Typee

Melville’s first work, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, was originally published in 1846. The story follows the journey of Tommo, an American sailor who jumps ship near the Marquesas, wanders onto an island, and lives with the native Taipi tribe for nearly four months. The book’s genre has always been a question – is it a novel? is it a travelogue? a work of opinion? The best way to look at Typee is as a collection of all three: it holds elements of fiction, travel narrative, and expository descriptions of the islands and its natives. Drawing from each genre creates a strong environmental tone in the work as a whole, the most important of which is the common theme of the beauty of raw habitats. In other words, Melville is amazed at how gorgeous and peaceful places are before they are infected by Western civilization – before modern society wrecks their natural beauty.

Tommo’s journey takes him to the Marquesas, a group of islands isolated in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Typee's Location

During the 1800s, these islands had barely been touched by explorers: occasionally whaling ships would anchor nearby and send men inland to examine the terrain and natives. Thus, only a few accounts existed regarding life on these plots of land. In other words, the Marquesas were for the most part completely untouched by Western civilization when Melville’s (Tommo’s) story came out.

Thus, the story is set for exposure to a new world – one without Western intervention – and possibly to dispose of existing stereotypes

"Thrice happy are they who, inhabiting some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the ocean, have never been brought into contaminating contact with the white man" (15).

that Western culture created on the basis of minimal exposure to this area. The few accounts of sailors that traveled in these islands primarily labeled the natives as “savages” and “cannibals,” describing their primitive lifestyles as far inferior to Western civilization and familiar ways of life. As Amber Brown States in her analysis of ecocriticism in Typee:

Melville’s geographic location or setting – far removed from Western civilization – allows him to reflect on the ‘wild’ landscapes and the natural history of the Marquesas…as well as providing him an opportunity to discuss the idiosyncrasies of his own culture in contrast to the natives’ more primitive culture. (Brown 13)

In other words, Melville took this opportunity to comment on the existing notions about the Marquesas, the people living there, and the terrain they live on. From an ecocentric point of view, it is clear that his comments show that he is amazed at how beautiful and pure the Marquesas and its people are because they have not been contaminated by the lifestyle of the polluting, disregarding white man.

Beauty of Raw Nature

Melville takes numerous opportunities to point out how beautiful the “wild” is: raw and unexposed to “civilized” life, it exists in a natural setting that is lush and thriving. It can be hard to understand the concept of completely wild nature, for it is impossible to imagine a place that nobody has ever seen. Mankind normally associates nature with areas that it has already come in contact with. Brown takes the same viewpoint, saying that “Typee’s exotic setting provides readers a way to escape from familiar social constructions and ordinary obligations into a distant land,” allowing fantasy and imagination to take over the world as they know it (13). Melville’s elaborate descriptions of the Taipi tribe and their islands make it “fascinating” for readers who are “bereft of travel experiences abroad, especially an exotic abroad” (Brown 13).

Yet this is all part of Melville’s environmental vision. He wants readers to imagine a place that is pure, a place that is natural…a place that has not been touched by the society they live in that disregards the needs of the Earth. Quite bluntly, he states: “Thrice happy are they who,

inhabiting some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the ocean, have never been brought into contaminating contact with the white man” (Typee 15). The Taipi are happier than the “civilized” man because their society has not ruined the place that they live.

Untouched = Good

"I am half inclined to believe that its inhabitants hold their broad valleys in fee simple from Nature herself" (201)

Okay, so we get it. The island that Typee takes place on has barely been touched by Western civilization. But why is this environmental? The answer is quite simple: Melville asserts that this untouched place is exponentially better than the polluted land that the “civilized” man has already ruined. In fact the isolated Taipi appear to almost be one with Nature, contributing to their peaceful existence. In Chapter 27, “The social Condition and general Character of the Typees,” Melville comments on his observations on the Taipi’s concept of property (or lack thereof):

So much for the respect in which “personal property" is held in Typee…whether the land of the valley was the joint property of its inhabitants, or whether it was parceled out among a certain number of landed

proprietors who allowed everybody to “squat” and “poach” as much as he or she pleased, I never could ascertain. At any rate, musty parchments and title deeds there were none on the island; and I am half inclined to believe that its inhabitants hold their broad valleys in fee simple from Nature herself; to have and to hold, so long as grass grows and water runs; or until their French visitors…shall appropriate them to their own benefit and behoof. (Typee 201-202).

The Taipi consider Nature to be the ultimate owner of the land they live on. There are no official property agreements dished out in their society, for they borrow from the land where they see fitting. This all goes to facilitate a peaceful lifestyle where the natives recognize the power and fruits of the Earth – which Melville then contrasts to the disregarding French explorers who come and brashly “appropriate” these lands for their own gain. To return to an earlier quote, Melville indeed believes that those who have not been touched by Westerners (such as these “French visitors”) are happier because they are free from the white man’s consuming, destructive mentality that consequently harms the Earth.

NEXT: REDBURN

Images from top to bottom:

- 1996 Penguin Edition of Typee (cited here) http://www.longitudebooks.com/find/p/1108/mcms.html

- Aerial shot of the Marquesas Islands http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i218/starreagle/marquesas-islands.jpg

- Sketch of a Taipi tribesman http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28656/28656-h/28656-h.html

- Landfill: the result of Western civilization http://www.triplepundit.com/special/setting-the-standard/zero-waste-landfill-gets-certified/