Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette 4997 English: Capstone English Student Research 10-1-2015 Biography and Broken Barriers: Melville’s Use of Personal Experience and Social Groups to Achieve Commentary in Typee and Redburn Katelyn Quigley Marquette University This project was created for a section of ENGL 4997: Capstone devoted to the life and work of Herman Melville. Biography and Broken Barriers: Melville’s Use of Personal Experience and Social Groups to Achieve Commentary in Typee and Redburn by Katelyn Quigley Abstract: Melville’s texts continue to be relevant to a contemporary readership well over a century since original publication, as his words not only illuminate and examine nineteenth century experiences, but also present concepts and ideas that continue to be worthy of consideration by modern audiences. One such issue that is regularly addressed in Melville’s works is that of identity: of the individual, of society, and of the individual as he navigates between the fabrics of various social worlds. This paper examines Social Identity Theory and its components that both achieve identification of the individual and the aggregate in society and define boundaries between social groups. In conjunction with Social Identity Theory, this paper draws from Melville’s own background and identify parallels between his personal history and his published works. Using these elements, along with an examination of the role of setting, I analyze the protagonists of two of Melville’s texts – Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846) and Redburn (1849) – and assert that these characters and their circular journeys, which frequently stray from the social roles and identities ascribed to them, are reflections of Melville’s personal experiences and ideologies. Furthermore, I argue that the protagonists and the plots in which they function are vehicles of Melville’s social commentary for a nineteenth-century readership. Keywords: Herman Melville, Typee, Redburn, Social Identity Theory In the discussion of great American authors and literature, Herman Melville and his array of literary works are frequently noted. Melville’s texts continue to be relevant to a contemporary readership well over a century since original publication, as his words not only illuminate and examine nineteenth-century experiences, but also present concepts and ideas that continue to be worthy of consideration by modern audiences. One such issue that is regularly addressed in Melville’s works is that of identity: of the individual, of society, and of the individual as he navigates between the fabrics of various social worlds. This paper will examine Social Identity Theory and its components that both achieve identification of the individual and the aggregate in society and define boundaries between social groups. In conjunction with Social Identity Theory, this paper will draw from Melville’s own background and identify parallels between his personal history and his published works. Using these elements, along with an examination of the role of setting, I will analyze the protagonists of two of Melville’s texts – Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846), and Redburn (1849) – and assert that these characters and their circular journeys, which frequently stray from the social roles and identities ascribed to them, are reflections of Melville’s personal experiences and ideologies. Furthermore, I will argue that the protagonists and the plots in which they function are vehicles of Melville’s social commentary for a nineteenth-century readership. To better examine the texts and the identities of their protagonists, I will employ Social Identity Theory, which states that “people tend to classify themselves and others into various social categories, such as organizational membership, religious affiliation, gender, and age cohort” (Ashforth 1). This system of categorization accomplishes a dual purpose of defining both others and oneself based upon social qualities and criteria that emerge and distinguish one group of people from another; it is an avenue to define oneself, to define the environment, and to 1 define oneself as belonging to a particular aggregate of the environment. Furthermore, as a logical consequence of social identification, individuals are defined by their belongingness to an “ingroup,” a segment of society with which one strongly identifies, and their lack of belongingness to other “outgroups,” those segments with which one fails to identify (Giles 142). These groups are established and maintained through language, behavior, and the traditions of culture, aspects that present individuals with opportunities to be transient between numerous social sectors – ingroups and outgroups alike – thereby allowing a particular identity to emerge as dominant in the moment. Melville’s texts Typee and Redburn and, more specifically, the respective protagonists of Tommo and Wellingborough Redburn, present conflicts and challenges to Social Identity Theory and its aforementioned parameters. Tommo and Redburn each deviate from their ascribed social belongingness over the course of their individual experiences, identifying at varying points with the dominant ingroups, the inferior outgroups, and additional social groups that exist vaguely in between the two, thus raising questions regarding the significance of their shifting identities. Melville reinforces this quality of his protagonists by establishing settings – both physical surroundings and the nature of the characters present in these surroundings – which reiterate the conflicts and themes central to the respective texts while further revealing and developing the characters of Tommo and Redburn (“The Functions of Setting”). Melville’s careful establishment of character and setting, not coincidentally, mirrors numerous aspects of his personal life and the social and political ideologies of the society for whom he wrote. Michael Paul Rogin states in Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville (1979): 2 Melville’s fiction responds to the central historical and public issues of his time, rather than to typical, private existence. Melville was realist in his attention to a political rhetoric which, in the literary definition of that term, was itself not realist. Unlike that public language, however, Melville’s version of American history was no celebratory romance. Interpreting the political vocabulary that engendered it, his fiction reconnected the political romance to society and the psyche. (Rogin 41) Thus, the texts of Typee and Redburn can be read as fictionalized projections of Melville’s life experiences and nineteenth-century ideologies. Furthermore, the portrayal of those things contradictory to widely held popular beliefs can therefore be interpreted as Melville asserting explicit – and sometimes harsh – social commentary and critique. The use of settings that force Tommo and Redburn from the comfort and familiarity of their respective ingroups into foreign outgroups assists this criticism in the creation of cyclical journeys for the protagonists, and thus cyclical journeys for the audience as well. This further creates commentary; in subjecting Tommo and Redburn – and readers – to circular stories that leave them at the same point at which they started, Melville reminds the readership that broken social realities persist, and poses the challenge to confront and solve these social problems. Melville’s first published novel, Typee, is a travel and adventure account that draws from Melville’s own experiences to create the setting of the South Pacific island of Nukuheva. As the narrative progresses, two distinct groups begin to emerge; speaking broadly, these groups can be identified as ‘whites’ and ‘natives,’ which can be further dichotomized as colonizer and colonized, and civilized and savage, group identities that Melville subverts throughout the plot. 3 Melville achieves construction of social group identities is achieved primarily through character language and behavior, specifically through word of mouth spread by the characters; it is through the recounted stories of returned white sailors that the native Typee image and identity is created as one of “lover[s] of human flesh…the natives of all this group are irreclaimable cannibals” (Typee 24). It is therefore all the more interesting then that the language of Tommo, the protagonist of Typee, so often conflicts with the dialogue and stories he has previously encountered regarding the South Pacific natives. Not only does Tommo emerge as a character with values and perceptions of the natives and the island surroundings that are different from those of his fellow crewmates, but he also, as a narrator, positions himself as separate from his assigned group belongingness of white sailor; he “speaks of the ship or the crew, and leaves his relationship to the action out of the picture…the narration becomes completely impersonal” (Oliviero 40). Thus, Tommo’s narrative voice exempts him from assuming responsibility for the actions of his crewmates and the implications thereof, actions that Melville utilizes to subvert the assumed superior white identity and inferior native identity. Contrary to popular beliefs regarding white, Christian missionaries and native islanders, there are numerous instances in which the Typee natives instead are those characters that are civilized and welcoming, while the white sailors act in savage and violent manners. Disparities between the common perceptions of the two groups and the reality of their existence