Waiting for the Barbarians

It is a common thing: an innocent, kind, humane person joins the military, goes to war, and comes back as a psychological disaster. They either become paranoid, depressed, anything to this nature. However, there are also individuals who go to war with prior psychological conditions. In J.M. Coetzee’s novel “Waiting for the Barbarians”, is reflective of these two situations. In the novel, war breaks out between an Empire and a group of nomads, the barbarians. In between all of this, is the protagonist, the magistrate, a man with a position of power in the military, who opposes the war. Much like actual war, there is an array of different psychological disorders portrayed through the characters, with some characters having disorders before that influence their performance in battle, or those who get them after, as a result of the horrific acts of torture and violence they either see or experience. While characters like Colonel Joll and Mandel have psychological conditions that make them ideal torturers, their victims display their own psychological disorders that result from the torture inflicted upon them. And though the citizens are not directly fighting in this war, they fall victim to the pressures of war and Colonel Joll and compromise their personal beliefs and morals in favor of the majority rule.

Colonel Joll’s disregard for the well-being of his prisoners during interrogation displays traits of antisocial personality disorder that relates him to many other individuals with high rank in the military known for being ruthless torturers. It is seen right from the start of the novel that Colonel Joll takes his position of power very seriously, imprisoning anyone who could be a potential threat. As soon as these people become pr...

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...ames M. Hudson and Amy S. Bruckman study a specific component of the bystander effect: social cues. This component states that, “Individuals actively look to one another for cues about how to behave in the situation. The inaction of others will likely cause the inaction of the individual” (Hudson and Bruckman 170). Humans are always worrying about what others think of them. Therefore, if there is a situation which requires help, but the majority is simply watching, an individual who may be willing to assist will quickly change their mind. This is the case with the magistrate. Since so many people were watching and treating his torture as a spectacle, those who would want to help didn’t for fear of standing out. This fear of helping the magistrate and going against the Empire is a result of the pressure that war brings to stay completely loyal to a person’s nation.