Waiting for the Barbarians Summary

10 questions on the plot and the characters. Each answer comes with a short explanation.

Take it one question at a time

1. Question 1

   What is the Magistrate's primary role at the beginning of the novel?

   1. A military general defending the frontier.
   2. The administrator of a frontier settlement.
   3. A historian documenting barbarian cultures.
   4. An interrogation expert for the Empire.
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   B. The administrator of a frontier settlement. The Magistrate is introduced as the long-serving administrator of a small frontier settlement, managing its affairs for decades.

2. Question 2

   Who are Colonel Joll and his men, and what is their primary objective when they arrive at the frontier?

   1. Archaeologists seeking ancient barbarian artifacts.
   2. Diplomats negotiating a peace treaty with the barbarians.
   3. Interrogation experts investigating barbarian threats.
   4. Engineers tasked with building new frontier defenses.
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   C. Interrogation experts investigating barbarian threats. Colonel Joll arrives with his men, described as interrogation experts, to investigate and extract information from alleged barbarian prisoners, initiating a period of torture.

3. Question 3

   What prompts the Magistrate's initial 'quixotic act of rebellion' against the Empire?

   1. He discovers a plot by Colonel Joll to overthrow the Empire.
   2. He witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of barbarian prisoners.
   3. He falls in love with a barbarian woman and decides to defect.
   4. He finds evidence that the barbarians are not planning an attack.
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   B. He witnesses the Empire's cruel and unjust treatment of barbarian prisoners. The Magistrate's sympathy for the victims of the Empire's torture, particularly the young barbarian woman, directly leads to his first acts of defiance.

4. Question 4

   What does the Magistrate do with the young barbarian woman after she is interrogated and left partially blind and lame?

   1. He sends her back to her people immediately with a message.
   2. He takes her into his home, cares for her, and eventually attempts to return her to her people.
   3. He secretly helps her escape to another Empire outpost.
   4. He hands her over to another group of Imperial soldiers for further questioning.
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   B. He takes her into his home, cares for her, and eventually attempts to return her to her people. The Magistrate takes the injured barbarian woman into his care, nurses her back to health, and embarks on a journey to return her to her own people, an act seen as treason by the Empire.

5. Question 5

   The novel is described as an allegory of 'the war between oppressor and oppressed.' How is this theme primarily conveyed through the Magistrate's experience?

   1. By showing the barbarians successfully overthrowing the Empire.
   2. By depicting the Magistrate's shift from an agent of the Empire to a victim of its oppression.
   3. By focusing solely on the barbarians' suffering without Imperial interaction.
   4. By presenting a balanced view of both sides, with neither being clearly oppressed or oppressor.
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   B. By depicting the Magistrate's shift from an agent of the Empire to a victim of its oppression. The Magistrate, initially a loyal servant of the oppressive Empire, becomes a victim of its cruelty and injustice, experiencing imprisonment and torture, thus embodying the shift from oppressor (by complicity) to oppressed.

6. Question 6

   What is the Magistrate's fate after his return from attempting to deliver the barbarian woman?

   1. He is promoted for his diplomatic efforts.
   2. He is immediately executed for treason.
   3. He is imprisoned, tortured, and publicly humiliated before being released back to his post.
   4. He is banished to a distant, uninhabited island.
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   C. He is imprisoned, tortured, and publicly humiliated before being released back to his post. Upon his return, the Magistrate is arrested, subjected to torture and public humiliation by Imperial soldiers, and then ironically returned to his post as the Empire's grip weakens.

7. Question 7

   What is the significance of the Magistrate's recurring dreams and his interest in the 'barbarian' artifacts and language?

   1. They represent his desire to fully assimilate into barbarian culture.
   2. They symbolize his attempts to understand the 'other' and challenge the Empire's dehumanizing narrative.
   3. They are merely hobbies, distractions from his administrative duties.
   4. They indicate his secret alliance with the barbarian leaders.
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   B. They symbolize his attempts to understand the 'other' and challenge the Empire's dehumanizing narrative. The Magistrate's studies and dreams of the barbarians represent his intellectual and emotional effort to bridge the divide created by the Empire, seeking to understand them beyond the official propaganda, which is a key thematic element.

8. Question 8

   How does the Empire's perception of the 'barbarian threat' evolve throughout the novel, and what does this reveal about the Empire itself?

   1. The threat is proven to be real and imminent, justifying the Empire's actions.
   2. The threat is largely manufactured or exaggerated by the Empire to justify its expansion and control.
   3. The barbarians become allies, and the Empire shifts its focus to internal conflicts.
   4. The threat diminishes as the barbarians voluntarily retreat from the frontier.
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   B. The threat is largely manufactured or exaggerated by the Empire to justify its expansion and control. The Empire's 'barbarian threat' is shown to be largely a construction, used to justify its militarism, control over its own people, and cruel treatment of perceived enemies, rather than a genuine, imminent danger.

9. Question 9

   After his public humiliation, why does the Magistrate remain in the settlement, despite the Empire's growing instability and the impending 'barbarian' arrival?

   1. He is physically unable to leave due to his injuries and old age.
   2. He feels a sense of duty to protect the remaining civilians, even if he despises the Empire.
   3. He is waiting for a chance to exact revenge on Colonel Joll.
   4. He believes the barbarians will offer him a position of power if he stays.
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   B. He feels a sense of duty to protect the remaining civilians, even if he despises the Empire. Despite his personal suffering and disillusionment with the Empire, the Magistrate chooses to stay and try to maintain order and protect the remaining townspeople, demonstrating a complex sense of responsibility beyond loyalty to the regime.

10. Question 10

    What is the ultimate irony of the Empire's preparations for war with the barbarians by the end of the novel?

    1. The barbarians join forces with the Empire against a common enemy.
    2. The Empire's actions to combat the 'barbarian' threat lead to its own internal decay and eventual collapse without a major battle.
    3. The barbarians retreat, rendering all the Empire's efforts pointless.
    4. The war is fought and won by the Empire, but at an unbearable cost.
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    B. The Empire's actions to combat the 'barbarian' threat lead to its own internal decay and eventual collapse without a major battle. The Empire's obsessive focus on the 'barbarian threat' and its brutal methods ultimately undermine its own authority and stability, leading to its internal disintegration and abandonment of the frontier, rather than a decisive external conflict.