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Identity In Mark Twain's The Cay

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In The Cay Phillip gets stranded on a small island with an old man and a cat through his journey to survive he finds his true identity. In the story Phillip goes through many challenges and hardships. In this essay I will tell you about these challenges and hardships. But I will also tell you about the things and details in the book that show the changes. He has been afraid, brave, and independent.
The beginning of the novel The Cay is what starts the story. At the beginning of the story Phillip can be described as afraid. After the wreck of the ship The Hato Phillip was left alone on a raft with a stranger (Timothy) and a Stew Cat. He was afraid he would die and never to see his family and friends again. But then he goes blind. After he goes blind things get worse for him, he is even more afraid. He is even more afraid be a he can’t we we we around him so he can’t tell what's on the left or right nor can he see whether it is day or night. It was hard on him. I have two quotes that …show more content…

As the story ends Phillip is found rescued and brought to the United States where he has surgery and got his sight back(but does have to wear glasses for the rest of his life). At this time Phillip is back on Curacao and is saying that he still sees his old friends but they now seem young to him. “I saw Henrik van Boven occasionally, but it wasn’t the same as when we’d played the Dutch or the British. He seemed very young.(136)”,this is the example of my point. But even before that he was independent. On the island he had his own ideas to improve his chance of being found. “By the time I carried ten or fifteen bundles of sea grape to the fire, tumbling them in, I was sure that a column of black smoke was rising into the sky over the cay(130)”, this shows how he was independent. He took charge and figured out a way to make the smoke black so planes could see it and it worked so he and Stew Cat were saved in the

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so I just sat beside him holding the cloth…” Phillip seemed to be prepared for this, unlike how he would he would have been at the beginning. Lastly, Phillip demonstrated maturity after experiencing blindness as evidence in the novel when he had returned home and saw how others acted. Based on the reading, readers can tell how Phillip felt once he returned home. (Taylor 136). “I saw Henrik Van Boven occasionally, but it wasn’t the same as when we’d played the Dutch or the British.

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