The nomad woman's blindness (motif)
Blindness is a motif that reflects the magistrate's state of denial. The magistrate is fascinated by, and blinded by, the nomad girl's blindness. Her blindness of course is the fault of the magistrate's Empire. By being unable to see the girl as she is now, he’s unable to see the maiming that the Empire is causing. The girl has always held that she can in fact see; she can see when she doesn’t look at something straight on. The magistrate’s blindness however comes when he looks straight on at her—that is, when he tries to see her as she is. This blindness is the essence of his own experience of denial. His obsession with remembering her as she was before, feels like an effort to erase the damage that’s been done to her. It’s impossible. He will remain blind to that image in the past.
The magistrate's ritual of washing (motif)
The magistrate's ritual of washing the scarred nomad girl is a motif that works to show his effort to wash away his guilt and expunge his association with the girl's torturers. The repetition of the act amplifies and refracts the many dimensions of the magistrate's conscience. As the washing goes on throughout the novel, his condition of guilt evolves and is shown to be increasingly complex.
Colonel Joll's black glasses (symbol)
Colonel Joll's black glasses are a multifaceted symbol, representing his and the Empire's hidden identity and intentions. Power is linked to this as the glasses become a tool of surveillance: Joll can see out, but others cannot see him. Perhaps most strongly the blackness of the glasses represent his evil, as those who look at him are unable to see his eyes, and in this way cannot recognize his humanity.
Barbarism (motif)
The concept of barbarism works as a motif in the novel, as those accusing the nomads of barbarism are themselves the barbaric. The concept evolves through the novel as we see a repetition and escalation of barbaric behaviors and patterns perpetrated by the Empire, ultimately devolving into a state of general terror and total barbarism. Civil relations between Empire and the nomads collapse by the end of the novel.
The nomad woman's scars (symbol)
The nomad woman's scars, as well as her broken ankles and blinded eyes, reflect the damage done by the Empire to the nomad people more broadly. The magistrate recognizes this, and tries to atone for it by washing the woman and attempting to read into the meaning of her scars.
