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Abstract |
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Melvillefs second book, Omoo, whose meaning is a rover in the native language, depicts Tahiti and Moorea toward the mid-19th century, by which time the lands and people there had been half-civilized. He wrote the book based upon his own experiences as a rover on those islands,aiming to be a gspeaker of true thingshand convey how civilization and missions affected the Polynesians.
He delineates the moral,religious,and social conditions of the half-civilized natives,and expatiates on many a
disadvantage and a paucity of advantages the whitesfChristian civilization brought to their life.He tells us that the missionary operations and civilizing influence availed them next to nothing, or rather they are rubbing out the
nativesfculture and driving their existence as a race to extinction.
In this work in conjunction with his first book,Typee,we can clearly hear what the ex-whaler had to say about
the civilization and religion he was raised in from his international and global viewpoint.
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