Barbarian morals

Waiting for the Barbarians is thus far a juxtaposing journey of morals and reality. The book immediately features two officers of the Empire with differing views. One, wearing “two little discs of glass suspended in front of his eyes in loops of wire”, treats the barbarians with disdain and views them as a threat. The other, the magistrate, has been around these nomads for nearly thirty years. He thinks they are a harmless people. He supports this view as he quietly tries to help the prisoners the other officer has collected. The magistrate is limited because he knows anything drastic will make him appear as an old officer stuck in the field too long. After the other officer is gone, he begins to indirectly patch things up. The magistrate takes care of a near blind “barbarian” girl left behind. I think deep down he thinks he is helping those people, or making things right by doing so. While his morals are in the right place, the reality instead, seems a little greedy. Given an absence of companionship in his long stay on the front, it seems he is only motivated to cure his loneliness. The two remain together and yet not close for quite sometime. One day, the magistrate makes the bold moving of attempting to return her to her people. Here, he is very selfless. Because of that, and because they are in a new environment, away from peering eyes, the two become much closer than ever before. They are even able to consummate their peculiar relationship. The reality is, she leaves him and her stay with him has probably degraded his leadership role in his community. However, the magistrate’s morals have been respectful and with good intentions. He is not the most likeable character, but only because of the confusing circumstance. He cannot run things the way he would wish because it would be against the Empire. The way he treats the girl is sweet but a bit unusual. If the magistrate should either come full circle and act in true consistency with his morals or succumb to the ways of the Empire, his character could be better understood. Yet, his perplexing nature makes him unpredictable; and therefore, makes the next section more suspenseful.