Herman Melville's Typee

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Herman Melville’s first novel, Typee is a romantic account of his time spent in the Marquesas Islands that follows Tommo and his attempt to escape a dreadful time aboard a whaling ship. What follows suit is a harrowing journey that delves into the lives of “savages” and gives its readers a glimpse into the life of the uncivilized Polynesian lifestyle. A common theme in both Melville and Tommo’s journey is the search for freedom and attempts to escape both physical and societal confinements that surround their daily lives. Tommo’s decisions are an attempt to lead him to a sense of freedom he yearns for but ends up landing him in a precarious situation that strips him of the freedoms he took for granted while also opening his eyes to certain …show more content…

Unfortunately for Tommo, this freedom he so desperately sought out was entirely too short-lived. As soon as he started to get comfortable with the stress-free lifestyle his suspicions of the innocence of the Typees crept back into his thoughts. These suspicions arose with the loss of his companion but were deeply strengthened when Marnoo, a taboo English traveller allowed to roam the island without angering either tribes, confirmed the unrealistic idea of the Typees letting Tommo leave the tribe. The sense of urgency to leaving the tribe came to a climax when he discovered the shrunken heads of three men the tribe was trying to keep hidden from Tommo. After this horrendous discovery Tommo had realized “ the full sense of [his] condition rushed upon [his] mind with a force” he has never felt before (Typee 238). The tribe that once filled him with a sense of freedom from his previous struggles came to an end and the reality of his situation came crashing in; once again he was forced to fight for his freedom from a very real and dangerous prison. At this point Tommo’s journey has come full circle, starting with him in search for an escape from his monotonous life upon a boating trip and ends with him frantically escaping the perilous Typee lifestyle. Tommo is not the only one who seeks freedom though; Melville was seeking an entirely different type of

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