SOURCE: “The Presence of Death in Typee,” Melville Society Extracts, No. 58, May, 1984, pp. 15-16.

Below, Leonard examines Tommo's attitude toward the Typees in Melville's Typee, noting that his escape from Typee Valley signals his coming to terms with the reality of death.

During the course of Tommo's stay in the Typee Valley, the problematical reality of death seems to intrude scarcely at all into the consciousness of the savages. When Tommo encounters the effigy of a dead chief “paddling his way to the realms of bliss, and bread-fruit,” he relates a native companion's reaction: “‘A very pleasant place,’ Kory-Kory said it was; ‘but after all, not much pleasanter, he thought, than Typee.’ ‘Did he not then,’ I asked him, ‘wish to accompany the warrior?’ ‘Oh, no: he was very happy where he was; but supposed that some time or other he would go in his own canoe.’”¹ For...