“In these islands there is no certainty. Bring your own food, your own gods, your own flowers and fruits and concepts. For if you come without resources to these islands you will perish […] On these harsh terms the islands waited.”

This quote is presented before the first human ever sets foot in the Hawaiian Islands. The warning foreshadows the privations that will be faced by all the immigrants, no matter what their point of origin. Miraculously, the ingenuity of the new inhabitants will be their saving grace, and the entire novel is essentially an amplification of that concept. Michener also opens the novel with an anthropomorphism of the islands—they “waited”—this both emphasizes that the islands have a power and volition of their own, as well as sets up how vast the geological time scale is compared to the short timeline of humankind.

“Later ages would depict these men as all-wise and heroic, great venturers seeking bright new lands; but such myths would be in error, for no man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure; but having failed in one location and having been ejected, it is possible that in the next he will be a little wiser.”

While this quote refers to the Polynesians who left Bora Bora, it can be applied to all the other central characters. Abner is a failure as a divinity student in New England. Nyuk Tsin is considered cursed by her home village. Kamejiro is sent to America because his family has no use for him at home. To varying degrees, each one manages to make wiser choices in Hawaii.

“What had been a free volcanic island, explosive with force, now became a rigidly determined island, and all men liked it better, for the unknown was made known.”

This quote applies to the Polynesians as they establish taboos in their new land. Freedom matters less to them than structure. When the New England missionaries arrive, they create an entirely new set of taboos for the islanders to follow. Like the Polynesians, they believe that they are interpreting the will of their god for the better arrangement of all human society.

“Abner had absorbed one fundamental lesson on this trip: the established church must not be maneuvered into a position of danger by the backsliding of fools who were never truly saved in the first place. It is such who have the greatest power to damage the church and they must be denied the opportunity of doing so.”

Abner is disappointed by the lack of commitment among his converted sailors on the Thetis. He is equally disappointed when his fellow missionaries would rather huddle below deck than grow seasick during his Sunday service above board. Abner may have mastered scriptural knowledge, but he fails to recognize the need to accommodate human frailty.

“Actually, no missionaries in history had so far visited a gentler or finer group of people than these Hawaiians. They were clean, free from repulsive tropical diseases, had fine teeth, good manners, a wild joy in living; and they had devised a well-organized society; but to Abner they were vile.”

Again, in this quote, we see evidence of Abner’s intolerance of anyone who doesn’t share his exact viewpoint. He was already harshly judgmental of people who came from his own culture and social class. He is even less ready to accept the islanders whose values don’t tally with his own. He believes he has the only true god on his side.

“Malama and Kelolo both eagerly wanted Christianity for their island, and each had given substantial signs of surrendering a good deal to the new religion, but repeatedly they indicated that they considered it not a new religion, not a truth that would shatter old ways and introduce salvation, but merely a better religion than the one they had.”

The Hawaiians are moral relativists. Abner is a moral absolutist. He believes he is bringing nothing less than eternal salvation to the native population. In contrast, they see the Christian God as an addition to their pantheon, not a replacement for it. Tragically, Abner’s social intelligence is so limited, and his fanaticism so great, that he never grasps this fundamental distinction.

“He was a foot shorter than she, less than half her age, and weighed about a third as much. Cautiously she probed: ‘And it will be you who judges whether I have been a good woman or not.’ ‘I will be the judge,’ Abner assured her.”

Abner has just been indoctrinating Malama with Christian dogma. His god sends bad people to burn in hell for all eternity. This quote is revealing in that Abner doesn’t contradict Malama’s assumption. Here he says he, and not his god, will be the ultimate judge of her goodness. His sense of moral superiority is fed by his Calvinist beliefs. Abner’s conversion experience confirms that he is already numbered among those chosen for salvation. The excerpt also juxtaposes Malama and Abner physically, showing that her relative majesty and size is no match for the size of his hubris.

“I must point out that your mission is founded upon an impossible contradiction. You love the Hawaiians as potential Christians, but you despise them as people. I am proud to say that I have come to exactly the opposite conclusion.”

Reverend Hewlett has been expelled from the missionary society for marrying an Indigenous woman, but he makes this comment just before he leaves. Significantly, the two most Christian members of the original missionary group are Hewlett and Whipple, both of whom have quit its ranks. They are humanists rather than religious ministers. More importantly, this quote highlights Hewlett’s ability to adapt his views and lifestyle, and Abner’s failure at Adapting to Survive.

