The Cay Race Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
To Dr. King's dream,
Which can only come true
If the very young know and understand. (Dedication)
Taylor begins his novel with a dedication to Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. The dedication suggests that the book will explore race relationships and issues of equality.
Quote #2
He crawled over toward me. His face couldn't have been blacker, or his teeth whiter. They made an alabaster trench in his mouth, and his pink-purple lips peeled back over them like the meat of a conch shell. He had a big welt, like a scar, on his left cheek. I knew he was West Indian. I had seen many of them in Willemstad, but he was the biggest one I'd ever seen. (3.17)
Before he goes blind, Phillip gives us a physical description of Timothy, emphasizing how big and scary he is. What do you notice about the words Phillip chooses to describe Timothy? For example, why does he compare Timothy's teeth to an "alabaster trench" and his lips to a "conch shell"? What effect do these phrases have?
Quote #3
Although I hadn't thought so before, I was now beginning to believe that my mother was right. She didn't like them. She didn't like it when Henrik and I would go down to St. Anna Bay and play near the schooners. But it was always fun. The black people would laugh at us and toss us bananas or papayas. (3.59)
Phillip reveals that he has picked up negative ideas about black West Indians from his mother. Why doesn't she want her son to associate with the black people in Willemstad?
Quote #4
He looked at me in the fading light and said softly, "We will 'ave no other food tonight. You bes' eat dem, young bahss." With that, he pressed a piece of the fish against his teeth, sucking at it noisily.
Yes, they were different. They ate raw fish. (3.69-70)
Phillip is pretty freaked out by Timothy's seemingly uncivilized meal of raw fish. He draws the conclusion that Timothy – and all black West Indian people – are "different" from him. Is Phillip right or wrong? Why does Timothy encourage Phillip to eat the fish?
Quote #5
Once, our bodies touched. We both drew back, but I drew back faster. In Virginia, I knew they'd always lived in their sections of town, and us in ours. A few times, I'd gone down through the shacks of colored town with my father. They sold spicy crabs in one shack, I remember. (4.3)
Phillip describes his segregated hometown back in Virginia, where white and black people lived separately. Is it easier to maintain racist views if you don't live alongside other races? Why or why not?
Quote #6
"You say what you want." It was just that Timothy looked very much like the men I'd seen in jungle pictures. Flat nose and heavy lips.
He shook his head. "I'ave no recollection o' anythin' 'cept dese islan's. 'Tis pure outrageous, but I do not remember anythin' 'bout a place called Afre-ca." (4.13)
Phillip assumes that because Timothy is black he must be from Africa. What do we learn here about the differences between Phillip and Timothy? How does Timothy see himself?
Quote #7
"You ugly black man! I won't do it! You're stupid, you can't even spell." (9.18)
Frustrated when Timothy asks him to help weave sleeping mats, Phillip lashes out at him. He goes for some low blows and calls Timothy ugly, stupid, and illiterate. Phillip's judgments about Timothy are obviously incredibly superficial. How does Timothy respond?
Quote #8
Wanting to hear it from Timothy, I asked him why there were different colors of skin, white and black, brown and red, and he laughed back, "Why b'feesh different color, or flower b'different color? I true don' know, Phill-eep, but I true tink beneath d'skin is all d'same." (10.13)
Timothy tells Phillip that though humans have different colors of skin, they are all the same underneath. This message of equality will resonate with Phillip through the remainder of the book. Do you agree with Timothy?
Quote #9
I moved close to Timothy's big body before I went to sleep. I remember smiling in the darkness. He felt neither white nor black. (10.16)
Though he recoiled from Timothy's touch before, Phillip now sleeps close to him. Their relationship has become desegregated; that is, the barriers between them have broken down. Phillip's blindness has led to colorblindness.
Quote #10
I had now been with him every moment of the day and night for two months, but I had not seen him. I remember that ugly welted face. But now, in my memory, it did not seem ugly at all. It seemed only kind and strong.
I asked, "Timothy, are you still black?"
His laughter filled the hut. (13.52-54)
Phillip's blindness allows him to cast aside his preconceived notions and get to know Timothy in a different way. Why doesn't Phillip think of Timothy as black or white?
Quote #11
The pilot had flown away, perhaps thinking I was just another native fisherman waving at an aircraft. I knew that the color of my skin was very dark now. (18.51)
While he's definitely had a change of heart about race, Phillip has also become darker himself. How is this moment symbolic?
Quote #12
I saw Henrik van Boven occasionally, but it wasn't the same as when we'd played the Dutch or the British. He seemed very young. So I spent a lot of time along St. Anna Bay, and at the Ruyterkade market talking to the black people. I liked the sound of their voices. Some of them had known old Timothy from Charlotte Amalie. I felt close to them. (19.40)
Phillip realizes it's not race that binds you to someone – it's shared experiences and values. Why does he no longer connect with Henrik van Boven? What does he have in common with the West Indian people in St. Anna Bay?