Waiting for the Barbarians

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

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Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5 Summary

The presence of Joll and the anticipated new campaign has coincided with an increasing paranoia amongst the citizens of the town. The enemy takes on an almost mythical character and all negative things both real and imagined are attributed to them. The Magistrate recognizes the growing paranoia and hopes that people will simply forget that he ever existed as he fears a mob retaliation against him. While they do not forget him, he has been so reduced and subjugated that he is nothing more than a pathetic being who the townspeople treat as an animal. The Magistrate has become a beggar, and his only real purpose in life is to find food and a place to sleep.

As time elapses, people become less antagonistic toward the Magistrate. He even senses sympathy from some of the women of the town. The Magistrate seizes on the sympathy and begins to reassert some semblance of his humanity. In the process, he hears some of the gossip and rumors that are spreading through the town, most notable is the whispers of people preparing to leave. This creates a growing tension among the residents of the town between those who will stay and those who want to leave. Meanwhile, the soldiers who stay in the town while Joll’s regiment is out fighting the Indigenous people begin tyrannizing the settlement. They pillage the town and steal whatever they like. Those who wish to leave do not resist the pillaging and so that they are seen as allies, they give the soldiers what they want.

One day two horsemen are spotted returning to the settlement. It soon becomes clear that one of the riders, a soldier from the Empire, is dead, and he has been propped on the horse. The other rider is alive, and he heads directly toward Mandel in a panic. In a chaotic scene, Mandel orders a retreat. The soldiers steal everything in sight and begin the preparation to leave the town. Some of the townspeople try to follow suit, but their already meager belongings have been pilfered by the soldiers. Because winter is coming, the trek back to the capital will almost certainly lead to their deaths. The unit quickly departs, and the Magistrate quietly returns to his former apartment where he lies down on his bed and drifts off to sleep.

Part 5 Analysis

Without the proper checks in place, the settlement is overrun by the very civil guard that has been designated as its protector. The townspeople do not protest. As the fears of the invasion increase, the townspeople come to see the behavior of the civil guard as a price they must pay for security. Also, since the ones who represent the law are the ones pilfering the settlement, even if the residents wanted to protest, they have no outlet. The Magistrate says, “Of what use is it for the shopkeeper to raise the alarm when the criminals and the civil guard are the same people?” (123). The residents of the town have become subjects of an authoritarian style junta.

The Magistrate subtly questions the veracity of the supposedly imminent attack. He says as an aside that they are looking “for lurking barbarians, though none has ever been caught” (123), and his implication here is that the threat is purposely exaggerated. The presence of the civil guard itself is responsible for the growing hysteria amongst the townspeople that is evident at the beginning of the chapter. The Magistrate expresses the sentiment that envelopes the town when he claims, “The barbarians have dug a tunnel under the walls, people say; they come and go as they please, take what they like; no one is safe any longer” (122). There is much ambiguity as to whether there is any evidence of the proximity of the Indigenous nomadic people; instead, the Magistrate suggests that all of the hysteria is based on mere speculation. The result is that so long as the populace is scared, the soldiers have carte blanche to do what they please.

Predictably, some of the residents of the settlement want to leave, and this creates division within its societal structure. What was once a peaceful, cooperative town has become one riddled with strife and conflict. The Magistrate says, “resentment builds up against those who are seen to be making preparations to go. They are insulted in public, assaulted or robbed with impunity” (130). The irony once again is that the civil guard, led by Mandel, does nothing to stop any of it. Effectively, the civilization that has been established at this frontier outpost is breaking down. Lawlessness reigns, and the leadership vacuum only exacerbates the descent. The town has descended into factions, are fighting with each other, are motivated by only their own survival instincts, all of which is happening under a supposed threat from an imaginary enemy. The settlement has become the true barbarian society, and nobody but the Magistrate seems aware of it. By this time, his position in society has been reduced to such an extent that he is treated by most people as a feral dog. When the dead soldier appears on horseback, all pretense is dropped. The guards immediately pillage the town, and leave it abandoned.