Book Summary: The Cay

The book, The Cay, is about a twelve-year-old boy named Phillip. At the beginning of the book, the child faces many conflicts. For example, his mother forced him to leave his home on the small island Curaçao to go to the United States. On his way there, the schooner he was on, called the S.S. Hato, got bombed by a German submarine. Phillip flew into the water and an object hit him on the head. Eventually, he woke up on a raft in the middle of the ocean with an old negro named Timothy that spoke with a West Indian accent. After several days later, he became blind. The word I would use to describe how the main character felt is frustrated. The reason I chose this word is that on the raft Phillip got angry and blamed his mother for being at sea. Later, he starts hitting Timothy out of rage. Luckily, the old man is okay with him hitting him since it made Phillip feel better.
Eventually, they landed on a small cay.
Timothy and Phillip got to work on preparing things they would need to survive right away. Since he was blind, Phillip thought he wouldn’t be able to do anything. With Timothy’s help, he was able to learn how to weave mats to sleep on, fish, and eventually climb a tree for coconuts without relying on his sight. Over time the shelter gets done and he and the old man become friends. One night, he and Timothy ask each other questions about their past. I think that curious is the word that would best describe Phillip. I chose this word because the young lad is curious about Timothy’s past and he asks a lot of questions to learn to survive without his
sight.

All of a sudden, Timothy saw a hurricane hurling towards their cay. Quickly, they prepared for the storm. After strapping everything down, including themselves, the hurricane struck. By the time the eye of the storm came, Timothy was in bad shape. He had been receiving most of the damage, to save his young friend. The brutal left side of the storm knocked both of the survivors unconscious. Sadly, Timothy died protecting Phillip. A month or so later, our main character finally got rescued. A word I thought described the boy's feelings was mournful. Even though the doctors were able to return Phillips sight, and he was reunited with his parents, the young lad missed the negro that saved his life. When he got home, he constantly talked to the people that knew his dear friend, to remember him. After his experiences, he dedicated his life to sailing, and wanted to find the old cay where Timothy was buried where he decided he would say "Dis b'dat outrageous cay, eh, Timothy?"