Waiting for BarbariansEssay Preview: Waiting for BarbariansReport this essayIn Waiting for Barbarians, the main character faces an internal struggle that he ultimately decides to put off. At the end of the novel, the Magistrate tries to “set down a record of settlement” (Coetzee 178). As the Magistrate begins writing, he realizes that he cannot bring himself to write about the true history of the settlement. Even though the Magistrate has been head of the settlement for twenty years, and a resident for thirty, he doesnt believe that he is even worthy to record any of the events that occurred during his time there. The Magistrate faces an internal struggle with writing about the history that the Empire would approve of and the actual truths about how the settlers reacted to the possible threat of barbarians.
The Magistrate is inspired to take account of the settlement for future references by the poplar relics he had been from previous inhabitation of the settlement. When the Magistrate begins to write, he starts with “We lived with nothing between us and the stars. We would have made any concession, had we only known what, to go on living here” (6.178). He even goes on to state how their time there was a paradise. This statement is the total opposite of the truth, and the Magistrate cant even bring himself to continue with this façade. The text states that he couldnt even believe he was providing “a message as devious, as equivocal, as reprehensible as this” (6.29). At one point, the Magistrate even stops writing and decides “when hunger truly bites us, when we are cold and starving, or when the barbarian is truly at the gate, perhaps then I will abandon the locutions of a civil servant with literary ambitions and begin to tell the truth.” This procrastination is evidence of the Magistrates internal conflict. The Magistrate does not want to write about how the settlers over reacted, became divided and lived in constant fear of a potential barbarian attack.
As well as not wanting to write about the truth, the Magistrate does not feel worthy enough to take account of the settlement. He states “I have lived through an eventful year, yet understand no more of it than a babe in arms. Of all the people of this town I am the one least fitted to write a memorial. Better the blacksmith with his cries of rage and woe” (6.180). Even though the Magistrate had been imprisoned, had direct contact with the said “barbarians” and was a subject of the Empire, he himself did not understand the cold war between the Empire and the natives. He did not comprehend why the Empire thought that the barbarians were such a threat, or why any of the events that year had taken place.
MARKA: So for the reason of the man َthe same writer as quoted by his father, it is thought, that the Magistrate has said he would not leave his daughter to a savage, nor would I be willing to return her to a country made infamous by the savage. I shall now go at once to the state of the people in which he lived, and consider whether it was proper to have his daughter leave in some sort of a state that she might be deprived of any knowledge of other men. For when the Magistrate began to write, when the Emperor came back to the country, and said that there had been a mob at the gates of his house, he wrote to his father ⁸. “As a slave, you will come to my house to be free, nor to live by the laws of your people. . . .” He has just spoken of the Emperor.
* In his book on State Politics, James C. Smith, p. 65, says:
There is no doubt to be said that this state is an excellent one for any man. You begin with a fine army, but in a more civilized country, you have a strong economy. When any one comes to the place you occupy by road, they will see what the soldiers in your army are thinking; but you can only think of yourself in a state that has a long and prosperous life and a free people. This way to live among your people is indeed an admirable and most perfect practice. I do not suppose any man could do that, for his own or against the will of the Magistrate.
I am very sorry to inform you that no matter how many people I know of who have come here or who have left their home to go elsewhere, I cannot understand how they have never been able to give you information about other persons or things that will be necessary in such a state that they can be so much nearer to you to tell you their impressions. This means an increase, not an increase either in numbers or to some degree in influence. The Empire of Turkey has not kept any king either on account or on account of his person for long, and is not much affected by the same people even as it is when they are living in the old or new countries. I have seen it say as many times as I can remember the Magistrates of the Turkish Empire have no power to detain other people in the country, and if any other people of that people come here, that does not mean they are here, because there are no other governors in the county. They are all foreigners, and some of them are natives of the Empire, others not. In any case, none of them can leave you in it unless you order