Barbarian

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…

The Barbarians The Barbarians were barbaric because they established their courageous acts and they were fearless, which lead to them conquering nearly all of Asia and create a enormous empire. When the Barbarians show how careless and reckless they were by the way they lived, that allowed them to possibly corrupt all of their empire. By the way they lived they didn't care at all how they treated their civilization as a whole. “From the start...lived in round moveable houses they called yurts.…

in which J.M. Coetzee creates within his Nobel-Prize winning novel, “Waiting for the Barbarians”, is home to a people who believe themselves to be more “civilized” and “proper” than those who are not as technologically advanced as them. As noted from the passage on page 51 of the novel, it is through constant acts of swindling, degrading, and bullying, as the narrator (the magistrate) describes it, that the “uncivilized”, or the “Barbarians”, are treated with as much disregard for dirt by the…

civilized conduct. On the other hand, Jack continues to represent corrupt leadership skills, consistently favoring savage tendencies. He rubs paint on his face and states that it symbolizes, “hunting. Like in the war” (63). He compares their civilization to war, implying that things should be dealt with violence, just like in the war, a barbarian thought. Unlike Ralph, who builds huts for the majority’s benefit, Jack constantly bullies Piggy and uses violence towards him, a barbarian instinct.…

From innocent children to violent barbarians, Golding uses his characters to symbolize human nature upon all the age groups in the world. In the Lord of the Flies, each character represents one’s individualism in society and reveals their roles on an island that is entirely isolated from civilization. The main characters often act as foils against one other main character of different thoughts and beliefs including Jack and Ralph, Roger and Piggy, and Simon—who is among the most unordinary human…

115). Golding is trying to show that, without society to conform them, humans will always revert back to their primitive instincts. As Ralph represents civilization, Jack represents the fragility of the conformed humans--- the savage. Jack, from the beginning, was less civilized than Ralph, and throughout was a symbol of freedom from acquiescence for the boys. “I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too” (Golding 127). By the end,…

The author George R.R Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs” (Martin). Savagery is a common theme in literature. The novel Lord of the Flies is a good example of this. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents the story of a group of British boys who are stranded on an island after their plane is shot down. At first, the boys attempt to build a civilization based on rules and…

The novel written by William Golding, The Lord of The Flies, is a story about kids that are allowed to govern themselves; they get to make up the rules and choose if they will follow them or not. In the strive to create a civilization in which they can survive, and eventually get rescued, they have to find ways to stay together, but, while not only failing to do so, they become savages and go around distributing fear amongst themselves. The fear then creates a cycle, where the more fear there is…

All stories have conflict, a good side fighting the evil side, order versus chaos, in a seemingly endless cycle. In a book called Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of kids are stranded on an isolated island, which brings out their true selves, some being chaotic and savage, others being logical and orderly. The island is divided into two groups, The Hunters; a large group of savages that only wanted to play, hunt, and ignore rules, and those who just wanted to get home. In the play…

In order to remain civilized, one must be able to uphold their moral values while at the same time being able to mask their savage and primitive roots. In William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, a tragic plane crash forced a group of boys onto a remote island in which they were left with two options: to remain civilized or allow the island to change them for the worse and force them into their savage nature. Following gathering for an assembly, two leaders emerged; Ralph, who tended to be…