Herman Melville's Typee

Typee by Herman Melville explores the anxious terrors constantly on the horizon by using a tribe of cannibals that strangely act in a very hospitable way. The Typee tribe, not to be confused with their “friendly counterpart” of the Happar tribe take in the narrator named Tom and his shipmate Toby. The stranded men hold prejudice against the cannibals but after living amongst them Melville allowed the men to hold a new perspective in the same way that Melville himself saw the world. Herman Melville uses symbolism, antithesis, irony, and allusion to show how prejudice and mere perspective are preventing different societies from understanding and learning from one another. Food has a major overarching presence in Typee because right from the
beginning the two main characters are struggling with the constant questions about where their next meal would come from. They had abandoned their ship and chose to stay on the island but the quick realization of the scarcity of their food hits them hard. To go along with the fear of starvation, their other fear is being eaten themselves. It is humorous that both the dangers of the island are very similar but in different ways. Food symbolizes comfort and the Typee tribe leave no stones unturned in their attempt to please their new neighbors Tom and Toby. The hospitality of the Typee tribe is Melville’s first unexpected turn. The reader expects the Typee to be bloodthirsty savages from early on in the story and the Typee are anything but that. After living in the warm embrace of the Typee village for a short while Tom even says “How often is the term 'savages' incorrectly applied! None really deserving of it were ever yet discovered by voyagers or by travellers” (Melville 23). Two white male strangers are gifted servants who feed and carry around their heavy and injured bodies. The behavior of the tribe is a complete reversal to what anyone would have believed and it makes the reader question the prejudices that they themselves hold. Of course the example of cannibals is very exaggerated but the principle stands. Melville was a very progressive and forward thinker and his thoughts shine through when the main characters begin to change their mind. The story Typee also mirrors his real life as he has himself spent time with cannibals,famously enough to be given the name of “the man who lived among cannibals” (Krasner 1). However, the men do not completely let their guard down and that shows exactly how strong and sustaining prejudices can last in a person’s mind. It is incredibly sad that a tribe of cannibals is able to argue that 1st world countries are the real savages and that they are the ones who need to learn how to be civilized.
The tribe are at a point in their civilization where women sell themselves to passing by sailors for clothes, yet countries who have abundant resources still have poverty and war. Melville however did not participate in these acts that other sailors did, “Melville decided he would do exactly the opposite of what Owen Chase and the other crew members of the Essex had done” (South 48).The Typee acknowledge their acts of cannibalism but they also accuse European and American countries of far worse crimes. 99 years after the publication of Typee the United States launched a nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world did not become more civilized and Melville’s thoughts reigned true almost a full 100 years after. The Typee were actually shocked at the amount of destruction that a single gun could have when they said “and bang went the piece again, and down came another victim. At this the natives ran scampering through the groves, horror-struck at the enormity of the act” (Melville 256). The accusations on either side is Melville’s biggest push that perspective can change everything. Both the Typee and 1st world countries have each committed heinous acts but they still both look at themselves as the good guy. The same tunnel vision of a desired and fixed perspective happens in all wars, arguments, and court trials across the world all of the time. Melville wants people to share and trade perspectives so that they can see the entire picture and then make educated decisions that will be better for all. The sharing of perspectives also allows a little bit of humanity to be involved in so many decisions, it is a small addition that could be used in any
situation. Popular stories referenced by Melville also give an insight to how his characters feel at given moments in time. For example, the main characters Tom and Toby go through a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts on the tribe. Before even meeting the tribe they were incredibly threatened but soon learned to live with them. After that came new experiences and new perspectives thus creating different opinions, the characters feel that “ never does he have such a favorable opinion of human nature as when he has lost the company of his simple native friends and has fallen again among his mean-spirited, syphilitic, civilized fellow men” (Latimer 219). However, of course with new information new thoughts come in. Tom and Toby again wish to escape after finally being able to see the cannibalism live. During a time when they both felt trapped an allusion to Jack the Giant Killer was made to make it much more easier for the reader to understand their thoughts. The cannibals are mythological to many people around the world because of how taboo their practices are. Tom even says “many sensible and well-informed people will not believe that any cannibals exist; and place every book of voyages which purports to give any account of them, on the same shelf with Blue Beard and Jack the Giant-killer” (Melville 246). The allusions to fables and folktales highlights the bizarre nature that an organized group of people would indulge in the act of eating one of their own species.