Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
The long, measured, dirge-like well of the Pacific came rolling along, with its surface broken by little tiny waves, sparkling in the sunshine. (2.3)
Land vs. Water: The Great & On-Going Battle
When there's a book set on an island, water is going to make an appearance. There's no two ways around it. When we first meet Tommo, he's sick of the sea, and longing for land: "Oh! for a refreshing glimpse of one blade of grass— for a snuff at the fragrance of a handful of the loamy earth!" (1.2). The ship is his prison, but once it lands at Nukuheva, Tommo is pretty darn sure he's going hit land and get a taste of sweet, sweet freedom.
Except: his adventures will exchange the meanings of "land" and "water" until all he wants is to get out from under the pretty cooling fronds of the valley and out to the sea for another chance at freedom. As Jimmy later says to Toby, when he wants to return to the settlement to find Tommo:
"Then there is no hope for you,' exclaimed the sailor, 'for if I leave you here on the beach, as soon as I am gone you will be carried back into the valley, and then neither of you will ever look upon the sea again" (Toby.34).
Water as Female
Once Tommo gives in to life in the valley (before all that nasty business about preserved heads and de-fleshed human skeletons), he finds it amazingly pleasant to bathe and swim in the Typee waters: "People may say what they will about the refreshing influences of a coldwater bath," he writes, "but commend me when in a perspiration to the shade baths of Tior, beneath the cocoanut trees, and amidst the cool delightful atmosphere which surrounds them" (4.38). And it isn't just the plant life that sets the scene, it's also the company.
Truly, the Typee-related water feels a bit female to us, probably owing to the fact that Tommo only describes the females of the tribe interacting with it. Those lovely native women "sway their floating forms, arch their necks, toss aloft their naked arms, and glide, and swim, and whirl, that it was almost too much for a quiet, sober-minded, modest young man like myself" (20.13). Don't be fooled by Tommo's embarrassment. He wouldn't go swimming if it found it truly unpleasant.
If water is women's territory, boats are men's. Notice how Tommo requests to upturn the taboo of women-in-boats, when he requests a canoe for the local lake and picks Fayaway as his sailing companion.