Superior To European Civilization example essay topic

Melville's Typee meaning of civilization "Cities were the beginning of civilization. Since farming requires water, most of the first cities were located near rivers or some sources of water. People who lived in cities had time to concentrate on things other than food. They began inventing tools, weaving clothes, and building, teaching children to read and write, and so on. As cities grew, people chose leaders to make rules so that everyone could work together peacefully. This marked the beginning of an organized governmental system.

In short, a civilization is a group living within a designated area that makes advances in any field". (web) According to this definition of civilization, the novel Typee, written by Herman Melville, tells the story of a white sailor who escaped from his previous life to get new experiences of other cultures. It is a story of cross-cultural contact, and deals mainly with the themes of "savagery" and "civilization". The protagonist tries to find out the differences between European life and the Marquesans society, and gives the reader a small overview of his experiences with the "Typees". Mellville's Typee points out the differences and meanings of civilization through the comparisons of Western and Marquesans society, and argues that perhaps the Marquesans are the more civilized people and Westerners are the more savage ones.

First of all, Melville uses Typee as a "preface to his brief against civilization" (Anderson, Charles). Typee symbolizes the story of Melville's unsuccessful attempt to undermine European civilization by participating in another culture. First of all the reader has to understand that Melville has the opinion that European and American cultures have a negative effect on the native cultures. One of his major themes is the ruin that European influences inflict upon the native world. He always mentions throughout the text the bad influence of European missionaries, merchantmen, and colonists. They are not able to appreciate other cultures, and call them "barbaric".

He gives the reader a hint in the first chapter that the native would be better off if he remained "undiscovered". One main reason is that the colonists and merchantmen use the native girls for their sexual pleasure, and unfortunately they infect the girls with diseases that have destroyed a large part of the native population. On the other hand, the Europeans believe that the natives are cannibalistic, and they are afraid of the "savage civilization". The narrator himself is not afraid of the beliefs and myths of the Marquesas. Melville is obsessed with the thought of cannibalism, but his life on a ship with a cruel captain, no food, and the isolation on the sea makes him curious what the truth of the myth would be. "Hurry, my lads!

It's settled thing; next week we shape our course to the Marquesas! The Marquesas! What strange visions of outlandish things does the very name spirit up". (page 5) His desire to be free is growing, but even by entering Polynesian island he remains European. They arrive into the valley, and all prejudices are gone. "What furtive and anxious glances we cast into those dim-looking shades! With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed savage!" (page 67) Tommo and Toby are exhausted from the long trip, and after answering the question if the natives are "Hap pars" or "Typees" their whole point of view has changed.

Whether or not Typees are cannibals, all the terrible stories spread out by the Europeans are not true. They are friendly, hospitable, and give them food and housing. The perfection of the natural world in which the natives live is reflected here, and points out that the natives have a high quality of life. The valley is beautiful and the narrator compares it to the "gates of Paradise". It seems like a "dream looking at the blue sea, and the beautiful landscape". This description points out the comparison between the cruel conquests of the European with the beautiful "paradise" in which he is living now.

The question if the Typees are cannibals still continues. The community is not acting like a group of man-eaters. Instead, Melville enjoys his life in the valley, and throughout the whole book he argues that the native culture is superior to European civilization. Very early at the beginning of chapter four he already points out that Europeans misunderstand native culture and call it as "savage", while he actually-and he has made his own experiences- sees them civilized. "How often is the term "savages" incorrectly applied!

None really deserving of it were ever yet discovered by voyagers or by travelers. They have discovered heathens and barbarians, whom by horrible cruelties they have exasperated into savages". (page 27) The reader should appreciate the Polynesian way of life, and realize that they are superior human beings living in a more peaceful world than the Europeans. "Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass anything of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe". (page 202). Finally, after all his experiences about the Polynesian way of life, Melville points out that perhaps the Marquesas are more civilized people and Westerners are the more savage ones.

