Waiting for the barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

This blog is a part of my thinking activity in which we have to write about "Waiting for the barbarians" by J. M. Coetzee. We had Guest lecture on "Waiting for the barbarians" by Dr.R.B.Zala sir on 8th and 9th January. This was good session with sir.

 About Author
John Maxwell (J.M.) Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on February 9, 1940. He attended the University of Cape Town before moving to Texas, where he earned his PhD in 1969. Coetzee grew up during apartheid, the time when South Africa was segregated by race (1948–91). During apartheid, nonwhite South Africans were forced off their land and sent to live on reserves. They could not share public facilities or engage in personal relationships with white South Africans. Black South Africans were essentially forced into poverty and despair. Many white people, including Coetzee, vehemently opposed apartheid. Despite his opposition, Coetzee, who speaks English, Dutch, and Afrikaans, returned to South Africa after his studies to work as a teacher and literary translator. His anti-apartheid mentality became a central theme in most of his literary works.

Plot summary : Waiting for the barbarians

A magistrate in charge of administering the law in a colonial town witnesses the torture of the invaded indigenous population. The colony or the place is unspecified. Most characters have no names, although the circumstances surrounding the events indicate that the colony is South Africa while the barbarians indicate the black population. The magistrate is of unspecified age although he refers to himself as approaching retirement. At first loyal and dutiful the magistrate becomes skeptical about the legal system he represents. He questions its effectiveness, but if he were to leave his successor could be more ruthless.
The magistrate is content with his life until the investigation to examine the alleged barbarian uprising occurs. Colonel Joll is sent to establish the extent of danger that the barbarians, who live behind the border may pose to the colony. He captures natives to extract information from them about any uprising. Colonel Joll's methods to obtain evidence is by torture. How effective such methods may be is questionable even for the magistrate.
The magistrate meets one of the victims of these interrogations, a young girl, on the street. She was abandoned by her people when they were released from prison. The magistrate, partly attracted to the girl and partly feeling responsible for the torture inflicted on her, offers her work in his house.
He examines her injuries, washes her, and takes care of her. Despite his good intentions towards her he becomes confused about his feelings for her. He is attracted to her and tries to inspire the same feelings in her. Their relationship lacks mutual understanding of each other. They often fail to communicate what they feel towards each other. Their confusion leads to frustration. The magistrate goes back to having sex with his previous casual partner. His frustration grows, however, both with himself and with the girl. He decides to take her back to her own people.
Upon his return the magistrate is imprisoned for the alleged conspiracy with barbarians, becoming the victim of the system he once represented himself. He is kept in prison without trial, tortured, and eventually released. After a mock-up execution he is set free, but not allowed to work he leads the life of a vagrant and a beggar.
The army sent to fight the barbarians is trapped and left to die in the desert without food and water. The remaining soldiers loot the town, leaving it exposed to attacks. Those who were to protect the town now engage in crime themselves. Even those in charge become corrupt, choosing the support of their soldiers over what is right.
The magistrate eventually regains his previous position. Together with the inhabitants he devises various means of protection, where they fake the presence of soldiers. Peace returns, but the magistrate has many regrets about the past, realizing his mistakes while feeling ashamed about the treatment of the barbarians. He realizes he is unable to provide a historical account of what happened. The reality of life on the frontier is to live through seasons and cycles rather than events with beginnings and ends. A historical account would fail to express his admiration for the place he considers a paradise on earth.

Character study

The magistrate

The magistrate is the first-person narrator and flawed protagonist of the novel. Everything in this allegory is filtered through his point of view. He wants to live in peace in his outpost, serving his Empire without questioning the purpose or effects of its colonial project. He's forced to confront its violent crimes when it attempts to push into nomad territory around his outpost. The magistrate goes on a journey of self-discovery in the novel, confronting not only the hypocrisies of his Empire, but his own denial as well.

Colonel Joll

Colonel Joll is the novel's antagonist. Indeed, with his black sunglasses and black carriage, he plays the role of a classical villain. Joll arrives at the outpost as an agent of the Empire's ambiguous secret police, under the pretext of seeking out "barbarian" enemies, but in fact he is on a mission to extend his office's campaign of terror through torture. Joll brings torture to the outer reaches of the Empire, and transforms the magistrate's outpost from a place of liberal tolerance to a barricaded fort of an Empire at war with its enemy: the nomadic natives, the "barbarians."


The nomad girl

The nomad girl is one of Joll's torture victims, who gets left behind after her father is killed in Joll's torture chamber. Her legs were broken at the ankle and they have never set. She is crippled and must walk with two sticks. Her eyes were burned with molten rods. She is mostly blind though she can see out of her peripheries. The magistrate finds her begging and takes her in. Her body is covered in scars and he becomes obsessed with learning about what happened to her. He develops a ritual of washing and oiling her nightly. His obsession with her goes beyond her scars, and he finally seems to fall in love with her in during the journey when he takes her back to her desert people.

Central themes :
1. Fear of the other
2. Power
3. Interrogation
4. Imperialism


Adaptation:

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