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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. Why are the naked old women jumping up and down during the feast?

2. Where is there an ancient, Stonehenge-like site?

3. Where does Kory-Kory tell Tommo the chief in the mausoleum is going?

4. What is Tommo disgusted by in how the Typees eat fish?

5. Taboos make people off-limits from others and what else?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tommo entertain the Typee children?

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

3. Describe Tommo's relationship with the women of Typee.

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

5. What does Tommo say about the natives' fishing expedition?

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

7. Describe the mausoleum Tommo sees.

8. What technology of Tommo's impresses the Typees?

9. Describe a typical day for Tommo.

10. Describe the practice of taboos among the Typees.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the idea of the taboo apply to "Typee"? What characters or things are taboo, and what does the taboo mean in each case? Are taboos violated? Are exceptions made? What is Tommo's relationship with the Typee taboos? Is he initiated into any of them or is he kept apart from them?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

What is the function of technology in "Typee"? What does it mean to Tommo, and what does it mean to the Typees? Tommo admires the Typees' technology-free lifestyle, but he does not particularly benefit by western technology, or medical knowledge. How do the Typees relate to technology? What about their ancient predecessors, who made the Stonehenge-like structures? Does the significance of technology change over the course of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 804 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample