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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How comfortable is the hut the sailors build?

2. How long has it been since the narrator saw land, when the book opens?

3. Where does the captain tell the sailors to stay near?

4. Since what year had the island of Nukuheva been known to the Americans, at the outset of the book?

5. How does Tommo get around the Typee village?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who comes to see the sailors on their first morning in the Typee village?

2. What does Tommo see as his ship comes into Nukuheva bay?

3. What signs of civilization do Toby and Tommo see from the mountains?

4. Describe Toby and Tommo's progress through the ravine.

5. How does Tommo feel about his time on the Dolly?

6. What communication do Toby and Tommo exchange with the natives?

7. What do Toby and Tommo do when they can no longer descend the cliff by using vines and foot holds?

8. What kind of routine does Tommo enter into with Kory-Kory?

9. What happens to Tommo's health as he and Toby make their way around in the mountains?

10. What is Kory-Kory's relationship with Tommo like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is "Typee" plotted, i.e. what questions or tensions are raised in the beginning to keep your interest, and how are the questions either resolved, or how do they change into other questions as the book proceeds? What are the predominant issues the book seems to be trying to resolve, and how does the book ultimately resolve them? Are new issues introduced? Are some issues left unresolved? How is resolution achieved, where there is resolution?

Essay Topic 2

Cannibalism is a major threat in "Typee", but it is not much in evidence. Do the instances of supposed cannibalism live up to the threatening rhetoric about cannibalistic practices, or is cannibalism largely a red herring, an ultimately meaningless and unthreatening idea in the economy of the novel? How does the significance of cannibalism change throughout "Typee"?

Essay Topic 3

Tommo's leg is swollen and a hindrance almost from the start of his narrative. What effect does this injury/illness have on Tommo's experience, what influence does it have on the novel and what does the illness/injury represent as a metaphor or symbol in the symbolic economy of the novel? Is it contrasted with instances of vitality and freedom of movement? Is injury or illness particular to Tommo as a white person?

(see the answer keys)

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