks the bratty
Phillip in the face. For some reason, this act of violence seems to knock some sense into
Phillip. He realizes that Timothy is only trying to help them both survive on the island. Phillip
decides he wants to be Timothy's friend and asks Timothy to call him Phillip instead of
"young bahss".
After the fight Timothy and Phillip grow closer. They talk about their backgrounds and
families. Timothy makes Phillip a cane to help him get around the island, and Phillip learns
how to do things like fish. Phillip even eventually climbs a big palm tree to get coconuts – a
major triumph for him. Despite his blindness, Phillip is becoming more independent and
empowered. Meanwhile we learn that Timothy is in poor health. One day he gets a fever,
and it's Phillip who must be the protector and caregiver.
Timothy, who practices voodoo, starts to believe the island is cursed with bad luck, and he
thinks that Stew Cat is the problem. Phillip worries for Stew Cat's safety, but Timothy
performs a ritual that doesn't hurt the cat in the least, though it scares Phillip to death.
Around this time a tempest (hurricane) strikes the island. Timothy and Phillip prepare as
best they can, but their shelter is blown away. In the end, Timothy shields Phillip from the
storm with his body, while the two hold onto a rope around a palm tree. Though he lives for
a few moments after the storm, Timothy eventually dies; his body is cut, bruised, and
bleeding from the wind and debris. Phillip is thankful for his friend and buries him.
Soon after Timothy's death Phillip begins navigating the island alone and has a couple of
adventures. He wanders into a bird nesting ground and is attacked. Then a moray eel bites
his hand. A plane flies overhead once, but Phillip is unable to get the pilot's attention with
6 The Cay – Revision Notes.
the signal fire. Eventually Phillip discovers how to make black smoke using oily bundles of
sea grapes. In no time he successfully flags down a plane.
Phillip and Stew Cat are finally rescued and reunited with Phillip's family. An operation in
New York miraculously restores Phillip's sight. The family returns to Curaçao, but Phillip's
friend Henrik seems so young now that Phillip decides to hang out with the black West
Indian people instead, who remind him of Timothy. As the novel ends, Phillip is studying
charts of the Caribbean and dreaming of returning to the cay one day.
Themes and Supporting Quotations
Race
Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that people would be judged not by the color of their
skin, but on the content of their character. Theodore Taylor explores a similar dream in The
Cay. He begins with a main character – an 11-year-old white boy named Phillip – who has
bigoted views on race. Once Phillip goes blind, he is forced to depend upon a black West
Indian man named Timothy to navigate the world around him. Needless to say, his
worldview changes dramatically. Taylor's novel explores race relations by dramatizing an
unlikely friendship that rises above racial boundaries.
7 The Cay – Revision Notes.
Get A – Grade Membership
Why become A-Grade member?







Access unlimited Revision Premium revision notes Created by
top class teachers and subject experts.
Access revision content across a wide range of subjects.
Access almost 1000 maths tutorials helping you understand,
learn and approach maths questions to ace your exams.
Access A – Grade Sample Answers to help steer you in the right
direction.
Access mock exam papers (unseen) and marking schemes to help
you continuously practice.
Access revision notes any time any where and on your mobile
device.
Only €5.99 per month.
"My daughter was a member of mocks.ie last year, she found it great and excellent value.
She got access to revision notes, A grade sample answers and exam papers. I would have
no hesitation in recommending any parent signing their students up for the year!! All in all an
excellent revision resource" - Sinead Leonard, Sligo."
Get A – Grade Membership
8 The Cay – Revision Notes.