OPTION 1: WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
In Part V, towards the end of Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate and narrator says:
“For I was not, as I liked to think, the indulgent pleasure loving opposite of the cold rigid Colonel.
I was the lie that Empire tells itself when times are easy, he the truth that Empire tells itself when
harsh winds blow. Two sides of imperial rule”.
Write a response in which you trace how and why the Magistrate comes to this moment of
self-awareness within the book and pay attention to the different kinds of ‘truths’ and ‘lies’ that
the text explores.
- Give the essay a title of your own (tip: use a short phrase from the book + subtitle if you
are struggling).
- Structure your argument through careful attention to two or three key passages from the
novel.
- You can use one or more secondary sources to help you make your argument, either
from the assigned readings or from your own research (this is recommended, but not
compulsory). If you do so, take care to integrate the quotations carefully and reference
accurately.
- Edit and format your work to a high standard.
The Magistrate’s Self-Awareness and Self-Discovered Evils
In Waiting for the Barbarians, the magistrate comes to a realisation at the end of the novel. It is
about the good and evil seen in the world and that sometimes one can be both (or a kind of evil
without realising it before). Through his experiences and key events of meeting and caring for
the barbarian girl and being tortured he realises that passivity during times of injustice (in this
case, inhumane torture and cruel treatment of the Barbarians) is as bad as being an active
perpetrator (such as Colonel Joll). The key themes that highlight this are torture, truth and lies
as well as betrayal.
Firstly, the theme of torture and violence is prominent in the novel. There are two forms of
torture we encounter: one is physical and the other is emotional. Colonel Joll employs physical
In Part V, towards the end of Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate and narrator says:
“For I was not, as I liked to think, the indulgent pleasure loving opposite of the cold rigid Colonel.
I was the lie that Empire tells itself when times are easy, he the truth that Empire tells itself when
harsh winds blow. Two sides of imperial rule”.
Write a response in which you trace how and why the Magistrate comes to this moment of
self-awareness within the book and pay attention to the different kinds of ‘truths’ and ‘lies’ that
the text explores.
- Give the essay a title of your own (tip: use a short phrase from the book + subtitle if you
are struggling).
- Structure your argument through careful attention to two or three key passages from the
novel.
- You can use one or more secondary sources to help you make your argument, either
from the assigned readings or from your own research (this is recommended, but not
compulsory). If you do so, take care to integrate the quotations carefully and reference
accurately.
- Edit and format your work to a high standard.
The Magistrate’s Self-Awareness and Self-Discovered Evils
In Waiting for the Barbarians, the magistrate comes to a realisation at the end of the novel. It is
about the good and evil seen in the world and that sometimes one can be both (or a kind of evil
without realising it before). Through his experiences and key events of meeting and caring for
the barbarian girl and being tortured he realises that passivity during times of injustice (in this
case, inhumane torture and cruel treatment of the Barbarians) is as bad as being an active
perpetrator (such as Colonel Joll). The key themes that highlight this are torture, truth and lies
as well as betrayal.
Firstly, the theme of torture and violence is prominent in the novel. There are two forms of
torture we encounter: one is physical and the other is emotional. Colonel Joll employs physical
