Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

Tommo spots fellow sailor Toby on the deck of the Dolly. According to Tommo, Toby is notably different from everyone else on the ship. When he observes Toby staring wistfully from the deck, in a moment of inspiration he invites Toby to join him on his adventure. This invitation is a big risk: Had Tommo misjudged Toby’s character, Toby might have reported him to the captain, and the captain might have punished him for his desire to break his contract. Luckily for Tommo, Toby wants to get off the ship just as much as Tommo does. Although they have the same goal, they are very different. Tommo is eloquent and sociable, as evident in his quick integration into the Typee culture and his narration of the story. By contrast, Toby is withdrawn and sarcastic. He is less willing to leave his cultural preconceptions behind, such as when he accuses the Typees of trying to serve him human meat, even though Tommo assures him that the meat is actually pork. For Toby, the Typee community is a place to hide while waiting for the Dolly to leave. For Tommo, the Typee community briefly becomes home. In this respect, Toby is a natural foil for Tommo, acting as the last remnant of Western culture that he relinquishes as he integrates into the Typee culture.

Toby’s mistrust continues to fester within him. When he tries to return to the bay, he is attacked by the Happars and brought back to the village by the Typees. Although the Typees save him and provide him with a home, he never comes to trust them and is unwilling to learn about their culture. He learns relatively little of the language in contrast to Tommo and is not as tightly integrated into the community. When Toby is tricked into leaving the island aboard the Australian whaling vessel, the Typees are less bothered than when Tommo tries to leave. Tommo, who is sincerely interested in their culture, is worth more to them than Toby, who is never interested in viewing them as anything but brutal savages. Toby is similar to Tommo in the way that he rejects life aboard the Dolly, but he juxtaposes Tommo among the Typees, since Toby is unwilling to abandon the prejudices that Tommo leaves behind to learn more about the Typees.

Of all the Typee men that Tommo meets during his stay in the community, Mehevi emerges as the supreme chief. He is the community’s figurehead, though Tommo notes that the rigors and structures of power are not as formalized or as important as in other societies. Mehevi is the leader but has no real institution through which he implements his power. He is just a man, though he stands apart for his charisma, his status, and his standing in the community. To Tommo, he represents the foremost example of a noble Typee figurehead. In this respect, Tommo displays contemporary colonial ideas involving race. The concept of the noble savage derives from the work of French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who posited that people who live in and among nature are superior to those who live in urban or semi-urban spaces. The Typees fit Rosseau’s description of noble savages, and Tommo’s depiction of Mehevi exemplifies this flawed colonial idea.

Tommo describes Mehevi as handsome, tattooed, refined, and dressed in a motley of boar tusks. In contrast to the Europeans’ descriptions of the Typees, Mehevi is not violent. The only times when he (or any Typee) shows anger or violence is when they come into contact with the Happars and when Tommo tries to escape. Tommo fears Mehevi’s quiet, dignified command, which is why he hides his plans to escape from him. While most Europeans are quick to dismiss Mehevi and the Typees as unthinking brutes, Tommo’s depiction is more akin to Rosseau’s noble savage, in which Mehevi’s closeness to nature imbues him with a nobility and grace that are out of reach for Europeans.