Humanity Prevails in Waiting for the Barbarians

Authors consistently utilize human nature as a theme in their literature, usually to make a statement about human society. At this point in the novel, J. M. Coetzee’s message about humanity is not yet apparent, except in his obvious statement about torture—that it is morally and unjustifiably wrong—; however, he creates three distinct characters that, by the end of chapter three, offer very different perspectives on the novel’s circumstances and events. J. M. Coetzee’s allegorical novel Waiting for the Barbarians conducts a methodical examination of human nature in its three primary characters: the blind barbarian girl, Colonel Joll, and the Magistrate.

Colonel Joll is the cruel, heartless, and tyrannical representative from the Empire’s capital. Joll is primarily noted for his intense torture treatment toward barbarian prisoners to discover the “truth.” Our first image of Joll is in the very first pages of the novel when he wears his sunglasses. The scene dramatically introduces him as a wicked man who hides behind the sunglasses’ shades to avoid revealing his inner thoughts and emotions. However, his cruelty has no bounds, evident by his torture methods. In fact, we readers are forced to question the validity of this "truth" that Joll is trying to extract from his victims. Joll is clearly the Magistrate's antagonist, but he is only a microcosmic entity from the macrocosmic Empire, which represents a much larger, stronger, and more formidable opposition.

The blind girl is the most participatory barbarian in the novel so far, as she and the Magistrate develop a uniquely close yet indefinable relationship. She is a product of Joll’s and the Empire’s ruthless attempts to attain indescribable power. We have not met an entire barbarian society yet, but the girl offers the best initial insight and perspective of the barbarians. She is simple, plain, and direct, and she hates long, deep, and meaningful conversations. The girl, as well, is a mysterious and troubling force in the eyes of the Magistrate, who ends up having to evaluate his feelings for her.

The Magistrate, also the narrator of the story, is the most complex of the characters as he struggles to determine the morality and his opinions of the situations that he faces, particularly in his encounters with Colonel Joll and the blind barbarian girl. The first of these ethical dilemmas is torture. The Magistrate first encounters torture when the townspeople hear the barbarian uncle and nephew cry out during their suggested torture in the very beginning of the story, and again when the Magistrate interrogates the attending guard. The Magistrate’s interrogation of the guard completely reveals to us what occurred inside the room. In his debates and inward speculation over torture, the Magistrate concludes that torture is an abominable practice that clearly destroys people’s lives, for example the blind barbarian girl. As for the girl, the Magistrate struggles with this intense desire to protect her and care for her—he seems to think that protecting her has to include having sexual relations with her as well—as well as the lack of sexual attraction that he feels for her. While he never really comes to a solid conclusion about his feelings for her, he becomes a character that we feel sympathy for because he is essentially trying to discover what it means to be human, a feeling that seems to be nonexistent and has yet to be realized.

The novel clearly focuses on the issues that the Magistrate has encountered since the arrival of Colonel Joll: torture and sex. However, it is also obvious that the Magistrate’s story is far from complete. I have a mixture of eagerness and apprehension as I prepare to read the upcoming chapters in this wonderfully developed novel that seeks to explore variations of human nature and what it means to be human.
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