History Literature / TalesOfTheSouthPacific

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a 1947 short story collection and the first published work of fiction by Creator/JamesMichener. It was the inaugural winner of the UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize for fiction.

Set in Des Moines, Iowa--no, just kidding, the South Pacific, namely the area around the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands, in the years 1942–1944 during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the collection's nineteen stories are narrated by an unnamed "Commander" who is an avatar for Michener himself, who served in RealLife as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu New Hebrides]] islands. The tales are loosely connected, with several characters appearing in more than one, and also by a plot thread about American plans for a fictional "Operation Alligator" against the Japanese. The emphasis is on the long, long periods of boredom between the occasional bloody assault, and how the Americans in the South Pacific interact with the natives, other locals, and each other.

->''I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully towards the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.''\\
''But whenever I start to talk about the South Pacific, people intervene.''

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a 1947 short story collection and the first published work of fiction by Creator/JamesMichener.

The setting is Des Moines, Iowa--no, just kidding, the South Pacific, namely the area around the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands, in the years 1942-1944 during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The nineteen stories in the collection are narrated by an unnamed "Commander" who is an avatar for James Michener, who served in RealLife as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu New Hebrides]] islands. The stories are loosely connected, with several characters appearing in more than one, and also by a plot thread about American plans for a fictional "Operation Alligator" against the Japanese. The emphasis is on the long, long periods of boredom between the occasional bloody assault, and how the Americans in the south Pacific interact with the natives, other locals, and each other.

* BuxomIsBetter: In "Fo' Dolla'", Joe Cable notes Liat's beautiful breasts when they make love for the first time.

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a 1947 short story collection and the first published work of fiction by Creator/JamesAMichener.

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a 1947 short story collection and the first published work of fiction by James A. Michener.

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a product of the then subject of the CyclicNationalFascination (late [[TheForties '40s]] to TheSixties) was the Polynesian culture and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Pacific War]].

This story collection is largely forgotten in latter days, but two of the stories therein, "Fo' Dolla'" and "Our Heroine", were adapted into the [[AdaptationDisplacement much better-remembered]] musical ''Theatre/SouthPacific''.

!!Tropes:

* AncestralName: "Mutiny" is set on Norfolk Island, settled by the mutineers, and many of the islanders are named after their famous ancestors. When Teta Christian is telling her family history, she refers to her relatives as "my father Fletcher Christian" and "my brother Fletcher Christian" and so on, to distinguish them from each other and from the ancestor they're all named after.

-> "I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully towards the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting."

* ChristmasEpisode: "Wine for the Mess at Segi", in which Tony Fry, the Commander, and Bus Adams go on an odyssey of thousands of miles across the ocean, from island to island, in search of some liquor for Christmas.

** Lt. Harbison the dishonest American officer is introduced in "An Officer and a Gentleman", where he romances two nurses before rejecting them both. "Our Heroine" mentions both nurses before focusing on one, Nellie, who finds real love elsewhere. That story also mentions how Harbison went down in the Pacific when a supply plane crashed, only to be rescued from a lifeboat by an American ship. Later story "Passion" mentions both Harbison and a doctor who was on the crashed plane, who remembers the story in greater detail.

* SwitchingPOV: Most of the stories are narrated by the unnamed commander, but not all. "The Milk Run" is narrated by Lt. Bus Adams, who's telling his story to the commander. Some stories are straight third-person omniscient, like "Our Heroine". And sometimes the commander, while narrating in first person, somehow lurches into third-person omniscient, like when he's describing the thought processes of the clever Japanese officer trying to repel the American landing.

* TheNeidermeyer: Captain Kelley, the officer in charge of the supply depot for Operation Alligator. He is a nasty petty tyrant in true Niedermeyer tradition, forbidding the sailors from playing games, making everyone stop wearing ball caps. The men start making joes about Captain Bligh and the ''Bounty''. ("The Strike")

* {{Bowdlerise}}: In "Fo' Dolla'," Bloody Mary learns to swear from the American servicemen stationed on the islands. Her most graphic profanities are replaced by "''soandso''" (e.g. "''Soandso'' you, Major!").

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Tony Fry falls in love with the married Latouche De Becque Barzan in "Those Who Fraternize." She hates her husband Achille and wishes he were dead. During a Buddhist wedding ceremony for Fry and Latouche, Achille bursts out of the jungle (where he has been hiding to avoid arrest by Latouche's father) and attacks Latouche, who shoots and kills him. The death is ruled to be self-defense, but Latouche confides to Bus Adams that she and Tony planned the whole thing. They had secretly kept tabs on Achille's movements and made sure that he would learn about the wedding, counting on his fury over Latouche's adultery and abandonment of her adopted Catholic faith to provoke him into an attack.

** In "Our Heroine," Emile tells Nellie that he has eight daughters and introduces her to the four youngest. Latouche, the oldest, is married and lives on another island with the three in line after her. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi," Tony Fry, Bus Adams, and the Commander stop at that island and visit those four.

* SuddenDownerEnding: "The Airstrip at Konora" focuses on a frantic race to build an airstrip for American bombers to use in their raids on other Japanese-held islands in the area. Under the leadership of Commander Hoag, the men work nonstop for 15 days and get the strip finished just in time. At the very end of the story, three Japanese soldiers charge out of the jungle and attack the strip; two are shot down, but the third kills himself and Hoag with a grenade.

* SuddenDownerEnding: "The Airstrip at Konora" is about Commander Hoag leading a frantic race to complete said airstrip in time for the scheduled flight of bombers to land on the island. In the last paragraph of the story, after the airstrip has been completed and the bombers are landing, a Japanese soldier hiding in the jungle dashes out and kills himself and Hoag with a grenade.

