How Does Philip Mature In The Caay

Many people read books and just walk away and never think about it again. On the other side, many spend endless hours, days, weeks, or even years pondering a book. A good book can leave you with so many questions. One of the most important things to do is examine the book. The Cay, written by Theodore Taylor, is about Philip, an 11 year old boy who gets in a terrible accident by virtue of World War II. Philip’s character acknowledges that through many conflicts, he developed matureness, open-heartedness, and independence.
After experiencing his time on the island with a black man, Philip exhibits open heartedness as evidenced in the novel when he wishes to interact with contrasting people from himself at the end of the story. When Philip first
appears on the raft with Timothy he has a racist view of him. He states, “I saw a huge, very old Negro…” (Taylor 30) In the following days, you can observe that Philip still has the view when he claims, “Timothy didn’t seem to be a mister. Besides, he was black.” (Taylor 34) At the particular moments, Philip believes that he is superior to Timothy due to their race. Eventually, Philip begins to gradually drift from the fact that Timothy is a contrasting race from himself. Philip perceives to how much Timothy is helping Philip go through his blindness. In the middle of the story Philip tells Timothy, “I want to be your friend.” (Taylor 72) Philip has decided that he does not have a distress of what Timothy looks like, he wants to know him and get close to him. As now, Philip and Timothy are indeed friends and looking out for each other, especially when Timothy dies in the hurricane. When Philip is rescued and returned home he invests his time differently from before. “I spent a lot of time along St. Anna Bay… talking to black people… I felt close to them.” (Taylor 136) Philip has grown to cherish being around black people and conversing with them. He no longer feels there is boundaries that separate people and wants to know everyone, whatever race they may be.
Matureness is proved by Philip after undergoing blindness. This is validated overall in the story when Philip spends his time researching and assisting people instead of playing. At the very outset of the novel, you can clearly witness how Philip is a kid who just wants to play with his friends and has no uncertainty. When it is decided he will leave soon, he sees a familiar place and conveys, “I had played there many times with Henrik and other boys… imagining we were defending Willemstad against pirates or even the British.” (Taylor 11) This confirmation displays how Philip is still a youth boy just wanting to savor his youth. As the book continues and Philip goes through many hardships on the island, he begins to mature and sees how much people can go through for him to be able to live well. When Timothy passes Philip responds to this horrific event by saying, “He made it possible for me to live. Thank you, Timothy. For the first time I fully understand why TImothy has so carefully trained me to move around the island.” (Taylor 114-115) At this point, Philip is growing to detect what all Timothy has done for him and how much he is grateful. This also make Philip regard that people like his father are going through a dominant extent to grant him life. When he gets back from his time on the sandy jail cell, he has a new perspective. In the story he writes, “ Since then, I’ve spent many hours looking for charts of the Caribbean. Someday, I will charter a schooner out of Panama and explore the devil’s mouth.” (Taylor 136-137) Philip is now planning for the future instead of playing and seeing where he can explore and what he can do.
Philip manifests independence after encountering having to take care of Timothy when he was sick, as revealed in the novel when he was able to survive on the Cay.
Before Philip had his experience on the island his survival was dependent on his mother and father. He even was unable to compose the decision for himself of whether or not he wanted to abandon Curasso. His father told him,” Philip, the decision is made. You’ll leave Friday with your mother.” (Taylor 25) As a result, Philip blamed the situation entirely on his mother. During the time Philip matures on the island, he becomes less and less dependent on Timothy. To illustrate, when Timothy began to be sick, Philip took the initiative to take care of him. “I brought water down from the hut, raised his head, and ordered him to drink.” (Taylor 91) Philip has noticed everything Timothy has done for him and wants to do the same. The dramatic development of independence from the beginning is clearly demonstrated when Philip solves the problem of the fire. “The smoke would rise from the Cay in a fat, black column to lead the planes up the Devil's mouth. I knew how to do it now.” (Taylor 128) Instead of capitulating, Philip gave reasoning to techniques that would make his fire improved for the next time. This demonstrates the change in heart from giving in and allowing others around him establish his future, to wanting to live and
succeed. In brief, Philip advanced greatly as a person in his year spent going through countless predicaments that only 10 in a million have to go through. Philip was close hearted, immature, and dependent on his family at the start, and in the end changed to the total opposite. On the whole, anyone can change if they put their mind to being a better person, or the reverse. Experience can build character if the society chooses to let them.