Waiting for the Barbarians can be read as an allegorical attack to Apartheid South Africa. But it can also be read generally as an allegory of oppressor and oppressed. This is made possible by the writer not using specific temporal, geographical or historical context. He also uses an unnamed character, the Magistrate, as one of his main characters and hero. This essay centres at this particular character and the role he assumes. To achieve this end, first I will give a short plot of the novel putting the magistrate at the centre. Second, I will trace some of the echoes of the Life and Passion of Christ in the Magistrate’s experiences. Third, I will discuss whether he is a type of redeemer in a secular world. Then I will conclude.
At the start of the novel the narrator is a Magistrate in an unnamed town on the frontier of an Empire. On its edge live the ‘Barbarians’. The Magistrate encounters a head of a secret service, Colonel Joll, who has been sent by the empire to wage war against the ‘Barbarians’. Colonel Joll captures some of them and tortures them in the name of finding out the ‘truth’ (5) about the rumoured ‘Barbarian’ uprising. In the meantime, the Magistrate takes in a barbarian girl, who takes to begging in the town, after being left behind by her people on their return to the desert (28). After a while, taking pity on the girl, he takes her back to her people (79) then real trouble starts. A new officer named Mandel comes to the town and takes charge of his office (84). The Magistrate is arrested and tortured before being left free.
Later, the settlers tremble at the news of the looming barbarian uprising and leave the town for the capital. Mandel is killed when he tries to leave the place with his family (143). T...
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...ind echoes of the Life and Passion of Christ. There are a number of examples for instance; The Magistrate’s concern with the oppressed and this leads him into an enemy of the empire. He is then imprisoned tortured. He is also publicly humiliated like Jesus with public torture and a mock execution where he is hanged on a tree. While hanging, he also cries out loudly and he is mocked just as Jesus was before his death on the cross. Secondly, with the example of the Magistrate in mind, the essay has showed that he is a type of redeemer that the secular world needs since he advocates for justice. By he is also not the real kind of redeemer since his past moral life is flawed thus he lucks a moral credibility. Nonetheless to a greater extent, the example of the Magistrate is a type of redeemer in a secular world.
Works Cited
waiting for the barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are highlighted. The author gives a very effective and detailed insight to a peasant’s life during the time of Martin Guerre. Davis does a successful job of portraying the peasant lifestyle in sixteenth century France by accentuating the social, cultural, and judicial factors of everyday peasant life.
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Many people say that the metal of a man is found in his ability to keep his ideals in spite of anything that life can through at you. If a man is found to have done these things he can be called a hero. Through a lifelong need to accept responsibility for all living things, Robert Ross defines his heroism by keeping faith with his ideals despite the betrayal, despair and tragedy he suffers throughout the course of The Wars by Timothy Findley.
One of the crucial aspects of the play, is the quality and responsibility of civic responsibility that is of paramount importance, that all members of the Jury uphold this virtue obsequiously. As we analyse the story more obsequiously, we can prevail the personalities of the juror’s and a rough basis of their respected virtues are to be seen more evidentially. Although there are some jurors who do not exceed presumptuous assumptions in the jury room, some characters in the play already have a ‘pre-conception’, respectively, towards the initial accusation towards the sixteen-year-old boy.
Daru, the schoolteacher in a remote area of Algeria, is torn between duty and what he believes is the right thing to do when he is suddenly forced in the middle of a situation he does not expect. He must escort an Arabic prisoner to the nearest town. It is not that Daru has much sympathy for the man; in fact, he does not, and actually finds himself disliking the Arab for disrupting so many lives. "Daru felt a sudden wrath against the man, against all men with their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lust." Unfortunately, Daru loves his homeland, and cannot bear to think of leaving, despite the chaos that is raging around him between France and the Algerian natives. I believe that Daru makes the right choice in letting the prisoner choose his own fate. Daru has reaso...
In J.M. Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate comes to discover the humanity of the barbarian through his interactions with the blind girl, which eventually leads him to learn about the nature of his own humanity. Although the Magistrate is more lenient on the Barbarians than Colonel Joll, he still unknowingly objectifies them, while placing himself above them. It is only when he is imprisoned that he comes to realize the fragility of his own humanity. Ultimately Coetzee uses the magistrate’s journey from empirical leader to broken and fearful prisoner to express that peace and stability between people can only be obtained when all humanity is valued.
In this literature review I will discuss both Socrates and Jesus Christ (Jesus). I will compare and distinguish them, by their trial, misdeeds (through the view of society), law, justice and punishment. In addition, I will write about their influence in today’s society and what impact they have made through time. Both Socrates and Jesus had many things in common yet, they we’re different. Both had different religious beliefs. While, Socrates was polytheistic, believing in several gods. Jesus, in the other hand was monotheism, believed in only one God. Both were charged, tried, and executed for their “radical” behavior with society. Overall, both men sacrificed themselves for the possible chance of change.
The nineteenth century was a time of economic, technologic, and population growth. These changes created problems in everyone’s daily lives. Two examples of things that affected the lives of many were disease and sanitation. Disease and sanitation led to high mortality rates in Nineteenth- Century England. This relates to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as it takes place during nineteenth century England and multiple characters died presumably due to disease.
... indifference of the world” (Camus 122). With sympathy toward Meursault secured, a natural disapproval of the society who condemns him is to be formed. By placing a mirror before the very society which this text intends to describe, the novel forces those who read it to reevaluate their seemingly natural assumptions concerning the “frivolous indulgence” of emotion, the stone cold immovability of morality, and most of all the purpose of judgment (Camus 40). In his essay on the guillotine, Camus defines compassion as that which “does not exclude punishment, but [which] withholds an ultimate condemnation” (Camus 40). With the creation of such a relatable character as Meursault, Albert Camus attempts to breathe compassion into an otherwise indifferent society, acting as the catalyst for a reaction which both sympathizes and reconsiders what essentially makes us human.
Dr. Thomas Stockmann: Hero or Enemy ? Dr. Thomas Stockmann is the Medical Officer of the Baths in the play ''enemy of the people'' by Henrik Iben; and the brother of the Burgomaster (mayor) of the town. Jovial by nature, the doctor enjoys the company of "bright, cheerful, freedom loving young fellows" who share his idealism and ability to think freely. Throughout the play, Stockman shows himself to be a conscientious person and a caring father.
The setting of this book is four hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland on the Polar Ice Cap in fierce and extremely harsh climate. A group of men and women go down in a jetliner and they have to try to survive in temperatures of forty below. Six men and four women go through the most horrible climate imaginable and eventually survive. The kicker is that the plane did not just crash but was murder some of the passengers try to figure out who shot the pilot which caused the plane to crash into the ice cap of Greenland. The book is called night without end because every minute of everyday for the six days the people are on the polar ice cap. Eventually the passengers with the help of scientists from a research lab on the polar ice cap survive and their lives are returned to normal.