Waiting for the Barbarians
The relationship between the Magistrate and the "barbarian" girl in "Waiting for the Barbarians" is not at any point in the novel, a typical relationship. The Magistrate's guilt for having been involved in a government that has for so long mistrusted and mistreated the "barbarians" manifests itself in his attraction to the "barbarian" girl. The affair begins on his part, as an innocent infatuation with the "barbarian" girl. Throughout the novel, he becomes more and more aware of the subconscious reasons he has for having such an attraction to the girl. From the time when he first begins the relationship with her to the time he leaves with her people is a progression of the clarity with which he views the relationship. The Magistrate begins to be intrigued by the girl in a fairly natural way. As he sees her, a blind "barbarian" girl begging on the streets, left behind by her people, he feels an attraction for her. They begin their relationship (if such a one-sided relationship can actually be labeled one at all) in a completely physical way. The Magistrate is content with only dealing with her body. He massages her, bathes her, and sleeps next to her. He is completely satisfied with this seemingly normal relationship.
It is during the long journey to find them that he actually gets to know her. In one instance, however, he faces the truth in a frustrated outcry, "Is it then the case that it is the whole woman I want that my pleasure in her is spoiled until these marks on her are erased and she is restored to herself; or is it the case (I am not stupid, let me say these things) that it is the marks on her which drew me to her but which, to my disappointment, I find, do not go deep enough?" (64) Were the marks to go as deep as the Magistrate once thought they did, the girl (in his opinion) would have outwardly been much more grateful to him, the only man who cared enough to save! her. Just as Colonel Joll does as he pleases with the "barbarians", regardless of their wishes, so does the Magistrate with the girl. While no blatantly sexual acts occur, there is an unmistakable eroticism about the way they interact. He repeatedly looks back upon the time he has spent with the girl, thinking about time he wasted on her physically, when he could have been talking to her cheerfully (instead of the using the gloomy tone to which he was so accustomed). ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. I know what to do with her no more than one cloud in the sky knows what to do with another". He wants so much just to be a Magistrate with an undisturbing attraction to a girl, that he makes up excuses for himself, about why he suddenly feels less attracted to the girl (when, in truth, it is because he knows what has drawn him to her). The most obvious is the fact that there exists no reciprocal gaze. It is only after seeing her interactions with the other men on the trip with them, that the Magistrate sees the beauty of the person he has been falsely intimate with, over the past months. He uses the word "blank" to refer to himself, the girl, or both of them. "Still, my heart continues its affectionate glow towards this girl who so briskly falls asleep in the crook of my arm. His most obvious frustration is the fact that he feels uncomfortable and does not know what to do with the girl.
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