How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I at once made up my mind to leave her: to be sure it was rather an inglorious thing to steal away privily from those at whose hands I had received wrongs and outrages but how was such a course to be avoided when it was the only alternative left me? (4.15)
That's one way to put it, Tommo. Is quitting a job the same as breaking out of jail?
Quote #2
I now deliberately turned over in my mind every plan to escape that suggested itself, being determined to act with all possible prudence in an attempt where failure would be attended with so many disagreeable consequences. (5.1)
It's interesting—from a structural sense—that Tommo begins and ends the book with an escape plan, neither of which go precisely as expected.
Quote #3
I straightway fell to picturing myself seated beneath a cocoanut tree on the brow of the mountain, with a cluster of plantains within easy reach, criticizing her nautical evolutions as she was working her way out of the harbour. (5.4)
Tommo's most intense fantasies have to do with chilling out. Yeah…we totally understand.
Quote #4
I was aware that he entertained a cordial detestation of the ship, and believed that, should a fair chance of escape present itself, he would embrace it willingly. (5.12)
Part of confinement can be a limitation of communication. On the ship, Toby and Tommo can't really talk freely, and ditto in the valley. They're constantly having to whisper and scheme. It really makes you appreciate "freedom of speech"—just being able to talk, and be understood, in your everyday life.
Quote #5
But it will be no use talking to you, for go you will, that I see plainly; so all I have to say is, that you need not blame me if the islanders make a meal of you. You may stand some chance of escaping them though, if you keep close about the French encampment—and are back to the ship again before sunset. (6.2)
Fearmongering is a common instrument of control and confinement. (Don't take our word for it, though.)
Quote #6
For my own part, I scarcely knew whether I was helplessly falling from the heights above, or whether the fearful rapidity with which I descended was an act of my own volition. (8.15)
This really interestingly mirrors Tommo's first few weeks of captivity with the Typee. He's meaning to stay there, until he isn't.
Quote #7
Might it not be that beneath these fair appearances the islanders covered some perfidious design, and that their friendly reception of us might only precede some horrible catastrophe? How strongly did these forebodings spring up in my mind as I lay restlessly upon a couch of mats surrounded by the dimly revealed forms of those whom I so greatly dreaded! (11.1)
There's those exclamations again! Tommo's confinement is starting to sink in here.
Quote #8
So much for the exterior; which, with its wire-like reed-twisted sides, not a little reminded me of an immense aviary. (11.22)
Tommo sees himself as a bird stuck in a cage (aviary). Is it as bad as all that?
Quote #9
I was too familiar with the fickle disposition of savages not to feel anxious to withdraw from the valley. (13.4)
Do you think Tommo would have been in such a hurry to leave had he not heard rumors of cannibalism? Might he have stayed in the valley, never knowing that anyone would prevent him from doing so?
Quote #10
I had grown familiar with the narrow limits to which my wandering had been confined; and I began bitterly to feel the state of captivity in which I was held. (32.1)
That "began" is so noteworthy. It really was something of a tropical vacation until Kory-Kory started herding him back from the edges.