Misrepresentation

As many people have stated already Coetzee does the same thing that Conrad did."The characters are not represented as individuals but as stereotypes." This is a short line from the Achebe/Conrad Controversy. If you have been reading the book you should have noticed that for some reason not much is known about the barbarians yet. We just know minor things and they aren't supported really by facts yet because we don't know if the barbarians are really like the way the author depicts them to be. Hopefully as we get further into the story the barbarians will appear so they can represent themselves. The barbarians have to appear in the book and do what they do. If they come pillage villages, rape women, and steal things then we will know that Coetzee was not just making up stereotypes.

It is not just with the barbarians either. There is also the fishermen and the other prisoners in chapter one. When they are first introduced they don’t seem like very pleasant people and they don’t speak because no one speaks their language. Then comes all of the bad things about that like they pick each others lice and they go to the bathroom in a corner. Also the people living in the frontier, they dream about barbarians doing horrible things but have they ever met a barbarian in person? Everything about the barbarians so far are just stereotypes. Achebe would probably be furious if he only read up to this point. Just like with the African people in Conrads novel, Achebe would feel that Coetzee is devaluing the barbarians.