Image from Wikimedia Commons.
by Willow Greenfield
The relationship between ‘the stranger’ and a host society is one that has fascinated readers throughout history, recurring across a variety of genres and offering unique insights into the culture of both host and guest. These relationships are represented in both Homer’s The Odyssey and Melville’s Typee, where the protagonists, Odysseus and Tommo, are received into different societies and able to observe and judge the customs before them. Despite their similar positions as outsiders, however, their experiences are vastly different, emphasizing the divide between the simplified, fictitious world of The Odyssey and the far more ambivalent fictionalized autobiography that Melville presents. For Odysseus, the successive societies he visits largely fall into two categories: ones inhabited by ‘savages’ like the Cyclopes whom he feels free to abuse and mistreat, and God-fearing, ‘civilized’ societies like that of the Phaeacians whom he treats with respect and admiration – a highly fixed and simplistic mindset that underscores his Western, colonial prejudices. Unlike The Odyssey, however, where Odysseus’ expectations of various societies are continually confirmed by his interactions with them, Typee presents a far more nuanced and complicated portrait of a civilization that cannot be reduced to a single category. Over the course of the text, Tommo oscillates between viewing the Typees as savages that must be civilized and people living in harmony with nature who exhibit profound wisdom and humanity, forcing him to grapple with his existing prejudices and ultimately develop meaningful critiques of his own society that leave him stranded between a paradise where he cannot belong and a civilization that he knows to be deeply flawed.
At the beginning of their time in Nukuheva, Tommo and Toby both share a largely simplistic and stereotypical view of the residents of Typee that closely parallels Odysseus’ attitude towards the ‘primitive and barbaric’ land of the Cyclops. Like many of their fellow sailors, Tommo and Toby initially manifest a very typical colonial view of the residents of Nukuheva, repeatedly describing their terror at “throwing [themselves] into the hands of [the] cruel savages” (Melville, 51) of Typee when they first decide to descend into the valley and making many judgements about the “heathenish rites and human sacrifices” (Melville, 5) they believe the natives perform despite having no real knowledge of their culture. This further manifests later through Tommo’s repeated mockery of their religious practices as “[appearing] merely to seek a sort of childish amusement” (Melville, 174), his sense of superiority over them for their laziness in religion, agriculture, and industry, and in his patronizing general attitude towards “the minds of these simple savages” (Melville, 144) even though he is unable to understand their language and true complexity. Here, Tommo’s unfounded confidence in his beliefs and lack of practical knowledge strongly parallels the attitude of Odysseus, who views the Cyclopes as a personification of the stereotypically indolent and violent ‘savage’. For Odysseus, the Cyclopes are “lawless brutes, who trust so to the everlasting gods they never plant with their own hands or plow the soil” (Od. 9.120-121) and people he disdains for having no ships or artisans (though this portrait leaves out the fact that they diligently tend to livestock). In a characteristically colonial manner, he also repeatedly describes how their land is “clear for plowing” and “harvest, on harvest, a man could reap a healthy stand of grain” (Od .9.147-148) – as though the Cyclopes’ lack of agriculture and other forms of civilization fill him with a desire to use the land for himself, an idea paralleled by Tommo’s own fixation on the Typees’ ‘indolence’ in cultivating their own land. This apparent lack of cultivation also seems to make Odysseus feel entitled to take what he wants from the land and its inhabitants, as even though he describes having “feasted well” (Od. 9.179) the night before, he has no scruples in entering the home of his host without permission and eating his cheeses, only refraining from making away with the host’s food and livestock in order to “[see] what gifts he’d give” (Od. 9.258). Despite his complete lack of respect towards his host, however, Odysseus describes his horror when the Cyclops does not abide by Zeus’ protection of suppliants and instead retaliates against him, and even remarks how, from the very start, he felt convinced he would be received by “a savage deaf to justice, blind to law” (Od. 9. 240) even though it was he who committed the first injustice and therefore, as Tommo at one point states, “[having] discovered heathens and barbarians…by horrible cruelties [has exasperated them] into savages” (Melville, 27). Despite these parallels in their initial attitudes, however, the Typees’ abundant kindness toward Tommo eventually begins to erode his initial prejudices – a fact aided, perhaps, by the power imbalance between Odysseus and Tommo, one of whom has the manpower and ability to harm the ‘savage’ and escape, while the other is injured and isolated and therefore forced to become more open-minded. This extended time allows Tommo to begin to develop new views on the inhabitants of the valley, while Odysseus, who leaves far more quickly, never gains a better perspective – even though, for example, he claims the Cyclopes lives in isolation from one another, when in reality his host’s neighbours come and inquire about what is happening to him when he is in peril.
