A difference in perspectives

J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darknes are undeniable similar in many aspects. Each tells the story of a seemingly prosperous man of high social standing succumbing the enticing thralls of nature. In each, nature or the native ways are portrayed by feminine counterparts, and both have surrendered their part in their own society. Their disobedience is seen as threatening. Waiting for the Barbarians and the Heart of Darkness differ in their perspectives.

The Heart of Darkness is narrated, mostly, by Marlow, who is only a witness to the fall of Kurtz. It is Kurtz, the well-respected, most prosperous trader of the region who falls victim to the whims of the wilderness. We see the story through the eyes of someone who has not yet undergone the mental changes associated with the native ways but is currently beginning to question his own ideals. Marlow himself begins to feel the tug of the wilderness upon him. By having Marlow tell the story, readers can more easily associate with the story. It is the it-can-happen-to-them-but-it-will-never-happen-to-me complex. Nature swallows whole the character of Kurtz but leaves Marlow only partially scathed destines to bear Kurtz’s testimony. This narration is only a partial upheaval. Readers can choose to see the destruction of to ignore it and enjoy a good adventure story.

This is not the case in J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. As stated in Douglass Kerr’s article, “Three Ways of Going Wrong: Kipling, Conrad and Coetzee,” “the story is not circumscribed by and processed through the lawman’s gaze and memory. The means of narration are in the hands of the transgressor…” The perspective shifts from the witness to the “victim.” It is the Magistrate himself who undergoes a personal revelation. He relinquishes his peaceful life in order to become that “One Just Man,” even in the face of certain failure. His narration is all the more startling. We, as readers, witness both the gradual and drastic shifts in his psyche and his suffering. We cannot ignore the implications of the words on the page. Unlike Conrad’s novel, Waiting for the Barbarians cannot be read for anything other than what it truly is purely because of the perspective. (369)