the bigger conflict—the fact that the two are trapped on an island—this unfortunately only gets half-resolved. Timothy, who had been ill prior to the start of their adventure, dies after protecting Phillip from a storm which sweeps over the cay. Some time later, Phillip manages to capture the attention of a passing plane using a signal fire made from sea grapes, which produce thick plumes of black smoke. He is therefore rescued, thus bringing an end to the book's main conflict.

There are two main conflicts in The Cay: Phillip and Timothy's survival when they are shipwrecked and marooned on an island, and Phillip's ability to overcome the racism he feels toward Timothy.

When Phillip and Timothy are marooned, they have only the few supplies from the lifeboat, and the island has no water source. In addition, they have little hope of escape, as Timothy reluctantly admits to Phillip that he knows the island's location is remote. Phillip is also blind as the result of an injury he sustained during the shipwreck. Timothy and Phillip work together to find food, water, shelter, and everything else they need to survive.

The second conflict is Phillip overcoming racism. His blindness comes on after he has seen Timothy and has had a chance to form an opinion of him. Then he is suddenly dependent on Timothy for everything and has no choice but to learn from him. Phillip selfishly thinks that Timothy is just lazy and doesn't want to do the work himself, but it later occurs to him that Timothy thinks he might not live long, and Phillip would be left alone. Timothy coaxes him into helping, and Phillip learns that he can rely on his other senses and gradually becomes self-sufficient. This is crucial, because Timothy dies and Phillip is left alone on the island. Without Timothy's help, Phillip would not have survived until rescue.

It is also relevant to note their ages. Phillip is a kid and Timothy an old man. Timothy is the natural leader, but he is black, and therefore Phillip considers himself superior.

My father had always taught me to address anyone I took to be an adult as "mister," but Timothy didn't seem to be a mister. Besides, he was black.

Timothy refers to Phillip as "young bahss" until Phillip asks him to call him by his first name. This symbolizes Phillip beginning to regard Timothy as an equal.

When Phillip returns home after being rescued, he spends time with Timothy's friends and is less interested in the friends he had before his ordeal. In short, he has grown up.

A conflict is a struggle within a story. Often the struggle is between the protagonist and antagonist; however, there can be several types of conflict. It should also be noted that there can be internal and external conflicts. During an internal conflict, a character struggles against himself/herself either because the character has conflicting desires or conflicting natures, such as a good vs. evil nature. During external conflicts, the character struggles against something outside of himself/herself, such as against another character, against society, against nature, or even against fate.

We can identify both internal and external conflicts in Theodore Taylor's young reader novel, The Cay. One internal conflict arises when Phillip goes blind. His blindness creates a feeling of helplessness and isolation that Timothy tries to help him overcome. Once the pair go ashore on their cay, Timothy gets busy building a shelter and finding things to eat. He even gets busy making a rope out of vines. At one point, he tells Phillip he needs to start helping out with the work and tries to teach him how to weave mats for them to sleep on, but Phillip gives up in frustration, feeling absolutely helpless. His feeling of helplessness is due to the fact that he wants his sight back and wants to be able to do things easily as he used to be able when he could see.  Since he is having difficulty accepting his blindness and finding solutions around it, we see that Phillip is experiencing an internal conflict. It's the moment Phillip realizes Timothy is making him a rope to help him move around the island by himself that he starts to feel a sense of gratitude and bravery that enable him to overcome his internal conflict.

Many external conflicts can also be seen throughout the book. One external conflict concerns society's racism, which is a central theme in the book. When Phillip first meets Timothy, Phillip dislikes him, resists getting to know him, and thinks he is ugly--all due to the prejudices Phillip has been taught by his parents and society at large. Yet, Phillip owes Timothy his life; therefore, Phillip is conflicted concerning whether or not to accept or reject Timothy as a result of the influence of society's prejudices.  However, despite society's prejudices, the more Timothy strives to help Phillip, especially help Phillip become independent, the more Phillip grows to value Timothy. By the end of the book, after Phillip is rescued, Phillip is such a changed person that he no longer fits in with the society he once knew.

The primary conflict in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay, concerns the two main characters--Phillip, an American boy, and Timothy, a West Indian sailor--and their long stay on a deserted island after surviving the torpedoing of their ship. It becomes a story of man versus nature, and how Timothy teaches Phillip, who is blinded when their ship goes down, to fend for himself against the elements. Phillip is initially dependent upon Timothy, but the aging sailor knows that they may be stranded for a long time, and he teaches Phillip how to fish and take care of himself in case he is left alone. Timothy eventually dies, and Phillip uses the lessons learned from his West Indian friend to stay alive until he is rescued. There are other conflicts between the two characters earlier in the story. Phillip, who has been brought up by a racially intolerant mother, has little respect for the "ugly" black man at first, but the boy comes to love the man after he gets to know him. 

There are actually multiple conflicts with multiple solutions within Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Two are internal conflicts that concern Phillip's racist attitude and his lack of independence. The third is an external conflict concerning Phillip and Timothy's fight for survival. Of those conflicts, the two most dominant are Phillip's lack of independence and the fight for survival. The first we can call a character vs. self conflict, while the second is a character vs. nature conflict.

Phillip begins to resolve his dominant character vs. self conflict of lack of independence when he and Timothy arrive on the island. Having gone blind from a severe blow to the head, Phillip feels helpless. He manages to help Timothy write the word HELP in the sand and to pull vines to make a rope, but gives up helping at that point. However, once Phillip begins to realize just how much Timothy is doing for his sake, such as weaving a rope he can use to move around the island on his own, Phillip begins to want to help Timothy in return and to be willing to become more independent. Through Timothy's assistance, Phillip learns how to weave mats, build a shelter, explore the island on his own, and to fish. This conflict reaches its climax the moment Timothy sacrifices his own life by protecting Phillip from the winds of a severe hurricane, a hurricane that has hit the region out of season. At first, after Timothy's death, Phillip feels ready to give up. He cries after burying Timothy and thinks to himself that, except for Stew Cat, he was "blind and alone on a forgotten cay" (p. 112). Fortunately, Timothy has already taught him that the way to survive is by immersing one's self deep in work, so Phillip immediately sets to work rebuilding his camp.

The external conflict of character vs. nature is also soon resolved after the hurricane. Since Phillip had gained enough independence to be able to relight the signal fire, he is soon sighted by a plane and rescued by a small boat.