Will the Barbarians Ever Arrive?: Scapegoating in the Writings of Coetzee and Primo Levi Anonymous College

Both Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee and The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi deal with the weighty themes of dehumanization, oppression, and the darkest sides of humanity. Similarities between the apparatus of oppression depicted in both works become immediately apparent. Both the SS and the Third Bureau dehumanize their victims to prevent their torturers from feeling an excess of guilt. In Coetzee’s work, this process is manifested through the aimless war against the barbarians and the endless “wait” for them to attack the Empire. However, it is arguable that the barbarians will never actually arrive; indeed, the title is simply a metaphor for the classic scapegoating of marginalized groups as described by both Levi and Coetzee. Although all human beings are capable of committing atrocities, certain groups have a proclivity towards oppressing others, due to cultural patterns, systemic advantages, and historical examples. To absolve their guilt, they wait for their scapegoats to prove themselves equally ferocious. This theory can be proven by examining the largely fabricated crimes of the barbarians, the distribution of blame in the Nazi Lagers, and the natural dynamic of the oppressor versus the oppressed.

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