First of all, the natives treat each other kindly, respectfully, and honestly. They live in peace and harmony; they share food, and do not lie and cheat, they are not starving because of a lack of food, unlike European society where those reasons accompany war. In Europe is it often the case that half of the population is poor. If you consider the situation in Europe to that time, you even would think that the cannibals are more peaceful than the "savage" Europeans. "There were none of those thousands sources of irritation that the ingenuity of civilized man has created to mar his own felicity. There were no foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debts of honor in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakers, [...

]. That "root of all evil" was not to be found in the valley". (page 126) Melville compares life in the valley with his old life he has left behind in America or on the ship. For example, he has had no food on the ship. "No more bananas, oranges, potatoes, yams, and chickens". In the valley he has everything, and does not need to worry about those kinds of things.

Another example is that he praises the Type ean lack of money, which is already quoted in the paragraph before. Melville tries to emphasize the capitalism in his "old world" and this cold world left him almost starving as a child. The character of Mehevi plays also a special role because he portrays a "noble savage". The Europeans would designate him as "savage" because he embodies the pure native culture of the Typees. His personality is very significant, and as a leader he personifies humanism and beauty. Even Europeans classify all natives as 'barbarians"; Mehevi embodies the totally opposite.

He is not brutal, as a leader he does not need tyranny to lead the Typees. In fact, the idea of the "noble savage" is descended from the philosophy of Jean Jacque Rousseau, who thinks that people living closer to the nature are superior to people living in civilization. "Eurocentric valorization of European civilization in the critical version of the noble savage myth: "Although, in this state [civil society], he deprives himself of some advantages which he got from nature, he gains in return others so great, his faculties are so stimulated and developed, his ideas so extended, his feelings so ennobled, and his whole soul so uplifted, that, did not the abuses of this new condition often degrade him below that which he left, he would be bound to bless continually the happy moment which took him from it for ever, and, instead of a stupid and unimaginative animal, made him an intelligent being and a man" (The Social Contract, 195-196). (web) Melville himself, however, experiences at the end within a crisis, and has ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, he feels very comfortable in his new environment, but on the other hand he feels horrible by thinking of loosing one's identity as European and becoming a member of the Typee's tribe.

The obvious question therefore is why he wants to escape; if the valley is such a paradise, and the natives' civilization is even better than the European ones. One main activator is the proof that the Marquesas are cannibals. "It was not, however, alone the murder of the stranger that overcame me with gloom. I shuddered at the idea of the subsequent fate his inanimate body might have met with.

Was the same doom reserved for me?" (page 233) Tommo's skepticism increases more and more, although he has enjoyed life in the valley. He wants to be part of the Polynesian world, but the fear they might be, or- in his opinion they are- cannibals leaves him unable to be part of their culture. The narrator's unwillingness seems to be contradictory because in the whole novel he praises the superiority of the Marquesans compared to the European. Melville returns back to the idea of cannibalism, and it makes it more and more contradictory to some of his previous ideas that even the European should be the "savage" one. In fact, the narrator appears unfaithful because he forgets about the Typees friendship, begins to despise them, and declares them guilty of being cannibals. In conclusion, Melville escapes from the Western culture, using the Polynesian island to find out about the other meanings of civilization.

Melville's first impression that the Marquesans are more civilized people and society and the Westerns are the more "savage" ones becomes not relevant at the end. His desire to flee at the end is also a determined factor that he wants to get back to his "old" civilization. He is not able to live in a culture to which he does not belong. He can not identify with this kind of culture, and needs to escape from the Polynesian island.

The whole novel, however, idealizes the critique of European civilization. The Marquesas represent a civilization based on agriculture, innocent life, and embodies a peaceful culture. Epitomizing the European civilization portrays the extended capitalist world caused by the market revolution. The development of new technologies has increased, and manufacturing has become one of the most important factors because it has lead to industrialization.

Western society embodies capitalism, and war caused by the selfish society. Therefore, Melville's novel provides a powerful critique of European behavior in the South Seas and of European civilization in general.

Bibliography

Anderson, Charles Roberts. Melville in the South Seas. 1939.
New York: Dover, 1966 (web) (web) Melville, Hermann.
Typee. 1846.