Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

“To be sure, in one of their efforts at reform they had slaughtered about a hundred and fifty of them at Whitihoo.”

From the opening chapter, Tommo balances the supposed brutality of the Polynesian people with the documented brutality of European colonizers. The French tried to “reform” the people of Nukuheva and, in doing so, slaughtered 150 people. However, Europeans view this form of violent colonialism as permissible, while condemning other cultures’ violent practices. Tommo considers the Europeans hypocrites.

“Unsophisticated and confiding, they are easily led into every vice, and humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted upon them by their European civilizers.”

Tommo criticizes the corrupting effect of European colonizers on the local people of the Polynesian Islands. However, he cannot help but take the same moral perspective. He views the locals as having been corrupted, disregarding their own views of sex, sin, and shame, and denies them any agency over their actions or morals, insisting that they adhere to his moral code rather than their own.

“How often is the term ‘savages’ incorrectly applied!”

Tommo demonstrates his willingness to break from typical Western thought regarding the Polynesian peoples. Many Westerners think of these people as “savages,” so they consider it almost an obligation to colonize and rule over them. In a blunt, direct statement, emphasized with an exclamation mark, Tommo insists that such labels are incorrectly applied. He signals to readers, even this early in the book, that his goal is to dispel the harmful myths about these people that Europeans use to justify colonialism.