How Does The Cay Change Throughout The Novel

In the novel, The Cay, the main character Philip discovers himself in a different way than the normal child. He becomes stranded on a cay with a strange black man named Timothy, and they live there until Philip is rescued, blind and having experienced a hurricane. The author uses Timothy’s “islander” accent to take the intensity and emotion of the book to new levels. Philip goes through many character changes like angriness, mental toughness, and appreciation after his hardships on the cay. These character changes make him a better person and develop a more positive character throughout the novel.

Philip experienced angriness after becoming blind, when TImothy told him he had to start helping out with the work around the island so he can learn

After becoming blind, and landing on a small island with unfamiliar sounds and places, Philip tries to search the island. He began to crawl along the beach in search of Timothy, but runs into a clump of low hanging brush(Taylor 60). After this, he becomes angry with Timothy fro leaving him alone, but he becomes more familiar with the island later on. Philip was becoming familiar with the island, even though he was blind. Timothy made him a cane, and Philip used it to get around the island, falling many times, but getting closer to being able to become less dependent on Timothy(Taylor 79). Not long after the author discusses this in the novel, Philip learns to do many things on his own and show his mental toughness when he begins to fish on his own. Timothy made Philip some fishing poles with things that he found on the island, and taught Philip how to use them. Philip got into the fishing hole, and Timothy showed him how to bait the hook and cast the line into the water. Philip caught a fish, and jerked it onto the raft(Taylor 96). Philip and Timothy were very proud of each other at this point, but Philip will become tougher after Timothy’s death, and being completely alone. Timothy taught Philip how to do many things on his own, and now he has to use them after Timothy died. After Philip survives the hurricane, he wonders how he is going to fish

After their boat sank, and they were stranded on a life raft, Timothy was very careful about conserving their supplies. The novel says that after Philip awoke from being knocked out after the boat crash, he asked for water, but Timothy would only give him a sparse portion. This made Philip become angry with Timothy(Taylor 35). After landing on the cay, Timothy and Philip begin to build huts and do other work together to familiarize themselves with the island. In the novel, Timothy tries to teach Philip how to weave mats for sleeping but Philip refuses. Then, he learns that you do not have to be able to see to do all work, and you can learn to do new things blind(Taylor 77-78). After the hurricane, and Timothy’s death, Philip understands why Timothy had taught him to do all that he did. In the novel, the author says that for the first time, Philip fully understood why Timothy had taught him how to navigate the island and the reef(Taylor 123). Philip had to become completely independent on himself, and it was not easy on him, but with Timothy’s training, it was easier than it would have been without