63 pages • 2 hours read
Theodore TaylorThe Cay
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1969A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Phillip clears part of the island and digs a grave for Timothy with his hands. He feels angry with Timothy for leaving him and Stew Cat alone, but he also feels gratitude toward him for saving his life. Phillip buries Timothy and thanks him before starting to locate the remaining supplies. He eats a coconut and does his best to clear and organize the camp. Phillip remembers Timothy saying that he made several fishing poles and stashed them in a safe place. He finds them tied to one of the palm trees, still intact after the storm.
The next day, Phillip gets to work. There is plenty to do: rebuild his hut, make a new sleeping mat, set up a rainwater collection system, get a new fire going, catch fish, and more. Working hard, he manages to get all his old systems working again over the course of a few days. One day, he accidentally stumbles into an area where some birds are nesting. They attack him, and Stew Cat catches and eats one. Phillip empathizes with the birds: “They were fighting for survival, after the storm, just as I was” (110).
Chapter 17 Summary
Ten days after Timothy’s death, Phillip decides that he is sick of eating his limited diet of fish and sea grape leaves. He decides to check if there are any langosta in his fishing hole, which is something Timothy warned him against because of its dangers. Phillip sharpens a stick to skewer the langosta, which he knows will be very difficult to do while blind. His first efforts are successful: he catches a langosta almost immediately upon diving into the pool. Phillip tries to catch another lobster but does not succeed. Getting braver, he tries to explore a hole in the reef, but something bites his arm. He swims back to the surface, screaming, and manages to dislodge the animal. He makes “an informed guess that it had been a large moray eel” (114), but there is no way to be certain. He is hurt but not badly.
Chapter 18 Summary
Phillip grows more accustomed to the sounds and textures of the island as the days go by. At the beginning of August, he finally hears an airplane passing overhead. He lights the signal fire, but the plane flies away without noticing him. Devastated, Phillip sobs, thinking that he will be on the island forever. He starts to wonder whether the smoke was visible, or whether it was too pale to be noticeable. He realizes that sea grape leaves are oily and therefore more likely to produce a thick, black smoke. Although he failed this time, Phillip feels more confident that he will be able to signal a plane next time.
On the morning of August 20, Phillip wakes up to what he thinks is the sound of thunder. He soon realizes that he is wrong: the sound is explosions coming from nearby ships firing at each other. He runs to light the signal fire again and also hears a plane pass overhead. This time, Phillip believes that his fire has dark, highly visible smoke from the sea grape leaves. The plane circles the island several times, very low, but then leaves. Phillip worries that the pilot simply mistook him for a fisherman. Feeling utterly defeated, Phillip returns to Timothy’s grave with Stew Cat and asks, “Why didn’t you take us with you?” (121).
Chapter 19 Summary
Phillip hears a bell sounding as a boat approaches the cay. He rushes to the shore to announce his presence, and sailors tell him they can see him. They help him and Stew Cat onto the boat. Before they leave, Phillip has one of them go back and get Timothy’s knife, the only thing he wants to keep. The sailor who retrieves the knife is shocked by how much Phillip has built to maintain his own survival on the island. Over the course of the next few hours, Phillip tells the American sailors who have rescued him all about what happened. They do not believe his story because the Hato was sunk in April and Phillip has managed to survive for several months. He tells them about Timothy.
Phillip is brought to a hospital in Panama, where his parents visit him. He tells them what happened to him, but he does not think that they really understand what he has been through. A few months later, Phillip has three operations that successfully restore his sight, though he has to wear glasses. In April, he returns to Willemstad, where life continues more or less as it did before. Although he still sees Henrik, Phillip notes that he has matured much more than his friend has. Instead, Phillip spends his time talking to the Black people who live on Curaçao, some of whom knew Timothy. After the war ends, Phillip leaves Curaçao with his parents. He wants to “charter a schooner out of Panama and explore the Devil’s Mouth” (126). He has hopes of finding the cay where Timothy is buried once more. He thinks that he will only recognize the island if he closes his eyes.
Chapters 16-19 Analysis
Phillip’s final triumphs and disappointments on the island are private, which he finds difficult to manage. Much of this part of the book focuses on the minutiae of Surviving Against the Odds, as Phillip now has to do everything on his own. He sometimes feels a profound sense of hopelessness, wondering if he will ever actually be rescued. Despite these challenges, Phillip rises to the occasion and keeps waiting for an airplane to pass overhead.
Although Phillip relies primarily on what Timothy taught him, he also uses his own intelligence and problem-solving ability to take the final steps toward rescue. He realizes that Timothy’s signal fire was unlikely to produce dark smoke, a realization that is difficult to come to without actually being able to see the fire and smoke at all. Phillip’s survival skills and emotional resilience are both crucial elements of his Coming of Age story.
After Timothy’s death, Phillip learns that Timothy’s wisdom and company greatly enriched his life. When Phillip returns to civilization, he finds it somewhat challenging to pick up the threads of his old life. His time on the cay has fundamentally changed him, both in terms of his maturity level and in terms of his ability to understand other people. Although Phillip starts the story entitled and childish, he ends it much more mature and compassionate. In some ways, he is now alienated from the world that was once familiar to him. He feels that Henrik, who was once his peer, is now much more immature than he is because of what he has been through. His increased maturity marks the end of his dynamic character journey.
Perhaps most importantly, Phillip’s experience of Overcoming Racism carries over into his regular life. He keeps Timothy’s knife when he leaves the island and starts spending more time talking to the Black people who live in Curaçao. Despite these changes in his attitude, Phillip does not change as much as some readers might hope. He does not manage to change his mother’s views on race, or if he does, that change is not narrated. He also fails to tell the sailors who rescue him that Timothy is buried on the island. There is no effort made to repatriate his remains or to find friends or family who might like to give him a proper burial and funeral. Instead, Phillip imagines a future where he visits the island and Timothy’s grave again, rather than a world where the people who knew Timothy are able to share in Phillip’s grief and complete any relevant funerary customs.
