Idealised Indian Image In The Novels Of Herman Melville
Keywords:
Herman Melville, idealised Indian, Native AmericansAbstract
This article examines Herman Melville’s representation of indigenous peoples—both Native Americans and Polynesians—in novels such as Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), Moby-Dick (1851), and The Confidence-Man (1857). Using literary analysis, historical context, and postcolonial theory, the study argues that Melville frequently idealises indigenous figures as noble, pure, or morally superior, yet simultaneously complicates these portrayals by highlighting colonial violence, cultural misunderstanding, and extinction. While Typee and Omoo romanticise Polynesians as uncorrupted “children of nature,” Moby-Dick and The Confidence-Man offer ambivalent portraits of Native Americans that oscillate between idealisation and critique of American expansionist ideology. Ultimately, Melville’s indigenous characters are not simply stereotypes but tools through which he critiques Western civilization, colonialism, and racial prejudice.
References
McDonnell, A. (2020). Satire, symbolism, and the “working through” of historical ghosts in The Confidence-Man. Irish Journal of American Studies, 10. https://ijas.iaas.ie/issue-10-alex-mcdonnell/
Matterson, S. (1996). Indian-hater, wild man: Melville’s Confidence-Man. Arizona Quarterly, 52(2), 21–35.
Melville, H. (1988). Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (H. Parker & H. Hayford, Eds.). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1851).
Melville, H. (1990). Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (H. Parker, Ed.). Evanston: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1846).
Melville, H. (1992). Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (M. T. Gilmore, Ed.). Evanston: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1847).
Schueller, M. J. (2003). Colonialism and Melville’s South Seas journeys. In U.S. Orientalisms: Race, Nation, and Gender in Literature, 1790–1890 (pp. 109–136). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
