Sorting Out His Thoughts

When I first started to read the book Waiting for the Barbarians, I was instantly entranced by its unique style. The book is told from the Magistrate’s point of view, and therefore the literary style is a reflection of the way that the Magistrate’s mind works. The book is distinguished by a very descriptive style, and the descriptions are not always positive. What I most noticed was the fact that the Magistrate described his experiences in what could sometimes be considered a brutally honest manner. He did not sugarcoat his impressions, even when they were about himself or his actions. When talking about the girl that he has taken into his household, he is particularly blunt with his descriptions. He mentions that, “I undress her, I bathe her, I stroke her, I sleep beside her- but I might equally well tie her to a chair and beat her, it would be no less intimate.”(42) This bluntness is indicative of his trying to figure things out for himself. He is confused about many things in his life, and he seeks to understand these things fully. The Magistrate’s uninfluenced descriptions are as much for his sake as they are for the reader’s sake. He describes things in as accurate a manner as he can, because his descriptions allow him to lay out his thoughts in a sensible manner. In his quest for understanding, he lays out all of the facts and then tries to make sense of them.

In the second section, the Magistrate seeks to understand more about the blind girl. Why is she blind, how was she tortured, why is he so entranced by her, what did she look like before the disfigurations- it seems like he wishes to know everything about this girl in order to achieve a deeper understanding of her essence. He mentions that he does not know why or even if he is attracted to her, saying that “she is ugly, ugly.” (46) Yet he still does not know why he is fascinated by her. His brusque descriptions show the reader of his deep confusion, and of his desire to know for certain the workings of the inner mind.