The Cay Group

Question:

ashroxpearl
ashroxpearl
Student

What did Timothy smell like in the novel, The Cay?

Rate question:

Posted by ashroxpearl on Thursday November 5, 2009 at 1:11 PM and tagged with character, smell, the cay, timothy.

Answers:

  1. bullgatortail
    bullgatortail Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

        When Timothy and Phillip (and Stew Cat) become shipwrecked in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay, they share a raft together for several days before sighting land. Knowing that Phillip has been injured, Timothy immediately takes on the role of the doting father figure, but Timothy does not smell much like Phillip's parents. Phillip is not used to being so close to a black man, and he recoils instinctively when they first touch. It becomes cold at night on the raft, and Timothy notices that the "young bahss" is shivering.

    I could now smell Timothy, tucked up against him. He didn't smell like my father or my mother. Father always smelled of bay rum... and mother smelled of some kind of perfume of cologne. Timothy smelled different and strong, like the black men who worked on the decks of the tankers... After a while, I didn't mind the smell because Timothy's back was very warm.

    Like the hard life that he has lived, Timothy smells like a working man.

     

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/cay-qn

    Rate answer:

    Posted by bullgatortail on Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 9:47 AM