“In former days we followed our own gods, and our valleys were filled with people. We have tried following yours, and our islands are sunk in despair. Death, awful sickness, cannon and fear. That is what you have brought us, Makua Hale.”

Abner has just rebuked Noelani for leaving his mission school and engaging in a pagan ceremony after the death of Malama. The new Alii Nui points out that Christianity has brought no benefit to the islanders. In fact, the arrival of Americans and Europeans has brought nothing but destruction.

“Beyond them she caught a last glimpse of China, and when she thought of the brutal way in which this land had murdered her parents, and of the near starvation in which she had lived, and of the archaic terror she had known with her kidnappers, she was glad to see the end of China.”

Nyuk Tsin makes this comment as she sails away from her homeland. Her attitude is unique among all the central characters who emigrated to Hawaii. The Polynesians, missionaries, and Japanese all long to return home. Even Mun Ki, Nyuk Tsin’s traveling companion, shares this sense of nostalgia. She embodies the adage that you can’t miss what you never had—in this case, a good home.

“It was all right to destroy the gods of the Hawaiians, because they didn’t work in our fields, but we need the Chinese to make money for us, so their heathen gods we must honor.”

Whipple has just tried to dissuade Abner from attacking statues in the Buddhist temples on the island. Although Abner rarely notices anything going on around him, he is astute enough to recognize the basis of Whipple’s complaint is merely commercial. Upsetting the Chinese wouldn’t be good for business.

“If Hawaii prospers and makes money, America will suddenly discover that we’re part of its destiny. But if you allow the firms to fool around and squander our inheritance, America won’t give a damn for us.”

Rafer is having a debate with Micah about the future of Hawaii. This conversation foreshadows events because it occurs decades before the planters agitate to become part of the union. His words might just as easily be spoken by his grandson Whip. The latter won’t only utter these same sentiments, but he will start the insurrection that leads to Hawaii’s annexation. He will also recruit Micah as the figurehead for this scheme.

“‘If we don’t get Hawaii into the United States, she’ll have to.’ ‘I am terribly afraid of that,’ Micah admitted. ‘And if not Japan, then England or Germany.’ ‘Obviously, if we allow the islands to lie around unwanted, someone will surely grab them.’”

The “she” in the statement refers to Japan. Whip and Micah are having a conversation that echoes the preceding quote. The island merchants and planters are nervous at the idea of foreign control of the islands. The fact that decades have elapsed between this talk and the earlier one between Rafer and Micah is an indicator of how long this issue of insurrection has been brewing.

“‘Must a good man always use such evil instruments as you and your grandfather?’ Whip said: ‘Yes. Because good men never have the courage to act. You can only direct and safeguard movements already set into motion by men like me.’”

When Micah first partnered with Rafer, he felt as if he’d sold his soul to the devil. He is now having a replay of that devil’s bargain with Rafer’s grandson. As Whip points out, men of good conscience aren’t driven by selfish motives, so they don’t make audacious moves. They can only mitigate the damage that would result from the Rafers and Whips of the world getting their way unopposed.

“Nyuk Tsin’s Hakka instinct warned her that now was the time for her clan to pull courage out of its spasmed belly. As a woman she knew that on such nights of despair men were apt to surrender to the fate that had overtaken them, but it was a woman’s job to prevent them from doing so.”

Nyuk Tsin may be the most resourceful character in the entire novel. Chinatown has just been burned to the ground to quell the plague outbreak. Her family’s businesses are in ruins, but Nyuk Tsin always sees opportunity where others see only loss. She is the ultimate survivor.

“If I were a white man in Honolulu, I would never allow one of you damned Kees anywhere. You’re smart. You work. You gang together. You’re ambitious. First thing you know you’ll be teaching your daughters to lure white men into marriage.”

This quote comes from Mr. Blake, a white teacher at the Iolani School where the Kee children go. They are trying to get one of their boys into Punahou School and ask for his advice. Blake is well aware of the prejudice against Asians that limits their opportunities. He makes this comment as a joke, but it rings true about the cleverness of the Kee family and their willingness to game the system to get ahead.

