The effects of fear on the mis/uninformed.

“Clothing disappears from washing-lines, food from larders, however tightly locked. The barbarians have dug a tunnel under the walls, people say…no one is safe any longer….They talk of returning to the Old Country, but then remember that the roads are no longer safe because of the barbarians.” pg. 122

“Every premonition of disaster is confirmed, and for the first time true panic overtakes the town. The shops are swamped with customers bidding against each other for stocks of food. Some families barricade themselves in their houses, herding poultry and even pigs indoors with them. The school is closed. The rumor that a horde of barbarians is camped a few miles from away on the charred river-banks, that an assault on the town is imminent, flashes from street corner to street corner. The unthinkable has occurred: the army that marched forth so gaily three months ago will never return.” pg. 140

Ethnocentrism can lead to devastating consequences to the minority or less powerful population.

The Trail of Tears, painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942

Mass burial of 350 Sioux afterMassacre by U.S. Army at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, 1890. The majority of the victims were women and children.

Modern day reservation poverty.

Ethnocentrism: Belief in the intrinsic superiority of the nation, culture, or group to which one belongs, often accompanied by feelings of dislike for other groups, can lead to devastating consequences to the minority or less powerful population.

The heavy price one pays for acting upon his or her convictions. When the public beating of barbarians occurs, and the little girl is encouraged – even applauded for using a stick – the Magistrate is driven to intervene as the beatings intensify. “You would not use a hammer on a beast, not on a beast!” he shouts at Joll. “We are the great miracle of creation! But from some blows this miraculous body cannot repair itself!” The Magistrate’s pleas fall on deaf ears and as he advances toward Joll he “hear{s} the blow coming and turn{s} to meet it. It catches me full across the face.” pg. 107

Nelson Mandela Lois Jensen

History repeats itself when the past is ignored.

The Magistrate’s attempts to excavate the ruins shows his willingness to learn from the past, and he wonders what will become of the oasis if Joll completely destroys it and scares everyone into fleeing. However, when he sits down to write a history of the oasis, his dishonesty is evident, “We lived in the time of the seasons… We lived with nothing between us and the stars… This was paradise on earth.” thus illuminating this theme. The magistrate is aware of this failing though, and later admits that he may “begin to tell the truth” in his writing. Pg. 154

The aging process elucidates one’s sense of mortality.

“What I shrink from, I believe, is the shame of dying as stupid and befuddled as I am.” pg. 94

In an imperialistic regime, empires seek to expand and colonize other lands inhabited by peoples. Coetzee’s novel does not specifically name a country, but it is assumed that Waiting for the Barbarians is an allegory using characters and events to describe a historical time period that could be applied to various empires. The end result is a native population overpowered

“Empire dooms itself to live in history and plot against history. One thought alone preoccupies the submerged mind of Empire: how not to end, how not to die, how to prolong its era. By day it pursues its enemies. It is cunning and ruthless, it sends its bloodhounds everywhere.” p.133

Motif… a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc., especially in a literary, artistic, or musical work. “The dream sequence”.

The dream sequence serves to highlight the Magistrate’s desire to heal the broken and maimed Barbarian girl. His repulsion to Joll’s brutality manifests itself in his subconscious, and he begins dreaming about helping this faceless child, who is clearly the Barbarian girl. (She is faceless because he cannot place her with the original group of prisoners that Joll captures.)