Tommo and the Utopian Typees
Throughout Typee, I encounter again and again this theme of a Utopian society that is the Typee village. Once Tommo is out of his state of depression, he starts to appreciate the quality of the island and its people. Tommo starts to grow a great fondness towards this society, which I felt alongside him, and as the reader I wanted to stay in the Typee village as much as Tommo did. When Tommo starts discussing the topic on how there is no money, no need to fight for food and how each and every citizen respects one another, it is this dream like status that feels impossible to achieve in America or the world today. Melville’s book almost tries to convince me of this wonderful society that seems to have no problems until you hit the end, where Tommo finds the dead corpse and this Utopian society shatters right then and there for Tommo. Even in this perfect society, there was this hidden horror that destroyed the fantasy. But even while experiencing this society through Tommo’s eyes, I couldn’t shake off this feeling of unease, especially after not hearing about Toby for weeks on end. In the back of my mind, the suspicion never felt like it went away, it always felt like the village was hiding a dark secret, which ended up being cannibalism.
As mentioned in class Typee seems very similar to books such as The Giver and Never Let Me Go in its utopian themes that then turn into dystopian themes. All is well in the beginning, while ignorance is bliss, but once you become aware of reality the “perfect” society is shattered and changed forever. I think books like these seem to portray that no matter how perfect something or some place may seem there is always flaw, so pick your poison.
As I was reading Typee, I also felt like there was several instances where the native culture seemed almost too perfect, or too Utopian. I became very suspicious after Toby left because I suspected that the the Typees ate him; initially I did not perceive the Typees to be cannibals, but the idea popped into my head when I read about how they ate raw fish. If they could eat raw fish, then eating people isn’t far from comprehension. You claim that Tommo begins to grow a great fondness towards the Typees and that you, as the reader, wanted to stay in the Typee village as much as Tommo did. However, I feel like Tommo did not entirely want to stay in the village on his own accord. There were several instances in which he felt like he was trapped and any demonstration of resistance would be futile and so he became complacent and decided to not rebel. As a reader though, I never felt like I belonged with the Typee people and always had the impression that Tommo should have tried to run away sooner.
I think that Tommo felt that same uneasiness within the Typee valley that many of us did while reading Melville’s story. Even though he was able to adopt some of their customs and, to an extent, immerse himself in their culture, I never got the feeling that he truly felt safe within their presence. One frigid afternoon, we discussed if we would prefer to live in the supposed paradise that is the Typee or our current wintry home. Even with our current conditions, I would never be able to happily stay in the Typee because I would never fully feel safe. The cultural barrier between Tommo and the Typee seems far too impermeable to be torn down and replaced by one of trust and understanding. I think his fear and lack of trust were driving forces in Tommo’s desire to return home.
The idea of a utopia is one to be found entirely is fantasy, and so the utopian qualities described by Tommo are entirely too good to be true throughout the novel, and in fact it says something I believe about his mindset. Tommo is actively seeking out the best and the most notable aspects of the Typee that are seemingly better from Western culture so that he can find some kind of rationalization for leaving Western society to become a part of this new group. He wants them to be great and perfect, and he is willing to blind himself along the way until the truth hits him too hard to be avoided. In this way, the sheer perfect nature of the Typee society is a giveaway that something terrible is going to happen or be revealed later, as it would both be boring for the novel to not have any major twist on that front as well as little more than an adult fairy tale that does not really grant the level of social commentary that Typee otherwise grants.