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Typee Identity. Identity Relating to Facial Versus Non-Facial Tattooing.
Through the use of descriptive language Melville is able ...
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Submitted by breadnhs99 on April 6, 2008
Category: English
Words: 1733 | Pages: 7
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Identity Relating to Facial Versus Non-Facial Tattooing.
Through the use of descriptive language Melville is able to provide the reader with a clear line between what does and does not change someone’s identity. He uses the character Tommo to describe the native Typee people. Through these accounts of the Typee people we are able to understand the relationship Tommo and Melville have with tattoos affecting ones identity. By the end of the novel, Tommo is able to completely understand what creates and maintains an identity for ones self.
When Tommo first arrives on the island he is absolutely fascinated with the tattoos on the bodies on the Typee people. He depicts the human body with such detail that it is obvious that he has an obsession with these tattoos. This obsession slowly changes over time; however, it is clearly evident that he is fascinated by the following quote from chapter eleven.
But that which was most remarkable in the appearance of the splendid islander was the elaborated tattooing displayed on every noble limb. All imaginable lines and curves and figures were delineated over his while body, and in their grotesque variety and infinite profusion I could only compare them to the crowded groupings of quaint patterns we sometimes see in costly pieces of lacework. The most simple and remarkable of all these ornaments was that which decorated the countenance of the chief crown, obliquely crossed both eyes—staining the lids—to a little below either ear, where they united with another stripe which swept in a straight line along the lips and formed the base of the triangle. (Melville 78)
By reading in to the passage closely it is evident that Melville uses many words that would imply that Tommo is in no way repulsed from the body art. Melville uses words and phrases such as splendid, grotesque, lines and curves and figures, united, noble limb, infinite profusion, costly pieces of lacework, ornaments, decorated, and swept...
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