“It became possible to bring into cultivation thousands of acres that had long lain arid and beyond hope. In the traditional pattern of Hawaii, the intelligence and dedication of one man had transformed a potential good into a realized one.”

Whip has just successfully used dynamite to blast his way through the mountains to bring water to his side of the island. For all his less attractive qualities, Whip is also a visionary. He sees possibilities where others only see limitations. Others dismissed his irrigation scheme as impossible, but Whip never listens to the opinions of others in making his decisions. This observation celebrates the achievements of singular men throughout the story who act against the advice of others, often destructively, to create an outsized impact on life in the islands.

“He would become a doctor or a lawyer and his life would be spent here in America; and the family looked at him in this moment of realization and they saw him as forever lost to Japan; for this was the power of education.”

One of the Sakagawa boys has just been offered a football scholarship at Punahou. This is the same school where the Kee family vainly tried to enroll one of their sons years earlier. While the opportunity is a good indicator that restrictions are loosening for Asians in Hawaii, the reaction of the Sakagawa parents shows that they are still cherishing the notion that their children will return to Japan one day.

“‘Our adversity is our fortune,’ she whispered. ‘We can’t run away, but the haoles can. Like frightened rabbits they will be leaving on every ship. And when they go, soldiers and sailors with lots of money will come in. When they arrive, we’ll be here.’”

Once again, Nyuk Tsin senses opportunity where others see loss. Pearl Harbor has just been bombed. The white inhabitants of the island are eager to leave and sell their properties cheaply. The Kee family are poised to take over land and businesses that will service the next wave of arrivals.

“In Hawaii we have a sound base from which our islands can move into a constructive future: Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Caucasians and Hawaiians working together. But in Fiji, with the hatred I see between the races, I don’t see how a logical solution will ever be worked out.”

Hoxworth has been sent on an army inspection tour of Fiji to scout out possible airstrips. While there, he observes the difference in the way the British deal with the Fiji islanders as opposed to the assimilation that has occurred in Hawaii. Hoxworth paints a rosy picture of cooperative race relations in Hawaii, emphasizing the importance of adapting to survive.

“On the other hand, they continued to pray for Japanese victory in Asia, for their homeland was in trouble and they hoped that it would triumph, never admitting to themselves that American victory in Europe and Japanese victory in Asia were incompatible.”

Once again, this quote reveals Kamejiro’s parochial thinking. His dogged devotion to his homeland continues unabated, even when his sons are fighting to defeat Hirohito’s forces. He doesn’t dare to question the contradiction because that might be a sign of disloyalty toward Japan. As a first-generation immigrant, he is caught between a rock and a hard place. His children, who identify more as Americans, don’t suffer from the same ambivalence.

“He was a man influenced by both the west and the east, a man at home in either the business councils of New York or the philosophical retreats of Kyoto, a man wholly modern and American yet in tune with the ancient and the Oriental. The name they invented for him was the Golden Man.”

This quote offers the definition of Hoxworth’s Golden Man principle. He argues that such a person could never have existed in Hawaii before two or three generations of immigrants had been assimilated into the diverse culture of the islands. Adaptability is the one characteristic that seems most appropriate to describe the Golden Man. This has far less to do with hybrid breeding than with mental flexibility.

“Then she added, ‘Old land and old ideas must be constantly surrendered.’ A new concept had come into the room, a concept of change and going-forwardness, and for some moments Hong Kong and his son contemplated the old woman’s vision of a great family always in flux and always working hard to profit from it.”

Nyuk Tsin has just articulated a philosophy of continuous change. She is comfortable living in flux and recognizes that such a state shouldn’t be fought any more than a surfer should fight a wave. Even though she is excluded from Hoxworth’s list of Golden Men, her adaptability seems to embody the same principle.

“The haoles are smarter than I used to think, Shigeo. First they worked the Hawaiians, and threw them out. Then they brought in my grandmother, and threw her out. Then they got your father, and dropped him when the Filipinos looked better. They always pick the winner, these haoles, and I respect them for it.”

Hong Kong is having a conversation with Shigeo. He offers this rueful praise for the white planter class, not realizing that they have essentially done what Nyuk Tsin has just advised him to do. As a part of the book’s theme adapting to survive, there is acknowledgment that it is necessary to abandon what has outlived its usefulness and move on. The only difference is that Nyuk Tsin exploits physical resources while the white planters exploit human beings.