Waiting for the Barbarians

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Symbols & Motifs

Vision and Eyesight

Vision and eyesight are recurring motifs in the novel. The main vision-related image in the novel is Joll’s sunglasses. Joll’s sunglasses are symbols of concealment and power, and the loss of his sunglasses is a symbol of exposure and weakness. The novel contains other references to vision and blindness as well. The first prisoner who is tortured by Joll, the old man, is killed, and when the Magistrate examines the body, he discovers that the man has lost one of his eyes. Likewise, the Indigenous girl is partially blinded by the hot iron that is held extremely close to her eye as part of her torture. The symbolism here is that the process of destroying the eyesight of the accused helps provide further concealment of the cruelty exhibited by Joll.

Being able to see has both literal and metaphoric meaning in the text. The Magistrate suspects the girl is unable to see despite her insisting that she is able. There is the actual eyesight here but also the suggestion that she is able to decipher what the Empire stands for in a way that is far clearer, even when compared to Mandel who is described as having “clear blue eyes, as clear as if there were crystal lenses slipped over his eyeballs” (117). In this case, eyesight is really insight into a deeper aspect of humanity in which sympathy and compassion reside. The girl maintains these attributes while Mandel and Joll are unable to gain access because they are blinded to it. They do not have the same kind of insight.

Archaeology

One of the Magistrate’s hobbies is archaeology. He collects artifacts that he finds around the settlement and in its immediate surroundings. Much of his findings are relics from communities that existed prior to the arrival of the empire. The Magistrate discovers scrolls and tries to decipher the language in which they are written. He carefully records his discoveries and attempts to piece together an historical account of these societies. He understands the connections across time between the present settlement and those that came before, and when the settlement’s extinction nears at the end of the novel, the Magistrate begins to write a record of it so that future settlers will discover a similar lineage with the past.

Contrary to the Magistrate, Colonel Joll and Mandel are not interested, nor impressed by the discoveries of artifacts at the settlement. They tend to only see in them a possible means by which the Magistrate is communicating with the Indigenous communities. They see in the Magistrate’s careful study of the artifacts a sympathy with the locals and use this evidence against him. This represents the Empire’s complete rejection of the history of other civilizations and how it impresses itself on the present time. The Magistrate says, “Empire has located its existence not in the smooth recurrent spinning time of the cycle of the seasons but in the jagged time of rise and fall, of beginning and end, of catastrophe. Empire dooms itself to live in history and plot against history” (133). The failure to accurately assess history is a fatal flaw of the Empire. In its own sense of invincibility, it misses the chance to reflect wisely, which leads to the complete abandonment of the settlement.

The Desert

On multiple occasions, the Magistrate refers to the settlement as the oasis, a peaceful place that is sheltered against the elements. The settlement represents a communal enterprise where people work together to sustain life against the natural harshness of the surrounding desert. The settlement is a shield against the desert, and unlike the Indigenous communities, the town does not blend in with its environment. In some ways, the people of the settlement work against the environment of the desert rather than live seamlessly amongst it as the local people do. Additionally, unlike the Indigenous people who will certainly survive the winter, the settlement faces doom as the novel concludes. In this instance, the ability to adapt to the desert, or the inability to do so, draws out the contrast between the Empire and the Indigenous people outside of it. Just as the harsh winter elements defeat Joll’s army, the Empire cannot stand up to the forces of nature that the desert represents. Its lack of indigeneity means that the town is unequipped to deal with the realities of life without the Empire’s protection.

The desert is the force that ultimately defeats Joll’s immoral initiatives. As an element of nature, the desert is amoral. Coetzee makes a point to clearly distinguish the desert as such; it is not a symbol of immorality or judgment. The only immorality in the novel resides in the behavior of the Empire as represented by Colonel Joll. The desert wreaks havoc on the men as they pursue the Indigenous people in a game of cat and mouse, but ultimately it is the lust for conquest that leads Joll’s army to its demise. The force brought to bear on Joll’s army is the harshness of the natural world, which always counterbalances the pursuits of humankind.