허먼 멜빌의 『타이피』와 『오무』

erman Melville’s Typee and Omoo : The Awareness of Evil and Criticism against Christian Missionaries

The purpose of this study is to examine Melville’s perception about evil, seen in Typee and Omoo and his skeptic attitude toward Christianity. The beginning of Melville’s thinking about Christianity began with evil, revealed in reality. In his first work, he began to perceive evil by witnessing violence on board. Based on this perception, he began to have an doubt about the fundamental evilness through the cannibalism in the island of Typee. Moreover, Melville also criticized missionaries for the reason that they did not respect the culture of the Aborigines, and implant their culture in the land of Aborigines by putting up their religious ideas. In addition, Melville deplored the reality that missionaries who had the obligation to spread Christianity in the South Pacific became the source of evil. The devastating battles of the imperialist armies and the harmful effect of the missionaries’ missionary work for the conversion of indigenous people were skeptically seen to Melville’s eyes. In particular, the criticism against missionaries was for the misuse of Christianity as an instrument to oppress indigenous people but not for soul salvation. It can be seen that Melville considered the reality of the colonial society and the fall of missionaries as evil. It can be inferred that Melville was aware of human tragedy and the evils that existed in the human society in the image of missionaries and Christians who were descendants of Puritans. Therefore, Melville showed his doubt about Christianity through the description about the missionary activities.