The Cay is dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial equality. King's dream and the novel focus on race relations between blacks and whites. Yet the author transcends this specific focus by setting his story against the backdrop of World War II. The Germans who threaten the waters around Curacao have gone down in history for their violent, systematic murdering of the Jewish people.
Germany's actions were founded on extreme racial prejudice, which permeated their entire society. This backdrop serves as a warning against all prejudice everywhere, and in context of the story, it highlights the social prejudice against black people. Phillip's mother is from Virginia, which was once a slave-holding state.
At the time of the story, black people were still segregated in Virginia. This segregation leads to fear of the unknown, expressed as prejudice. Phillip's mother does not like black people, because she does not know them; she is afraid of their cultural differences
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