Character Analysis
Marheyo, patriarch of Tommo's Typee household, seems at all turns generous—a kind of father type for our hero in the way that Kory-Kory is a brother-servant surrogate, or Fayaway his camp GF. Tommo observes that Marheyo "appeared to have retired from all active participation in the affairs of the valley" (11.30) and he spends his days as he likes, even rising early to head "to the sea-shore by the break of day, for the purpose of collecting various species of rare sea-weed" (15.2) just so that he can prepare Tommo a seaweed salad. (In the mood for a seaweed salad of your own, now?)
Marheyo is a good minor foil for Mehevi. By description, they seem to be about the same age, but while Mehevi is more or less in charge of the people of the valley, heading up festivals and battles alike, Marheyo is a gentler version of aging Typee masculinity. What can these two examples tell us about the Typee value system?
Lastly, Regarding the Hut Across the Way
A few times throughout the novel, Tommo mentions Marheyo and "the little hut he was forever building." It seems likely that the hut was being built for Tommo himself, but what do you think?