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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. What technical knowledge of Tommo's do the Typees express interest in?

2. What does Kory-Kory bring to Tommo to add variety to his diet?

3. What is a synonym for taboo?

4. What does Tommo say is the Typees' one outlet for aggression?

5. How does Tommo describe the activity before sleep?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the practice of taboos among the Typees.

2. What does Tommo say about the natives' musical arts?

3. How does Tommo describe the Typees' feelings about war?

4. How does Tommo describe the difference between men's work and women's work?

5. What does Tommo say about the native practice of tattooing?

6. What does Tommo say about the Typees as swimmers?

7. Describe the mausoleum Tommo sees.

8. How does Tommo entertain the Typee children?

9. How does Tommo compare the Typees to white people?

10. How do the Typees harvest coconuts, in Tommo's account?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Is Tommo's relationship with Fayaway a marriage? In what ways is it? In what ways is it not? Does Tommo consider himself married? Do you? Why?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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