First Impressions of Waiting for the Barbarians

After reading the first few chapters of the novel Waiting for the Barbarians, I am still somewhat confused on what to think. Coetzee’s style, with his use of the present tense, sets up for a rather interesting read—much less dense than Heart of Darkness. His style also allows the reader to establish a personal connection with the narrator, the Magistrate—the only character of this novel I have become fond of. Morally appalled to all that Colonel Joll (a man the Magistrate finds “no loyalty in his heart” for (17) does, the Magistrate acts as the only character to have some sort of understanding of limitations of torture. Likewise it intrigued me to see such polar opposites working for the same purpose, the Empire. The Magistrate even acknowledges the opposition of their thoughts when he states, “the Empire does not require its servants love each other, merely that they perform their duty” (6), and Coetzee goes even further to depict the segregation of their thoughts when the Colonel sends some prisoner who are in fact fishing people to the Magistrate. Upset with Colonel’s ignorance, the Magistrate begins denouncing the Colonel in front of the officers, an act that he even admits should never be done (17). As for plot, I find the novel somewhat lacking in tremendously compelling material thus far. As of now, the novel mostly consists of gruesome, vivid imagery of Colonel’s tortured victims and the sexual dealings of the Magistrate. The Magistrates journey to the barbarians was the peak of excitement for me, but what I truly await with much anticipation is the confrontation between the army against the barbarians as alluded to at the end of the third section. Despite its somewhat mundane beginning, I find the novel an easy read, therefore compelling me to see what lies ahead. (304)

A Heart Not So Dark

Hunt Hawkins, “Heart of Darkness and Racism”

-Despite Conrad’s descriptions and characterizations that dehumanize Africans, Hawkins believes Conrad is far from racist.
-“It would be a mistake, nonetheless, to read Achebe, any more than Conrad”
- Conrad was a sturdy opponent of European imperialism. Marlow states, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing.”
-Conrad points out that Europeans don’t live up to their own ideals as civilizers.
-Somewhat racist since it continues to assume Africans are at the low end of the scale
-Krutz corruption comes from Europeans not Africans, who are rarely present through the novel
-“Conrad did not share the most extreme racism of his time. He did not wish the annihilation of all non-Europeans” like Achebe suggests.

The Enduring Dilsey

The final chapter of The Sound and the Fury brings closure to the novel by marking the end of the once prominent Compson family through the eyes of the unbiased narrator Dilsey. Dilsey, as the only character to remember the past but not let it consume her, serves as a reliable narrator for unlike the other characters, she does not base her past or future on Caddy. And similarly, unlike the hypochondriac Miss Caroline, the mentally disabled Benjy, the suicidal Quintin, the drunkard Father, and deranged Jason, Dilsey endures as the sole character to remain undiseased as she embraces her duties pertaining to the wellbeing of the Compson family. Dilsey serves as a perspective outside of the true Compson family. And even amid the complaining Mrs. Compson, the bellowing Benjy, and the threatenings of Jason, Dilsey brings some order to the household but comforting Benjy. Yet despite her greatest efforts, Dilsey’s drive to hold the Compsons together fails and inevitably leads to her deterioration as described when it pained her to walk up the stairs. Only through Dilsey’s perspective, could the novel be finished for she has been there from the beginning: “I’ve seed de first en da last.” Dilsey’s placement at the end of the novel only serves to heighten Faulkner’s chronology of time because she serves as one of the few remaining characters to tell the fall of the Compson family. (233)