"Waiting for the Barbarians" by J. M. Coetzee

                    " Waiting for the Barbarians"

  ◆About the author:-

   "The waiting for the Barbarian" novel written by
John Maxwell Coetzee. E born on February 9, 1940 and now his age 80. Coetzee is a South African novelist because, he born there and his mother land was more influenced throughout his life and work. He is known as essayist, linguist, translator and recipient and he got the Nobel Prize in 2003 for Literature. He has also won two other prize first one is the Booker Prize and second is the Jerusalem Prize, and some other also like, CNA Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and other awards and honorary doctorates.

💝NOTABLE WORKS

🎊The childhood of Jesus,

🎊Foe,

🎊Dusklands,

🎊Slow Man,

🎊Disgrace,

🎊Diary of a Bad Year,

🎊The Schooldays of Jesus,

🎊The master of Petersburg,

🎊Age of Iron,

🎊Life & Times of Michael K, etc...

AWARDS AND HONORS

💐Nobel Prize (2003)
                 💐Booker Prize (1983)

                                    💐Booker Prize (1999)

◆Plot summary

   We all know one was protagonist character in this novel. Who is white person belongs to south Asia and he wrote the novel about the barbarians. The story is narrated in the first person by the unnamed magistrate of a small colonial town. The Magistrate's rather peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire's declaration of a state of emergency and with the deployment of the Third Bureau means special forces of the Empire and due to rumours that the area's indigenous people, called "barbarians".
     This identify given by the colonists people and they are known as terrorists for the Empire. But, actually the Colonel Joll was one who preparing his people to attack the town. The Bureau captures a number of barbarians, brings them back to town, tortures them, kills some of them, and leaves for the capital in order to prepare a larger campaign. And all this types of work they do under the Jill's leadership and that is not fair job for who were voiceless, poor, marginalized, uncivilized means uneducated and known as the barbarians.
   Colonel Jill such a cruel mam for this are colonized by the Empire and white people. One example through we can easily identify like, one small boy cry on his father's dead body and than small boy child cry in the dark night but, he was cruel person.
    When they being the barbarian girl with other barbarians, than they were responsible for the position of the women. I think not only for woman but, also title the nation. Because here a woman and other poor persons are symbol for the nation. Because all things have two sides as like two sides of one coin as same. So, we have two classes one is the rich/ elite class and another one is lower/ middle class people: between both classes I find both classes have vast differences between both. So, here the barbarian girl exploits by the white person and she tortured by the colonizers/ Joll and the Magistrate. I think both are tortured as emotionally, mentally, and physically.
   At the end Colonel Joll is unable to find.the "Barbarians" and they think they are never come at all, but actually at the end of the novel.all people got the freedom but, can they were actually free from this environment or habitat as colonized people. Actually at the end of the novel one question is remaining, "who are the real Barbarians"?

◆Character study:-
    In this novel I find protagonist character and other but, very important characters.
The magistrate

  1. The Magistrate
   The magistrate is the first-person narrator and also protagonist of the novel. Everything in this allegory is filtered through his point of view. He wants to live in peace in his outpost, serving his Empire without questioning the purpose or effects of its colonial project. He's forced to confront its violent crimes when it attempts to push into nomad territory around his outpost. The magistrate goes on a journey of self-discovery in the novel, confronting not only the hypocrisies of his Empire, but his own denial as well. And according to barbarian girl's safety was in his hand and he wants to her pain and her body get well from her pain and she will go to her village and live with their people or family. But, she will co.e back it's symbol of colonialism and condition of the Nation. 

2. Colonel Joll

  Colonel Joll is the novel's antagonist. Indeed, with his black sunglasses and black carriage, he plays the role of a classical villain. Joll arrives at the outpost as an agent of the Empire's ambiguous secret police, under the pretext of seeking out "barbarian" enemies, but in fact he is on a mission to extend his office's campaign of terror through torture. Joll brings torture to the outer reaches of the Empire, and transforms the magistrate's outpost from a place of liberal tolerance to a barricaded fort of an Empire at war with its enemy: the nomadic natives, the "barbarians."

3. The nomad girl

   The nomad girl is one of Joll's torture victims, who gets left behind after her father is killed in Joll's torture chamber. Her legs were broken at the ankle and they have never set. She is crippled and must walk with two sticks. Her eyes were burned with molten rods. She is mostly blind though she can see out of her peripheries. The magistrate finds her begging and takes her in. Her body is covered in scars and he becomes obsessed with learning about what happened to her. He develops a ritual of washing and oiling her nightly. His obsession with her goes beyond her scars, and he finally seems to fall in love with her in during the journey when he takes her back to her desert people.

4.Warrant officer Mandel

   Mandel is Colonel Joll's henchman. He's a blue-eyed, blonde, muscular, attractive man who does much of Joll's dirty work. He openly takes pleasure in inflicting pain. He is the sadistic officer who personally tortures the magistrate.

5. The birdlike girl

   There is a small, pretty prostitute who the magistrate has been seeing at the inn for years. Throughout his obsession with the nomad girl, he compares the two women. The birdlike girl is a reference for beauty that he uses as he tries to make sense of his attraction to the maimed, scarred nomad girl.

◆ Central Themes:-

●Imperialism

●Colonialism

●Male sexuality

●Interrogation

●Power

●Fear of the other

●Feminism 

●Rape

● Nationality

●Torture, inhumanity, and civility

●History and time

◆Marginal Theme 

1. Barbarians

◆Comparison with other text

1. Foe
2. Tempest

◆The most striking unique future of this novel

    I would like to say only one sentence for that, Colonized people are actually free or not? May be physically yes but, mentally not.

◆Learning outcome

   Novel open with Colonel Jill's entry and than suddenly condition will be changed because, the magistrate who had power to control people and what he wants from them but, when Joll came and he take power position from him. So, he was very cruel man for the native people. According to me when the Empire and colonizer came and treated natives with cruelty. And than this proves there are nothing like to Barbarians and than suddenly they give freedom for the villagers who were known as the barbarians. It's not fair for punished people without any crime or sin. So, at the end of the story, "Who are the actual Barbarians"??? I think this is the leading outcome for me.
 
•••Resources:

●https://www.gradesaver.com/waiting-for-the-barbarians/wikipedia/plot
●https://www.litcharts.com/lit/waiting-for-the-barbarians/themes
●https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_the_Barbarians
●https://www.enotes.com/topics/waiting-for-barbarians/characters
●https://www.gradesaver.com/waiting-for-the-barbarians/study-guide/character-list

                               

                               Thank you?!?