Typee: A Glimpse of Polynesian Life is both a compelling deluded story and a concerted effort to temper the imperialist mindset of its readers. Indeed, Typee is a narrative that also serves as a manifesto, a collection of Melville's autobiographical observations that are intended to arouse attitudes against colonialism. “Colonialism,” however, is a broad topic, and Melville could have constructed an argument against its rudiments in many different ways. In Typee, Melville manages to write a novel against colonialism without writing a novel about colonialism, without ever shirking his responsibilities as a narrator. Certainly there are moments in the text where anti-imperialist arguments – although never identified as such – are addressed directly by the narrator. The majority of the narrative, however, employs anti-imperial rhetoric at much more subtle levels, involving the intersection of numerous themes and ideas. Perhaps because of these complications, Typee is also a problematic text, as Melville often uses ideas that are at odds with his anti-colonialist intent. Indeed, I argue that Melville ultimately fails in his attempts to edify his readers, as Typee's criticisms end up serving the very assumptions they are intended to challenge. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Much of Melville's anti-imperial rhetoric comes in the form of criticisms of European-American civilization. In the chapter entitled “Contrast Between Civilized Life and Savage Life,” Tommo says: In a primitive state of society, the enjoyments of life, though few and simple, are scattered on a large scale and are pure; but Civilization, for every advantage it confers, keeps in reserve a hundred evils: the ardors of the heart, the jealousies, the social rivalries, the family dissensions and the thousand self-inflicted inconveniences of refined life, which make up in unity the aggregate swelling of human misery, they are unknown to these unsophisticated people. (124-5) Tommo, essentially, believes that Typee culture is valuable because, in his eyes, it is free of the irritations of “refined life.” The primitivism of the Typees is a blessing; the pleasures and otherwise positive aspects of Typee life are due to not having to deal with the inconveniences of civilization, to freedom from the self-inflicted sufferings of modern-era civilization. “For many of them,” says Tommo, “life is nothing more than an often interrupted and luxurious nap” (152). The central problem with these arguments, however, is that they are not arguments for Native peoples but, rather, they are arguments against European-American society. Melville professes the value of Typee culture for what it is not: it is not a culture of capitalism, nor is it a European culture. This is why the “exotic” places of the world are imaginative and exotic primarily to the American or European heart; it is the ironic dream of the civilized person to live an opposite life. The Typees do not work (in the capitalist sense), nor do they care about “mortgages” or “unreasonable tailors and shoemakers” (126). But this evaluation of a native culture for what it lacks is a futile effort and only serves to reinforce notions of European superiority. Indeed, Tommo's words are symptomatic of imperialist thinking, which fosters a kind of smug self-deprecation that seeks to deny (or veil) one's belief in advanced technologies and conveniences that guarantee superiority by mentioning the gross aspects of those things; Typees may not appreciate the comfort of down mattresses, but oh, aren't they lucky they don't have to worry about making their bed! The attempt toMelville to demonstrate the value of a culture because it lacks the inconveniences of a life full of capitalistically prudent comforts is, as a means of defending a people from colonization, useless and superficial. In fact, imperialist forces often justify their actions with such a notion; Wouldn't it make sense for us to bring modern conveniences to a people who are unaware of their suffering? Melville also attempts to subvert his readers' ethnocentric preconceptions about the inferiority of native peoples. While residing in a Typee dwelling, Tommo says: Marheyo was a very paternal and kind-hearted fellow, and in this particular he resembled his son Kory-Kory not a little. The latter's mother was the mistress of the family, a notable housewife and a very industrious old lady. If she did not understand the art of making jellies, jams, custards, pastries and the like, she was deeply versed in the mysteries of making 'amar', 'poee-poee' and 'kokoo'. …] bustling around the house like a country housewife. (84)Tommo witnesses paternalism among the Typee people; The father has an affectionate nature and the “mother” of the family takes care of the household operations in much the same way, apparently, as an American breadwinner. He is also skilled in the Typee equivalent of home cooking. Melville attempts to invoke the shared humanity between the Typees and his readers, painting a picture of family and domesticity familiar to his audience. In essence, he seeks to humanize the Typee, alleviating the alien aspects of Typee existence for his civilized readers. Unfortunately, Melville's efforts to demonstrate the depth of Typee humanity continually prove to be in conflict with colonial imperatives that require the display of the native's inferiority. Tommo's account of his experiences on the island possesses an observational authority inexorably granted to him by his outsider status. Evaluations and analyzes of an alien culture involve simplicity, and