ENG 304: Melville & Ellison

Much like in Typee, race is a central theme in Benito Cereno. Delano, much like Tommo does not outwardly hate other races. He is more of a benign racist. He…

In class a lot of people criticized Delano for being so blind to events that were taking place before him. And in class I too agreed that he did seem…

In class we discussed Delano’s trust in others, and how he may trust people a little too much. From the very beginning of the story, we are told through the…

After completing Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, many of the reader’s questions and suspicions are finally resolved in the last few pages of this short yet compelling story. There is…

At several points in Melville’s Typee Tommo either makes note of Western impacts on the native peoples or changes their customs himself.  This is perhaps most noticeable when he asks to…

Tommo spends much of Typee criticizing the harsh reality of nineteenth century western culture and tradition. He sees the strife-free and egalitarian society of the Typees as on par, or…

In Typee, much is made to the idea of the noble savage in the observation of the island locals in how the main character views and discusses them. To him,…

During our discussions of Typee, Western perceptions and culture take a prominent role in Tommo’s description of the events. The first information about the natives that we hear in the…

In class discussion, we touched the topic of ignorance.  It is safe to assume that Tommo enjoyed the luxury of his days spent with the Typee tribe enough to ignore the…

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…