"Three Ways of Going Wrong": A Connection Between Kurtz and The Magistrate

In Douglas Kerr's article, there is a connection brought up about the growth and changing of the old Magistrate and Kurtz throughout each respective character's novel. This article really helped me see how the characters grew in their novels. Slowly, but surely, Kurtz started to become much more accepting of the Africans and their ways because of how familiar he became with them in Heart of Darkness. The same thing also happened with the old Magistrate because of how much time he spent on the frontier with the barbarians in Waiting for the Barbarians. The fact that he was also involved with a barbarian led to the Magistrate becoming understanding and accepting of these people. This is interesting because a lot of characters in both novels did not view either Africans or barbarians as true human beings. Because of Kurtz's and the Magistrate's differing views, their peers and fellow imperialists or white men lost a lot of respect for them. With respect being loss, things kept getting worse. The Magistrate was treated as if he were a barbarian in Waiting for the Barbarians. There were extensive torture scenes that would be quite scarring for anybody who experienced or witnessed these. As these two characters became closer to the unknown "species" that was feared by everybody else, they both became ostracized from their society, especially the Magistrate. The Magistrate is shunned or ignored by many soldiers and figures of authority, but some women are able to sympathize with him in the novel. The women who sympathize with the Magistrate can be compared to Marlow listening to Kurtz's story in Heart of Darkness. Marlow starts to believe in Kurtz's ideals and really feels the way that Kurtz might have felt at the time while Marlow listens to his story. Before listening to Kurtz, Marlow was not comparable to Colonel Joll in his cruelty towards the barbarians, or in his case Africans, but Marlow was biased and had very little feelings of sympathy for the Africans. After spending time with Kurtz and getting a better understanding for the evils of imperialism and the nature of the Africans, Marlow really changes his view on the way things currently are at the setting of Heart of Darkness. Through Kerr's article, Heart of Darkness, and Waiting for the Barbarians, I have learned that multiple opinons, viewpoints, or stories must be experienced or heard to make judgements on people. Clearly Kurtz and the Magistrate are the two least-biased and most open characters of both novels that we read in the past month.

The Evil Barbarians

Passage from page 120:

"The barbarians come out at night. Before darkness falls the last goat must be brought in, the gates barred, a watch set in every lookout to call the hours. All night it is said, the barbarians prowl about bent on murder and rapine. Children in their dreams see the shutters part and fierce barbarian faces leer through. 'The barbarians are here!' the children scream, and cannot be comforted. Clothing disappears from washing-lines, food from larders, however tightly locked. 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."

This passage shows how there is a constant fear of the barbarians in the civilization that Waiting For the Barbarians takes place in. This passage goes beyond normal paranoia, as it is mentioned that the barbarians have dug a tunnel under the walls. This is an extremely unrealistic idea, and just serves as a symbol of the people's constant fear of the barbarians. The barbarians are not completely understood by the people in this civilization, and they hear many different stories about what is going on in the war against the barbarians, so a certain amount of fear is understandable. The majority of people in this novel takes its fear of the barbarians too far, and just considers them to be ugly, non-human creatures. The old magistrate seems to understand the barbarians better than every body else does in the civilization (partially because of his involvement with the barbarian girl). At one point in section five, he even makes the soldiers sound barbaric in the way that they steal things from stores, set brush-fires, and enact their violent imperialistic attitude in ways of war. After the magistrate's downfall, he sees more clearly than before that the barbarians are not that bad, and the soldiers are unneccesarily violent.

Would a life changing event need to occur for people in this civilization to change their view of the barbarians?