“Waiting for the Barbarians” - By J.M.Coetzee

The story is narrated by a Magistrate of a little town in the territory of "the Empire".  It was written by J.M. Coetzee and was published in 1980. The Empire deploy forces to attack the barbarians this is led by colonel Joll. Then they return with some of the barbarians and torture them. 

Main Characters:

1)    The Magistrate

2)    Colonel Joll

3)    Unnamed girl

The magistrate is sympathetic of the victims and takes in a young barbarian woman. He has an intimate relationship with her. He takes her back to her people but when he returns he is sent to prison for conversing with the enemy. But the forces return with more barbarians and publically torture them. The magistrate stands up for the barbarians and as a result he is also badly beaten. Then he is made a mockery of by the soldiers.  The campaign against the barbarians collapses the soldiers leave the town. The towns  people are left to fear that they will be attacked by the barbarians.

Themes:

1)    An exploration of an idea of barbarism

2)    Violence

3)    Power

4)    Torture

It is a story of moral differences and power. A story depicting the cruelty of humans upon each other, decided   by whoever has the power. The torture scenes were also quite disturbing and it wasn't very pleasant to read. Because the characters weren't explained in much detail it meant that they were a bit two-dimensional.

A country magistrate is visited by a Colonel from the capital. Two prisoners, a boy and his grandfather, are captured after a raid. They claim to have only been looking for a doctor in town because the boy is injured, but Colonel Joll interrogates them despite the Magistrate's plead for them. The grandfather dies in the torture process. Later, in the pain of his own torture, the boy confesses "the truth": that he was a part of the raid and his clansmen are preparing for a great war on the Empire in the spring. Though the boy is severely injured, Colonel Joll takes him as a guide to ride to his clan and take more prisoners to investigate the imminent threat to the Empire.  After the Magistrate sees off the Colonel, he stands reflecting upon his obsession, the ruins at the dunes.  Four days later, the Colonel has sent a group of prisoners, a family of fishing people.

The fishing people are treated with relative respect at first, but soon the soldiers begin to treat them like animals and bully them.  The Magistrate grows frustrated and Colonel Joll returns with more prisoners to interrogate. Finding it difficult to sleep, the Magistrate seeks comfort from a whole.The next day, the Colonel visits the Magistrate to tell him that he's leaving. When he's gone, the Magistrate wants everything cleaned up and calls on the doctor to do what he can to the injured prisoners so that they can go home as soon as possible.