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Plane]]: The ''Bouncing Belch'', a derelict aircraft that Tony Fry uses to make liquor pickup/delivery runs with the help of Bus Adams and other pilots. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi," it's described as having crashed twice, barely holding together, and stripped down to the absolute minimum equipment needed for flight. It doesn't have a working compass, so the men have to follow another plane for part of their trip in order to reach their destination. A landing gear failure forces Adams to crash-land at the base; the plane is destroyed and Fry has to be cut out of the wreckage, but all the men -- and the booze they've scrounged up -- arrive intact.

* ChristmasEpisode: "Wine for the Mess at Segi", in which Tony Fry, the Commander, and Dr. Benoway go on an odyssey of thousands of miles across the ocean, from island to island, in search of some liquor for Christmas.

** In "Our Heroine," Emile mentions that his oldest daughter Latouche is married to another planter and lives on a different island. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi", Tony Fry and the gang stop at that island and meet Latouche and a few of Emile's other daughters.

''Tales of the South Pacific'' is a 1948 short story collection by James Michener.

* TheAllegedCar: The ''Bouncing Belch'', a derelict plane that Tony Fry uses to make liquor pickup/delivery runs with the help of Bus Adams and other pilots. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi," it's described as having crashed twice, barely holding together, and stripped down to the absolute minimum equipment needed for flight. It doesn't have a working compass, so the men have to follow another plane for parts of their trip in order to reach their destination. A landing gear failure forces Adams to crash-land at the base; the plane is destroyed and Fry has to be cut out of the wreckage, but all the men -- and the booze -- arrive intact.
* AuthorAvatar: The "Commander" is is basically James Michener, spinning tales inspired by his own experiences and from the anecdotes he heard while serving in the navy.

* CabinFever: Island fever, in "Dry Rot", which discusses the various ways in which people start wigging out after spending months and months on end on a remote island or small atoll somewhere.

** In "Our Heroine" the French plantation owner mentions meeting a man named Anderson on Malaita. That's a nod to previous story "The Cave" in which Anderson is TheVoice, having stayed behind after the Japanese captured Malaita, radioing intelligence to the Allies from the jungle.

** In "Our Heroine" Emile mentions that his oldest daughter Latouche is married to another planter and lives on a different island. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi", Tony Fry and the gang stop at that island and meet Latouche.

* TheAllegedCar: The ''Bouncing Belch'', a derelict plane that Tony Fry uses to make liquor pickup/delivery runs with the help of Bus Adams and other pilots. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi," it's described as having crashed twice, barely holding together, and stripped down to the absolute minimum equipment needed for flight. It doesn't have a working compass, so the men have to follow another plane for parts of their trip in order to reach their destination. A landing gear failure forces Adams to crash-land at the base; the plane is destroyed and Fry has to be cut out of the wreckage, but all three men -- and the booze -- arrive intact.

* TheAllegedCar: The ''Bouncing Belch'', a derelict plane that Tony Fry uses to make liquor pickup/delivery runs with the help of various pilots. In "Wine for the Mess at Segi," it's described as having crashed twice, barely holding together, and stripped down to the absolute minimum equipment needed for flight. It doesn't have a working compass, so the men have to follow another plane for parts of their trip in order to reach their destination. A landing gear failure forces Adams to crash-land at the base; the plane is destroyed and Fry has to be cut out of the wreckage, but all three men -- and the booze -- arrive intact.

* OffWithHisHead: The fate of Anderson, the "Remittance Man" sending info on Japanese troop movements to the Americans in "The Cave." By the time Tony Fry finds his last known position, he and everyone assisting him have been decapitated and their heads put on pikes.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: "The Milk Run" is narrated by a pilot who crashes in a channel between two Japanese-held islands. He's left bobbing in the channel, kept afloat by his life vest, subject to rifle fire from each shore. An enormous effort to rescue him ensues. First a whole squadron of P-40s strafe the Japanese positions. Then a flight of Marine [=F4Us=], on the direct order of an admiral, strafe the Japanese and drop the pilot a life raft. Then a PBY amphibious plane attempts to rescue him but gets shot up and sunk by the Japanese, leaving the crew of the PBY adrift in the channel with him. Still more waves of fighters assault the Japanese islands to protect the Americans in the channel. Finally two PT boats show up and rescue the pilot and the PBY crew. The pilot eventually totals things up and concludes that the Navy lost a P-40 fighter, lost a PBY, used up the available operational hours of several fighter squadrons, altered operational plans after diverting the PT boats, and spent over $600,000, all to rescue him.

* SuddenDownerEnding: "The Airstrip at Konora" is about Commader Hoag leading a frantic race to complete said airstrip in time for the scheduled flight of bombers to land on the island. In the last paragraph of the story, after the airstrip has been completed and the bombers are landing, a Japanese soldier hiding in the jungle dashes out and kills himself and Cdr. Hoag with a grenade.

* ChristmasEpisode: "Wine for the Mess at Sugi", in which Tony Fry, the Commander, and Dr. Benoway go on an odyssey of thousands of miles across the ocean, from island to island, in search of some liquor for Christmas.

** In "Our Heroine" Emile mentions that his oldest daughter Latouche is married to another planter and lives on a different island. In "Wine for the Mess at Sugi", Tony Fry and the gang stop at that island and meet Latouche.

* HumanHeadOnTheWall: The fate of Anderson, the "Remittance Man" sending info on Japanese troop movements to the American forces in "The Cave." By the time Tony Fry finds his last known position, he and everyone assisting him have been decapitated and their heads put on pikes.