As Tommo purports to spend more time in the Typee valley, his view of the inhabitants increasingly broadens and he begins to admire them for their happiness and wisdom, an attitude similar to Odysseus’ reaction to the Phaeacian civilization later in his journey. As his injury begins to heal, Tommo describes how “despite the apprehensions [he] could not dispel, the horrible character imputed to these Typees appeared to [him] wholly undeserved” (Melville, 97), and begins to view their civilization in a more generous light. In this sense, his recovery functions as a psychological symbol of his adjustment to this new way of life and even of the gradual erosion of his old, Western mindset which previously stopped him from fully appreciating the Typees and moving amongst them. In place of his previous, simplistic view of them, he begins to appreciate the bounty of wealth that they possess – ultimately coming to believe that they “[enjoy] an infinitely happier…existence… than the self-complacent European” (Melville, 124). Though he does not believe they have any of the material goods, intellectualism, or laws of his own society, they exhibit a natural virtuousness “unparalleled… in the most select, refined, and pious associations of mortals in Christendom” (Melville, 200), and live without fear of theft (Melville, 201), almost never working hard enough to “[cause] the sweat to stand upon a single brow” (Melville, 195). In these idyllic descriptions, Tommo’s perspective shifts from paralleling Odysseus’ earlier attitude towards the Cyclopes to his later description of the Phaeacians, who receive him with similar kindness to the Typees, ensuring that “[he’ll] never lack for clothing or any other gift, the right of worn out suppliants come [their] way” (Od. 6. 211-212) and eliciting his respect and admiration through the lavish splendour of their golden palace (Od. 7. 100-109), excellent crafts and seamanship, and bountiful harvests (Od. 7. 136). Here, Odysseus’ conduct is respectful and humble, and when he is challenged to physical contests in their society he even emphasizes the fact that “he’d have to be good for nothing, senseless, yes, to challenge his host and come to grips in games” (Od. 8. 240-241) – an attitude completely opposing his earlier conduct towards the Cyclops, whom he steals from and taunts, and one which once again emphasizes the colonial nature of his conduct as a guest, acting kindly towards those whom he deems ‘civilized’ while taking cruel liberties with those he doesn’t. Both of these host societies, moreover, hold strong parallels in the sense that their idyllic happiness makes them appear as though they are still in an unsullied ‘paradise’ of sorts, with the Phaeacians being notable favourites of Zeus and Tommo describing the Typees as incredibly fortunate in their limited need to work and the bounty of the land surrounding them. Interestingly, however, as both of these civilizations come into contact with the strangers, their harmonious lifestyles are ultimately threatened with ruin; despite the Phaeacians’ long history of sailing with “no fear in the world of foundering, fatal shipwreck” (Od. 8. 630-631), in transporting Odysseus back to his home of Ithaca, they anger the God Poseidon, who crushes their ship and threatens to “pile a huge mountain round about [their] port” (Od. 13. 201). In the same manner, Tommo becomes increasingly conscious of the fact that, when outsiders are introduced among natives like the Typees, “they fold to their bosom the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys” (Melville, 26) and vice, misery, and disease are quick to follow.
