This is a delicately crafted tale that combines various ideas with their opposites. A clumsy pair of young guys gets tricked by a cannibalistic tribe of natives to enjoy a luxurious life. One disappears, which is a nice balance (because we get the second half of the story in the brief epilogue). Then, there is a symmetry between Tommo's ravenous appetite and the ravenous cannibalism he ignores to enjoy his bliss. His bliss is categorized by attractive company and the ego boost of having a personal servant. He is undeniably regal in his bliss, but he cannot help but be paranoid.
Therefore, if Tommo could achieve the same effects of this consciousness without his ravenous appetite, perhaps he would not make the concessions that lead him to become paranoid. He never does know whether the Typee are Typee or not, and it never occurs to him that, even if they were Typee, they could easily lie to him and say they are not, which would be expedient if they were hoping to murder him and eat him. For Tommo, this duality leads to a crisis—when he is watching the disposed carcass of a half-eaten, roasted human being, then he realizes that actually he is in a lot of trouble, and has been the whole time, but has been ignoring that for the fun of it.
And the fun of the situation is the meaning of the book. The idea is simply that although circumstances might seem fair, sometimes we are not as safe from fate as it feels. For Tommo, what was it exactly that made him so convinced that nothing bad could happen to him? It obviously wasn't strength, because he flaked out of his hard job because of strict boss. So, it isn't competence, and it isn't strength than make him feel peaceful, but pleasure and luxury. As soon as the natives give him carnal pleasures, he immediately forgets that they're probably cannibals.
