For The Barbarians

Many of us have heard of the damaged relationships characterized by the turns of emotion and the dysfunctional behavior of two self-destructive individuals. In Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M.Coetzee uses the relationship between the Magistrate and the barbarian girl as a major theme. Throughout the novel we found that both of them are damaged, the magistrate is mentally damaged and the girl is physically. The destructive relationship between them is mostly based on torture, guilt, atonement, and power. The magistrate sees the blind girl as a way of trying to get forgiveness for the acts he did and he witnessed as a magistrate. At the beginning he just wants to help the blind girl but later on, the relationship turns from a charity …show more content…
Intrigued, the magistrate soon acknowledges that she was blind. The Magistrate begins to be intrigued by the girl in a fairly natural way. As he sees her, a blind barbarian girl begging on the streets, left behind by her people, he feels an attraction for her. They begin their relationship in a completely physical way but noting intimate. The Magistrate is content with only dealing with her body. He massages her, bathes her, and sleeps next to her. He is completely satisfied with this seemingly normal relationship. As a combination of a lover and healer, the Magistrate feels comfort in being with the scarred, broken girl. While he may not know yet why, the washing and massaging of the girl's body brings him a certain healing effect. By helping her he feels he is helping himself, he tries to help her in any way possible. First he offers her a job at his house and lets her stay sharing a room with three other girls. At first if just seems a normal caring relationship between two people. Later on, the relationship gets more intimate and the magistrate still fascinated by the scars of the blind girl left by the torturers. He gets pleasure by taking care of the girl; he hopes to get redemption from washing and healing her scars. Their relationship gets to the point where he gets comfort by just watching her eat. The Magistrate seems disturbed by his emotions towards the girl when he says “I …show more content…
Such document has proof in the marks and traces of torture on her body, her eyes, and legs. By taking possession the girl the magistrate has a chance to undo some of the damage that his society has inflicted on the barbarians. The importance of their relationship in the reading of the novel is that 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. The magistrate keeps seeing the barbarian girl as the barbarians and the Empire conflict personified in her body. Through helping in some way the barbarian girl, the magistrate seeks understanding to the acts made by the Empire. “I can undress without embarrassment bearing my thin shanks, my slack genitals, my punch, my flabby old man’s breasts, the turkey-skin of my throat”, by saying this, the magistrate meant that he was not embarrassed to show