Tommo's observations are in step with colonial requirements that necessitate singular, one-dimensional native peoples. Tommo, for example, repeatedly has a habit of denying a history to the Typee people. He says: “Nothing can be more uniform and undiversified than the life of the Typees; […] and for these rude savages the story of a day is the story of a life” (149). This is a direct denial of the validity of the Typees as a society, representing their daily existence as mundane despite revelations that there are often days of celebration, as well as times of war and mourning. Even when Melville attempts to recount the beauty of the Typee natives, he does so with an ethnocentric eye and employs imperialist language. The islanders are beautiful because of the “European cast of their features” and their faces present a “classically handsome” profile (184). This, of course, is symptomatic of the quintessence of the Eurocentric vision of the world (the vision that primarily labels North America "West" and Asia "East"), a vision in which even physical characteristics are subject to tastes and preferences. European criticism. , and Melville's attempt to justify his admiration for the Typees only serves to reinforce European norms. Likewise, Melville also undermines his message by making use of some symbols of his civilization's supposed superiority. Consider the description of the warrior Marheyo putting Tommo's rotten shoes around his neck: I immediately understood his desires and very generously gave him the shoes, which had become rather moldy, wondering what earthly purpose he might want them for. The same afternoon I saw the venerable warrior approaching the house, with a slow and stately gait, earrings in his ears and spear in his hand, with this pair of highly ornamental shoes suspended around his neck witha strip of bark, and swinging backwards and forwards on his capacious chest. (146)In this passage the narrator takes on a decidedly arrogant tone, as he emphasizes the warrior's joy at such a banal artifact. Marheyo's status as a respected warrior, evident from the pointed phrases "venerable" and "majestic", is mocked, and he is portrayed as a fool, strutting proudly in his new adornments. The humor of the situation belongs entirely to the reader, however, with the wild man as the butt of a joke he would find disconcerting. More importantly, this scene points to the continued portrayal of the Typee natives as having childlike behavior. But Melville portrays the Typees as childish not because they maintain a level of civility free from the aforementioned jealousies and evils of civilization (for children are often depicted in literature and popular culture as free from the prejudices that adults often harbor), but because they . I don't know better. They are childish in the sense that they lack the essential enlightenment of civilization that informs one to dispose of moldy shoes or to feel embarrassed if caught wearing them. Melville's self-serving portrayal of the Typees only reinforces the naïve native's imperial assumption that they lack some essential Melville civilization before one can be considered a person. Ultimately, it is a strengthening of the paternalistic mentality which, due to a colonial presence, could rationalize the administration of the native populations. Perhaps the most damaging problem with Typee is that of Melville's concern with cannibalism. Tommo begins by mentioning his fears that the natives might be cannibals at first sight of the islands, and his perception of their status as cannibals evolves over the course of the narrative. He eventually discovers, hidden in Marheyo's house, severed human heads and limbs, including the head of a white man, and takes this as final proof of their cannibalism: Despite the efforts of Marheyo and Kory-Kory to restrain me, I made my way by force. in the middle of the circle, and I just glimpsed three human heads [...] It was clear that I had seen the last relic of some unfortunate man, who must have been massacred on the beach by the savages, [...] It was I was destined to die like him, like him , perhaps, to be devoured, and my head to be preserved as a terrible memento of the event? (232-3)Tommo immediately assumes that the heads are "souvenirs" of cannibalism, the leftovers of a meal that began with the savage slaughter of an unsuspecting victim, and fears that cannibalism is his fate too. In the space of a few sentences, Melville nearly nullifies any benefit previously assigned to the Typee. They are no longer a remote culture worthy of admiration. Instead, the discovery of cannibalism is evidence of a primitive and savage people that Tommo expected to find in the Marquesas Islands. The benevolence shown to him by the Typees no longer counts for anything; it is mere pacification before its epilogue. Cannibalism is intended to be the definitive signifier of ferocity, representing a total refutation of civilization and order. Discovering what he believes to be evidence of cannibalism, Tommo more or less discovers the validity of his ethnocentric and colonial notions that he had always refused to surrender. Why, then, would Melville employ such a problematic element as cannibalism in a way that undermines much of his narrative? In mentioning cannibalism, the narrator wonders whether “the mere consumption of human flesh far surpasses in barbarity” the practice of public executions in England (125). In other words, the savagery of cannibalism is presented as more or less equal to the savagery and misery of “civilized” society. This constitutes a rare, 1996.