J.M. Coetzee writes waiting for the barbariass. He is a famous writer of South Africa. Last year, he got the Nobel Prize of literature. Reading his books is by chance. Because this year some of his books were published in China widely, and I know he is not an ordinary writer, no only write some simple life and landscape, his books are all meaningful, need to be chewed.
I like the Colombia writer Garcia Marquez’s books very much. One Hundred Year of Solitude is my most love book. This book has its deep, need us to chew it carefully. At first, you will feel very funny, but as the story went on, you will fall into deeply thinking, at last, you will have a strong echo in your heart, you almost feel cannot help but be sad for the hero.
Waiting for The Barbarians gives me the same feeling. The main role of the book is not the real hero, or you can say he is not the traditional hero. Though in many form and thought he is strange, he was right and stand for justice, at the same time, in some parts of him show he just a useless man, a rubbish, also you will very hate him. Because his in capable and despicable. (Sex, I think is not a very guilty thing in foreign country, at least in South Africa and Colombia, they show me that it just a human normal needing, and not be afraid to talk about it) Of course, read those books are not for those things. If use a Chinese thinking method to decide, the protagonist just a normal person, and the writer in China won’t write such a story, because they think Chinese used to super hero, and all the protagonist must perfect. But I think we need a vivid person not a dream person, a god! The writers in China can’t find out such a race problem, and they don’t want to talk about the social in fiction, I think it is a big problem.
From the book, I find a really vivid person. Though he is a very strange and has different kinds of contradiction, all his thought are most different from others (the person are written in that book).
The main ideas of that book show some social problems to us in its special way. Through the curious and pure imagine story, we don’t just see the distorted imagine world, and unthinkable person but we saw another part of our really world and maybe can see ourselves or our friends. The people are all unimaginable, but it really happens around us. The book as a mirror lets us see our world and ourselves. It’s the power of literature. A story came out are not just for amuse, let people waste their time easily, they must show some big problems, but now from directly taking punitive action against, it use its tactful way.
Waiting for The Barbarians show us the problem of civilization and barbarous. What’s civilization? Who are barbarians? Why need to wait for them? The writer did not give us a certain answer, but after reading, you will be surely hold your believe.
Because of some social problems that people can’t explain, they make out barbarians. Because of solving these barbarians they catch some innocent herdsman, put the entire criminal on them use ferocious ay punish them. For the social problem hadn’t been solved yet in such wrong way, they have to catch more innocent people to perform their duty perfunctorily. Barbarians became the representative crime. The protagonist is an administrator; also because of his strange and useless activity, he became a prisoner, and then suffers terrible beat up and unthinkable torture. At last, annihilate barbarians certainly can’t success. The armies of destroy barbarians because of plenty of nature reason (nature reasons are all made by themselves, such as desert and can’t find water). Nature and themselves broke down the unbreakable army instead of the dummy barbarians. This story didn’t have a clear ending, when I read the last sentence, the story still go on in my mind, the villages’ future and the administrator’s life. It’s made me have a very big association. I can’t forget them in a long time; I think a lot of things. The ugly part of the really world, suddenly I know the modern world terrible crisis I have duty to do something for the whole world, also I feel I’m tiny, maybe all the things I have done are do not impact anything. I want to change, but I can’t become the second protagonist.
The most moving me part is the description of the details of beating and the terrible torture. They are so real, just like the bloody things happen in front of me. All the wounds are so clear, the cause of them are descript, you almost can feel that pain. The way of J.M Coetzee descript of these things are so different from others. He uses the first person, but others usually uses the third person, the angle is so different, and make me have real feeling. I am present on the spot, become a part of the story, suffer the things, I can’t say the feeling words, but I really feel it.
J.Z Coetzee is so great! The social need such person to let us know the weak point. That’s the really “applications of literature ”, ordinary personnel to wake up from sleeping emptiness.
