The Cay Theodore Taylor

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The Cay Theodore Taylor
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Introduction Background Discussion Starters
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The CayTheodore Taylor

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The Cay Theodore Taylor
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The Cay Introduction
The year is 1942. World War II is raging.
Eleven-year-old Phillip Enright lives on the
island of Curaçao, in the Dutch West Indies.
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The Cay Introduction
After German submarines attack some oil tankers
off the island,
Phillips mother decides to take him back to the
United States, where he will be safer.
But on the way their ship is torpedoed.
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The Cay Introduction
Waking up on a life raft, Phillip soon his loses
his eyesight from an injury.
His only companions are a cat and an old, black
sailor named Timothy.
Timothy knows a lot about survival, but he is
very different from Phillip.
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The Cay Introduction
Prejudiced against black people,
but dependent on Timothy for his survival,
Phillip faces an inner conflict.
How should he treat Timothy? Can he learn to
trust him, and even like him?
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The Cay Introduction
At the same time, both characters face an
external conflict.
Struggling for survival, they are in conflict
with nature and with their circumstances.
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The Cay Introduction
After a few days, they land on a tiny island.
It is remote and uninhabited.
There is little food or water.
The chances for rescue are slim.
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The Cay Introduction
Can Timothy and Phillip survive?
How will their relationship develop as they live
together on the island?
What changes might take place in Phillip?
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The Cay Background
Caysalso called keysare small, low islands.
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The Cay Background
Cays develop on the edges of coral reefs.

• Sand, coral, and debris build up.

• Birds drop seeds.

• Plants grow from the seeds.

• The plants make the cay more stable.

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The Cay Background
Many cays rise only five to ten feet above the
level of high tide.
Even a fairly large cay can easily be destroyed
by a hurricane or other severe storm.
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The Cay Background
The cay on which Phillip and Timothy land is
located in the West Indies
a chain of islands located between the Caribbean
Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
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The Cay Background
The West Indies includes Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti,
Puerto Rico, Curaçao, the Bahamas, Grenada, and
the Virgin Islands, plus many smaller islands.
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The Cay Background
Originally, American Indians inhabited the West
Indies.
After Christopher Columbus discovered the islands
in 1492, various European countries started to
take them over.
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The Cay Background
Today, most of the islands and island groups in
the West Indies are independent nations.
However, some are still partly controlled by
other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands, and the United States.
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The Cay Background
U-boats, the submarines used by Germany during
World War II, were among the most feared weapons
of the war.
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The Cay Background
German U-boats

• weighed from five hundred to seven hundred tons

• could travel very fast underwater

The torpedoes on these submarines

• could track the metal in a ships hull

• could follow the noise of a propeller in order
  to hit the target

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The Cay Discussion Starters

• Discuss (1)
• Timothy is not an educated man, but he does
  understand human nature and survival.

• What other characters can you think of, from
  movies or books, that are uneducated yet wise?
• Choose one such character and describe his or her
  special traits. If you met this character in
  difficult circumstances, would you listen to what
  he or she had to say? Explain.

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The Cay Discussion Starters

• Discuss (2)

• Name some other survival stories with which you
  are familiar, and briefly describe their plots.
• Why do you think stories of survival are so
  popular in the world of literature?