2004 Ltrs About Lit contest entry re "The Cay" by T. Taylor

November 11, 2004


Mr. Theodore Taylor
1856 Catalina Street
Laguna Beach, CA 92615

Dear Mr. Taylor:

Your book, The Cay, made me want to play. When I knew I had to write a piece for the “Letters about Literature” contest, I’d just finished your book. I thought I might need to find another book to respond to because I didn’t think the fact that the book made me want to play was very significant. When my mother read me your article, “Exploding the Literary Canon,” including “A Wish for My Grandson,” I discovered several things that made me change my mind.

First of all, I found that you value play a great deal. I don’t know if you intended The Cay to be a catalyst for children’s imaginative playtimes, but that was what it was for me. It came along at just the right time too. You see I'm 12 years old and I'm “… at the threshold of my adult life” just like your grandson was in 1981! Just as he was watching the spaceship take off and land, I was watching the 2004 presidential election coverage on TV; I was even watching Hannity and Colmes! If I wasn’t doing that, I was at soccer practice or playing computer games and talking on IM or working on school. When I finished the book, that all changed because I wanted to be Phillip, marooned on an island and having to set up my own survival camp.

We live in the country and our property is surrounded by woods. I went into the woods and cleared a place under some big maples. I had some bricks that I used to make a fireplace. For my shelter, I dug a hole – a really large hole that took a long time to dig. I gathered branches and made a roof with them over the hole. I scavenged some logs from my dad’s log pile for a table. I set them on end and then laid a part of a 2 x 4 across them and nailed it down. My survival camp looked nice, but I wasn’t done. I found an old glass jar nearby and filled it with water and set it on my newly finished table. I made a garden plot by digging up the grass from under some of the trees and planting some old pumpkin and carrot seeds I found in our basement. Then I called “Stewdog” (my large boxer-lab-shepherd dog) to get into the hole with me. As I sat there petting him, I wondered what it must have been like for Phillip to have had to try and rebuild his camp after Timothy had died.

I thought that if I’d been Phillip I would have been incredibly sad, depressed, and guilty. Maybe I would have died because I wouldn’t have tried to save myself, but what would have made the difference would be the fact that Timothy’s dying had given my life value. Personally, I know my life has value because the Bible says so. It says the Son of God died for me. How much more value can there be than that? And, wasn’t Timothy being just like Jesus! By making this connection I think I’m doing what you wanted your grandson to do with relating the ghetto to the slave ship and connecting what he read in books with social issues.

I read in your article that you were criticized for having Timothy die in The Cay. I would like you to know that I am very pleased that you didn’t change that for the people who wanted your book to be “politically correct.” As I sat in the hole with “Stewdog,” I thought about how much respect I have for Timothy because he sacrificed his life for a selfish, prejudiced, white boy who was blind. Today, many adults can hardly be bothered with children. For example, I know so many children, younger than I am, who watch horror movies and I think they watch these because there’s no one to stop them. I don’t think Timothy would have let Phillip watch horror movies. Then there are all the abortions. I’m encouraged to know that there was a patient, loyal adult that gave his life for a young person; Timothy is a hero to me.

Reading The Cay has changed me in many different ways: like realizing the value of life, thinking about sacrifices people make and don’t make, making connections between books and life, and, of course, having the joy of pretend play again even though I am almost 13! Thank you Mr. Taylor for making me think about all of these important issues NOW before I go "blind" like Philip did

Sincerely yours,

Samantha Weber