ENG 304: Melville & Ellison

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…

While discussing in class Herman Melville’s Typee, I began pondering how Melville distinguishes the “savage” from the “civilized”. We see Tommo’s character develop as he transitions from his suspicious belief…

During class on Wednesday, we discussed our reception of Tommo as the main character in Herman Melville’s Typee. As readers, we are able to sympathize with Tommo’s unfortunate situation as…

This is the blog space for English 304: Melville & Ellison at Lafayette College (spring 2015). We will reflect on readings and class discussions in this space, and we’ll also…