The Cay

The Cay is a 1969 middle grade novel by American author Theodore Taylor. The story follows an 11-year-old boy named Phillip who must survive on a small Caribbean island with an older Black man named Timothy. The novel is a survival story, but it is also about unlearning racism; Taylor dedicated the book to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Cay received several literary awards, including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 1970, which Taylor later returned due to controversy over the book’s stance on racism. In 1974, the novel was adapted into a TV movie starring James Earl Jones as Timothy and Alfred Lutter as Phillip.

This guide uses the eBook version of the Dell Laurel-Leaf 2003 edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This guide includes discussions of anti-Black racism and stereotypes included in the original text. The novel sometimes uses outdated linguistic conventions, including writing “black” rather than “Black” when referring to people of African descent. The guide uses the contemporary conventions for capitalization unless quoting directly from the text.

Plot Summary

The Cay begins in February 1942, on the night that German U-boats begin bombing the small Caribbean island of Curaçao. Eleven-year-old Phillip Enright, who has heard about the war but not seen it up close, thinks this is exciting.