Character Analysis
Local Servant Guide
While Toby is introduced as the BFF in this adventure tale, Kory-Kory is the one who's there for all of the action once Tommo descends into the Valley. The king chief, Mehevi, beckons Kory-Kory when the sailors first arrive, and "pointed him out to me as a man whose peculiar business thenceforth would be to attend upon my person" (11.18).
Indeed, Kory-Kory sleeps beside our hero and gets him anything he needs, from a boat for the lake, to poee-poee porridge, to a nighttime calabash-full of water. When Tommo's leg renders him immobile, Kory-Kory "like a porter in readiness to shoulder a trunk, with loud vociferations and a superabundance of gestures, gave me to understand that I was to mount upon his back" (12.3). We suspect it may in part be Kory-Kory's willingness to serve that keeps Tommo from realizing just how captive he really is. Is the valley simply a prison that feels like a resort? (How about these resorts that just used to be jails?)
As Tommo's time in the valley continues, especially as his leg heals and he becomes more mobile, Kory-Kory's role shifts. When Tommo wants to boat around with pretty Fayaway in the lake, this "completely horrified Kory-Kory's notions of propriety. He inveighed against it, as something too monstrous to be thought of" (18.5). Later, when Tommo becomes suspicious that a cannibalistic festival is happening over at the Ti and suggests they head over, "[Kory-Kory] positively refused" (32.24). Is Kory-Kory's first loyalty to the Typee, no matter what?
Man-As-Ethnographic-Text
Always at Tommo's side, Kory-Kory is also the first to be observed, and in this way becomes our nearest example of the Typee culture. Tommo describes his tattoos, which "embellish his face with three broad longitudinal stripes of tattooing [...] like those country roads that go straight forward in defiance of all obstacles" (11.28).
Too, he teaches Tommo directly, "observing that my curiosity remained unabated, resolved to make everything plain and satisfactory" (22.13). They walk through the woods together, as Tommo points out sacred objects and tries to mime their meaning.
Home Body
Perhaps none is more revealing to Tommo's essential nature than when he discusses the idea of Heaven: "A very pleasant place,' Kory-Kory said it was; 'but after all, not much pleasanter, he thought, than Typee" (24.11). This satisfaction mirrors those of his brethren. Unlike Tommo, the Typee are a people anchored by the home and valley, happy to live in it as long as they may, without leaving.