Let us here a story about a boy named Phillip. A boy who lives with his American parents on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean. Unfortunately the island is suddenly attacked by German U-boats, who surround the island and cut off any supplies from getting in and out. Phillip's mother decides that she wants to go back to America and takes Phillip with her. They took the boat but the boat on which they were travelling gets attacked and Phillip got thrown out of the boat, suffering a head injury. He woked up in a lifeboat with a large Black man named Timothy and a cat named Stew. These guys drift for a while until they saw a small island and decided to go there. With that accident, Phillip soon realized that he is blind due to his head injury. They reached that island and set up camp. At first, Phillip is distrustful of Timothy because he does not like Blacks as he was taught since childhood blacks are below whites, but later discovers that he needs Timothy as he will be his eyes while they are on the island. Soon Timothy teaches Phillip about the island and shows him skills to take care of himself, like fishing and weaving. Timothy senses a coming hurricane and prepares for the storm by tying both of them to a tree. When the storm hit the island, Timothy protects Phillip from the wind and rain. Finally they survive the storm, but is very exhausted. Due to tiredness and injuries Timothy soon dies. Phillip buries him and resumed his life on the island. Eventually, Phillip is rescued and reunited with his beloved family. He got surgery to fix his eyes and vows to find the island where Timothy is buried.
These type of Desert island stories are always difficult to narrate, especially from a first-person perspective, because we know that the narrator survives. How else could he tell the story? Racism is an underlying issue in this story. Phillip's mother has always taught her son that Blacks are lower than Whites, Phillip was having this attitude when they first arrive on the island. However, because to his situation as a blind person, he got no way rather than to learn to get along with a Black man, subduing his inherent racism. However, we can see that his racism is more than subdued as he become friend with Timothy.
Similarly, the author pictured Phillip blind, both literally and figuratively. This blindness forced him to see beyond skin color to the point that he does not want to view Timothy as White or Black, but just as a fellow human being. In terms of storytelling, this story has presented an interesting perspective on narration. For the most part, the narrator is blind and so he cannot give physical descriptions of his surroundings, but must describe his experiences through his other senses. What is even more interesting is how readers are able to picture the setting and images through a blind narrator. You will think that it could never work since a lot of people say how much they like authors who can paint pictures in their heads that are so visual. But Phillip, as the narrator, painted a picture of an island without visual images, but a descriptive images. In fact, as readers, initially we all are blind when it comes to reading stories. The author describes images in our mind and we must recreate them in our mind to understand the world presented to us. This story is a great example of the power of the imagination and the written word, that people are able to imagine something or someplace without having actually been there and seeing it.
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