History, empire, and the individual are all in a tense relationship. The Empire functions by organizing, structuring, categorizing and separating its peoples into different disciplines of the empire for the purpose of efficiency. This creates problems for individuals under the Empire, individuals become cogs in a system like this. What effects does an empire have on the people who live there? Even after the dissolution of an empire, what effects remain in the historical wake of the empire? It is the categorization of empires and the definition of people that creates a cruel pathology in the bureaucracy of empire to shun its people. As Coetzee wrote in Waiting for the Barbarians, “The Empire does not require that its servants love one another, but simply that they perform their duty” (6). The Empire not only affects individuals who support the Empire, but people whom the Empire takes by force for the sake of the Empire fall into a similar, more devastating fate - slaves and their intended relatives suffer this released in America. Empire categorizes and defines what it takes to easily manage it and create a more efficient system, allowing people to be defined in one way. In war this happens. The enemy is defined in a certain way: in Coetzee's hypothetical world, the enemy of the empire is described as "barbarian". This is also depicted in Baldwin's "Stranger in the Village": the strangeness of Baldwin's existence in a remote Swiss village highlights the definitions that the ghost of the Empire's past has imposed on him, he will always be considered a “negro”. (Baldwin 165) by children and adults. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe history that an empire leaves behind involves the actions of the individuals who perpetuated the empire's agenda. In the American case, slavery methods aimed to ensure the economic prosperity of a white minority, but at a deadly humanitarian cost. In Coetzee's hypothetical world, the history of empire is "an irregular period of rise and fall" (Coetzee 133). The history that the empire creates for itself is self-destructive; At some point, individuals within the empire will be sufficiently hurt by the empire's detached agenda and will begin to fight for themselves. Coetzee tells the story of the magistrate. At the beginning, the magistrate is confronted with the coldness of the Empire when Colonel Joll is introduced to him. Joll's dark glasses and his uncompassionate remarks about torturing the empire's enemies to extract the truth demonstrate the empire's cruelty: "Looking at him, I wonder how he felt the first time: is -that he was asked as an apprentice to twist the pliers or turn the screw or whatever. Do they do it, shudder even a little to know that at that moment he was penetrating the forbidden? I also wonder if he has a private ritual of purification, performed behind closed doors, to enable him to return and break bread with other men” (Coetzee 12). This is the problem of the empire with its individuals. The Empire doesn't care if people love each other or if people hate each other because of their race, culture, or anything else. The Empire only cares whether the work is done to perpetuate the empire. This can have disastrous effects on individuals within an empire. The tension created when individuals hate each other can be war. Baldwin discusses this in "Stranger in the Village" when Baldwin mentions the catalyst behind the American Civil War. Baldwin says that "the question ofhis humanity, and therefore his rights as a human being, became a burning question for several generations of Americans” (174); these “Americans” are whites and blacks who argue together about the question of the humanity of the black man. The lines have indeed blurred; white people fought for a humane solution while others fought for an inhumane solution. This struggle for an answer tore a nation apart and brought it together – for the first time. However, history comes back with a vengeance, The new fabric of American society is still fragile enough today to be torn apart by the same question: "its effects are so often disastrous and always so unpredictable, why does it refuse until today 'today to be fully settled' (174). The American heart still murmurs hatred of the past, sometimes throbbing, threatening a heart attack. Justice, as described by Coetzee, is only a memory of what once was. Justice is no longer something achievable, justice has now become a goal that cannot be achieved. The Empire could be the cause, preventing justice for the people and causing impending tragedy. Coetzee says: “We are fallen creatures. All we can do is uphold the laws, all of us, without allowing the memory of justice to fade” (Coetzee 139). How does this affect individuals in Empire? When the magistrate delivered this quote, he was speaking to a prisoner who did not receive a fair trial and who did not benefit from any sense of justice. The individual under the Empire is not treated fairly. Coetzee describes barbarians being arrested and treated unfairly, the empire defines barbarians as savages who kill and must be detained so that the empire can expand. This is also seen in American history, black Americans are defined as inferior people according to historical dogma. The definitions that the American “empire” has given to its people have an effect on the present. Baldwin demonstrates how the history of oppression has coalesced within present-day black America, Baldwin says: "History as a tool of influence is intrinsically implanted in the person from birth, but how Does this story affect him today? Baldwin says, “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them” (167); for the black person, what is the story that is trapped within them? The story is that of Jim Crow laws and the stigma that the American past imposed on the black American person. When the empire considers a people its enemy, the mark endures with the stereotypes and prejudices of the empire. The definitions and labels that the empire imposes on its people are enduring and have devastating effects. As the empire finds enemies, it finds “justifications” for killing its enemies. The Empire does not always create an enemy to perpetuate its agenda; sometimes it is enough to create a lower class of people; this can still be seen on the American scene. The tribesmen in Waiting for the Barbarians are referred to as "barbarians" by the empire, this word itself also carries rumors of violence, hatred, bloodlust and savagery. Coetzee writes: “All night, it is said, the barbarians prowl, determined to commit murder and plunder” (122). Coetzee describes the fears that the empire has of its enemies, a fear that is created because the empire does not know who the tribesman is. are and what their motivations are because they are so contrary to the motivations of an empire. The members of the tribe have neither the desire nor the need to grow and perpetuate themselves above other peoples. The members of the tribe are nomads without a fixed place,., 2010.