In spite of the idyllic world that Tommo encounters in the Typee valley, and which Odysseus encounters among the Phaeacians as well as on Circe and Calypso’s islands, neither of them are able to remain in these societies – highlighting the often insurmountable gap between the cultures of host and guest. As Tommo becomes increasingly familiar with the Typees, he not only gains a greater respect for their culture and customs, but also begins to reflect back on his own society without the lens of national prejudice. Comparing their society with his own, he no longer sees how even the worse traits of their society, such as their cannibalism, “so very far exceeds in barbarity” (Melville, 125) his own civilization’s immense cruelty in wars and manufacturing tools of mass destruction, which “are enough of themselves to distinguish the white civilized man as the most ferocious animal on the face of the Earth” (Melville, 125). Moreover, in comparing the profound happiness of the valley’s inhabitants with the misery and lawlessness which plagues his own ‘civilized’ country, he begins to wonder whether the influence of missionaries and other Western figures is one which can only cause harm, as “no sooner are the idolaters converted into nominal christians than disease, vice and premature death make their appearance” (Melville, 195) – a notion which leads him to question whether his own people are the real savages who could learn from the islanders. Despite his manifest love for this ‘happy valley,’ however, his Western identity and knowledge of the outside world make it impossible for him to regain his innocence and fully integrate into this Edenic society – an idea symbolized by the fact that, though his injured limb improves, it cannot be fully healed until he is back among his own civilization. It is also likely due to these insurmountable differences that, in spite of all the evidence he presents to the contrary, he still expresses his belief in “[letting] the savages be civilized” (Melville, 195) through Christianity and, despite the many residents who desire him to stay, chooses to escape from this paradise when he has the chance. This conduct is profoundly similar to that of Odysseus on Calypso’s island as, though he admits that Calypso treats him well and that his wife “falls far short of [her], [her] beauty, [her] stature” (Od. 5.239-240) and even her immortality, he still “[pines], all [his] days” (Od. 5.242) to return to Penelope and his home – with both Tommo and Odysseus suffering from not suffering in their respective ‘Edens’ and craving the work and chains that they are accustomed to in their own land. Thus, just like Tommo, Odysseus leaves the Phaeacians and Calypso to return to his own home, retaining the guise of a stranger upon his return to his own society to better judge and understand his circumstances without being truly seen. This is a mask, however, that he sheds upon regaining control over his kingdom – and just as his prejudices are not challenged by the societies he encounters, his attitude towards Western civilization remains the same when he becomes the ruler of Ithaca once more. For Tommo, however, this shift in perspectives is more permanent, and in telling his story to others through the Typee narrative, he positions himself as a wanderer who is able to view and judge his own society in a far more objective fashion than he would otherwise be able to, underscoring the fact that he has become an eternal stranger even in his own society whose broadened, unique perspective and distance from his old ways cannot be fully shed.
Overall, over the course of The Odyssey and Typee, the encounters between a stranger and host civilization highlight both the striking parallels between Tommo and Odysseus as Western figures as well as their ideological differences. In terms of ideology, for Odysseus, host societies exist within binary categories, either civilized or uncivilized, and his interactions with them continually confirm his existing colonial prejudices, demonstrating that he should pay respect to ‘civilized’ countries while taking freely from ‘savage’ ones, thus perpetuating a system of violence and misunderstanding against those whose cultures do not resemble his own. In contrast to this, however, Tommo’s experience presents cultural encounter as a destabilizing experience – one which reveals sophistication in what he at first believes to be a primitive society as well as savagery in his own supposedly enlightened culture, blurring the simplistic Western divides to be seen in The Odyssey and depicting cross-cultural interaction as an experience which leads to permanent self-questioning. Despite these divisions in their attitudes, however, powerful similarities also develop between them over the course of the texts, especially in their capacities as storytellers whose biased perspectives and self-serving motivations call into question the reliability of their tales. Odysseus, after all, is a famously skillful liar, and his retelling of his adventures is designed to make him appear justified in taking what he wants from ‘savage’ societies by exaggerating their barbarities and evils, an idea closely related to Tommo’s description of “old south-sea rovers” (Melville, 170) who, living near different Polynesian societies and being asked about them by strangers, “lay claim to a much greater knowledge of such matters than [they] actually [possess] … and … [knowing] just the sort of information wanted, … [furnish] it to any extent” (Melville, 170). Though Tommo attempts to distance himself from these storytellers by claiming to “speak the unvarnished truth” (Melville, 2), the discrepancies in his tale as his perspective shifts and his desire to appear more knowledgeable and convincing to readers make it clear that he, too, is exaggerating things to a certain extent for the benefit his own agenda (namely, to gain recognition for himself as an adventurer while depicting Polynesian society in a new light and perhaps bringing about change in the missionary system) – ultimately underscoring the comparability of their positions as stereotypically Western outsiders whose stories are less an objective portrait of foreign societies than a reflection of their remaining biases and individual motivations.
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Deluxe Classics ed., Penguin, 1996.
Melville, Herman. Typee. 1846. Penguin, 1996.