Europeans call upon Christendom to "applaud their courage and justice" as they persecute the natives for merely defending themselves. This simple, human response of self-defense is seen as evidence of barbarism by the Europeans. Of course, when the natives have accommodated the Europeans and treated them in a friendly fashion, this is likewise seen as a weakness and portrayed as evidence of the people's fitness for servitude. Tom's identification with the Polynesians might seem to be unrealistic, given that he is supposed to be a simple sailor. However, Melville implies that he may be liable to be very sympathetic to the people of Typee because he has been persecuted and treated unjustly by his captain. Tom, under the influence of Polynesian life, decides to cast off his miserable existence on the Dolly and desert. In contrast to the miserable life on the ship, the native people of Typee are able to lead a life of leisure. There is plentiful game in the forest for them to hunt and they can gather most of the fruits and vegetables they need.

True, the residents of Typee do sometimes engage in cannibalism, but only of their enemies. This thirst for revenge, Tom believes, is not so different than the types of vengeance enacted by Europeans within their conventional system of law, which includes beheadings, hangings, and even drawing and quartering. At least the people of Typee, says Tom, are not bloodless and gutless when they enact justice (Melville 125). Natives have been criticized for not having any language to express virtue, but...

Then Tom comes to find the "continual happiness" to be dull, given the lack of effort the people of Typee apparently need to live (Melville 127). The greatest effort they apparently expend is in observing the complicated rules of their society. But while Tom at first paints these strictures in a humorous fashion, like the fact that women are not supposed to ever board canoes, he comes to realize that he is a prisoner of these laws, as gradually his own movements become more guarded by the natives. The omnipresence of ritual -- ritual wars, ritual taboos of separation -- govern the natives' lives, and he states that the people are "sunk in religious sloth" which inhibits free thinking (Melville 179).
Melville is careful to note that the people of Typee are not uniquely corrupt, or inferior to Westerners. Rather, his book is a caution against idealizing 'natural man' and seeing the islanders as innately superior to Europeans. The criticisms of being overly pious could also apply to the missionaries who attempted to convert them, and the Europeans have also behaved savagely. Melville is a realist and anti-Romantic. He asks his readers to see the uncivilized and narrow-minded aspects of human nature clearly, both in the South Seas and in their own backyards.

Work Cited

Melville, Herman. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. New York: Penguin Classics, 1996.