Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life is an 1846 travel and adventure book by Herman Melville, repurposing Melville’s own experiences in the South Pacific Islands as a novel. Notably for the time at which it was published, Typee presents a sympathetic though Eurocentric account of the locals’ life on the island. The novel has twice been adapted as a film.

This guide is based on the Penguin Classic edition.

Content Warning: This guide discusses racist stereotypes of Indigenous people, including cannibalism.

Plot Summary

The narrator (whose name is later revealed as Tommo) recounts his experiences in the South Pacific. After six months at sea, a whaling ship named the Dolly docks in the Marquesas Islands due to a lack of food and supplies. The narrator has been aboard for several months as part of a seven-year contract but finds the seafaring life boring. He and a similarly despondent shipmate, Toby, hatch a plan to jump ship. On the island of Nukuheva, the crew goes ashore in small boats. Toby and Tommo plan to slip away while the sailors trade goods with the Indigenous people. The two hope to board the next passing European ship, one that is superior to the Dolly. Before they leave, however, they are warned that two tribes live in the valleys beyond the mountain ridge. One is the friendly Happar tribe but the other, the Typees, have a reputation for being cannibals.

Taking a small amount of food, cloth, and tobacco, Tommo and Toby climb the mountain in cold, wet conditions. Tommo incurs an injury but does not mention it to Toby. Beyond the mountain, they spot only one valley. Unsure which people live there, they wander the edge of the valley until they become desperately hungry and enter it. They encounter an Indigenous boy and girl, who lead them back to their village. Tommo and Toby try to trade with the locals, believing that they are the friendly Happars. As the mood becomes more tense, however, they use the few words they know to make their allegiance clear. Tommo gambles, praising the Typees in his stumbling phrasing of Polynesian languages. He guesses correctly, and the Typees become friendly toward him and Toby, providing food and shelter. The chief, Mehevi, appoints a man named Kory-Kory as Tommo’s servant. Tommo is immediately attracted to a woman named Fayaway.

Tommo quickly finds much to like about the Typee culture, enjoying the relaxed, nonconfrontational way of life. Kory-Kory cares for him, carrying him around and bathing him in the stream. A healer unsuccessfully tries to treat his injured leg. Although the Typee people treat them well, the two men have a lingering suspicion about the Typees’ intentions. Toby refuses to eat the pork they offer, for example, because of his fears that the Typees are cannibals.

Toby tries to return to Nukuheva to fetch medicine for Tommo’s leg but is caught in a violent altercation with the Happars. Sometime later, he tries to speak to sailors from a passing ship but never returns. Tommo worries for his own safety. Nevertheless, he becomes more integrated into the culture. He provides detailed accounts of the Typee community, its religion, and its social practices. He begins to believe that the Typees are more civilized than Europeans or Americans, despite his own cultural bias. Even the suggestions of cannibalism can be tolerated, he suggests, as European cultures have a barbaric history of their own.

Despite his fascination with the Typee way of life, Tommo cannot abandon his suspicions. He refuses the Typees’ demands that he be tattooed in the traditional style, especially when they want to tattoo his face. He must plead to be excused from the tattooing. This pressure leads to his desire to leave, which dramatically increases when he unexpectedly finds a group of Typee men examining three shrunken human heads in a house. They quickly hide the heads, and Tommo worries that one of the heads might have been Toby’s. After another altercation between the Typees and the Happars, Tommo learns that the Typees eat the bodies of the Happars whom they defeat. He resolves to escape and makes a plan with a man named Marnoo, who is permitted to walk throughout the valleys of the island. This plan fails, but Tommo finally escapes when a local from Nukuheva bargains for his safety after striking a deal with a passing Australian whaling vessel. Tommo escapes to the ship but must fight his way off the beach to do so. He passes out during the escape and, when he comes to, entertains the people aboard his new ship with stories of his three-month stay with the Typees.

The book contains two short Addendums. In an Appendix, Melville provides an exculpatory account of the voyage of George Paucet in the Hawaiian Islands. In an additional story, he recounts Toby’s difficult escape from the island, which involved his being betrayed by a local from Nukuheva.