"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.