Typee · Chapter
XXII explained
The narrator describes the preparations for a grand festival in the Typee valley, including the slaughter and cooking of hogs, the construction of a pyramid of calabashes, and the gala attire of the islanders.
What happens
The narrator describes the preparations for a grand festival in the Typee valley, including the slaughter and cooking of hogs, the construction of a pyramid of calabashes, and the gala attire of the islanders. He observes Mehevi at the Ti, learns of the feast from Kory-Kory, and finally dresses in native style to join the celebration.
Themes in this chapter
Civilization vs. Nature
The narrator contrasts the 'artless vivacity' of the Typee maidens with the 'stiffness, formality, and affectation' of Western fashion, idealizing the natural grace of the islanders.
Cultural Relativism
The narrator attempts to understand Typee customs, such as the taboo groves and the calabash monument, but admits his failure to comprehend them, highlighting the gap between cultures.
Taboo and Social Order
The Ti is strictly taboo to women, and the narrator's confusion about the taboo system underscores its role in structuring Typee society.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
Observes the festival preparations, visits Mehevi at the Ti, and dresses in native costume to join the celebration.
- Mehevi
Presides over the Ti, issues orders for the feast, and invites the narrator to attend the morrow's festivities.
- Kory-Kory
Accompanies the narrator, attempts to explain the taboo groves and the calabash monument, and helps him dress for the festival.
- Fayaway
Accompanies the narrator to the Ti but withdraws due to taboo; later appears in gala costume, adorned with flowers and white tappa.
- Marheyo
Seen preparing for the festival by arranging his hair and polishing his earrings and spear.
Key passages
“the entrails were laid aside as choice parts, and the whole carcass thoroughly washed with water. An ample thick green cloth, composed of the long thick leaves of a species of palm-tree, ingeniously tacked together with little pins of bamboo, was now spread upon the ground, in which the body being carefully rolled, it was borne to an oven previously prepared to receive it.”
The hog's entrails were saved as delicacies, the carcass was washed, wrapped in a palm-leaf cloth, and placed in a preheated earth oven.
Describes the Typee method of cooking pork in an underground oven.
“I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation, contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens.”
The narrator imagines a comparison between formally dressed English ladies and the natural, lively Typee girls, favoring the latter.
Highlights the narrator's romanticized view of the Typee as more genuine and graceful than civilized women.