Character Analysis: The Cay

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be stranded on an island? Well Phillip has experienced it. The book, The Cay, is a book about Phillip and how he ends up stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere with a stranger. Phillip is a young boy that lives in Willemstad, Curacao. Phillip has been living in a war and his mother wants to move back to America. On his way back, his boat got bombed and he lost his mom. When Phillip wakes up he is on a raft with a person he has never met before, Timothy, and he has no idea where they are or where his mom is. Also, on this journey he goes blind and Timothy finds an island they can live on till rescued. In The Cay, Phillip’s character reveals that through many conflicts, he developed independence,
In the beginning, Phillip was very sad because, Timothy and Phillip were in a huge storm, a short time after Timothy wasn’t moving or talking, he had passed away. “Timothy was still behind me, but he felt cold and limp. He was sagging, his head down on my shoulder. “Timothy, wake up,” I said. He did not answer.”(Taylor, 108-110). The evidence supports the context because it shows how Timothy felt and how Phillip found out he had passed away. In the middle, he felt determined to get everything on the island cleaned up and in the correct spot. “I accomplished a lot in three days,...”,”Without Timothy;s eyes, I was finding that in my own world everything had to be very precise; an exact place for everything.”(Taylor, 116-117). Since Timothy passed away he had to clean up everything on his own so, he worked all day trying to clean up the island and putting everything in an exact place. At the end, Phillip has fully developed his independence, because Phillip was able to catch his own food, start a campfire, knowing if the smoke was black or white, and saving himself. “I touched one on the first sweep and drove the sharp stick into him, swimming quickly to the surface. Panting I shouted to Stew Cat, ‘Lobster tonight!’”, “I spit on the stick until I heard a sizzle. Then I knew there was enough fire or charring on it to light off the base of fried palm fronds beneath the signal fire.”, “At last I thought, perhaps they didn’t see the smoke. I knew it was going up into the sky, but was it white smoke that might be lost in the blue-white sky, or was it dark and oily smoke that would make a smudge against the blueness? There was no way to tell.”, “The sea grape! I snapped some off, feeling it between my fingers. Yes, there was oil in it. I got up and went over to the fire, tossing a piece in. In a moment, I heard