In The Cay, if Phillip's mother were aware of Timothy's sacrifice on her son's behalf, do you think her views about black people would change?

This is an interesting question. When the story begins, we are told that Phillip’s mother is upset that the family is living in Curaçao and misses her life in Virginia where the Enrights had had a small house, experienced the changing seasons, and had many friends. Phillip notes that she was

“Homesick for Virginia, where no one talked Dutch, and there was no smell of gas or oil, and there weren’t as many black people around.”

This is the first hint of Grace’s racism. However, later he adds that she is very over-protective. She always worries about Phillip. She worries about ordinary things (Phillip falling out of a tree), and rare occurrences (he might cut himself with a pocket knife). She especially warns him to stay away from the black workers on the schooners in St. Anna Bay. Phillip finds his interaction with the black workers fun, but his mother says, “They are different and they live differently. That’s the way it must be.”

As Phillip begins his relationship with Timothy, he reflects on his mother’s feelings and, in his despair in the aftermath of the shipwreck, starts to agree with her.

As their relationship evolves, Phillip grows to respect Timothy. His blindness allows him to “see” the truth that there is no difference between them that is the result of their color. Eventually, Phillip loses all traces of his inherited racism. When he returns to Curaçao, he prefers the company of black people who remind him of Timothy.

We can surmise that his mother would probably have changed her view on black people if she had known about Timothy’s efforts to rescue, support and protect her son, based on the end of the book, where Phillip’s disappearance has changed Grace so profoundly that she no longer wants to leave the islands.

Based on this change, it would seem that Grace would have the ability to lose her racism in the same way that her son does, through experience with black people. If she were aware of Timothy's sacrifice, it would change her perspective.