THE CAY is a tense and compulsive survival story by Theodore Taylor of a young boy and an old man adrift on the ocean, then marooned on a tiny, deserted island. It is also a fascinating study of the relationship between Phillip, white, American, and influenced by his mother's racial prejudices, and the black man upon whom Phillip's life depends. THE CAY is a tense and compulsive survival story by Theodore Taylor of a young boy and an old man adrift on the ocean, then marooned on a tiny, deserted island. It is also a fascinating study of the relationship between Phillip, white, American, and influenced by his mother's racial prejudices, and the black man upon whom Phillip's life depends.