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Essay Topic 1

Describe the relationships between society and nature in the novel. What different uses does nature have to the whites? To the natives? Do the whites and natives have different relationships with the natural world? How does Melville characterize the different perspectives?

Essay Topic 2

What is Melville's relationship with his narrator? Are we as readers limited to the narrator's perspective, or does the author give us other perspectives, including his own (authorial) perspective? Describe the different lenses through which we see the action in "Typee".

Essay Topic 3

In what ways is "Typee" an outgrowth of Melville's own experience? Research Melville's biography, and compare and contrast his shipboard experience with the experience he describes in "Typee".

Essay Topic 4

What barriers do Tommo and the Typees put up between themselves to preserve the difference between each other's cultures? How does Tommo remain a white man? How does he become...

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