Clara Kattrup – The Go-Between
“The Go-between” is a short story written by Ali Smith in 2009. It deals with many subjects like illegal refugees, human rights and confusion.

The short story takes place both in Spain, and also in the northern Africa. It’s just around the Gibraltar. Few and simple places are a very common feature in short stories, and even though it takes place in even two different countries, it’s still relatively simple.
In the short story we only meet one main character, which also is one of the short story features. In the beginning we’re being introduced to a 33 years old man, who lives in Ceuta, in Morocco, right beneath Spain. Once he tried to escape from Cameroun, his country at that time, to Europe but unfortunately it never succeeded, therefore he lives in Ceuta. He’s a go-between man – just like the title says. The meaning of a go-between is a man or woman who is a connection between something or a person who’s between something, like in a dilemma – in this case a connection between Africa and Europe. But I also think that the title symbolizes the 33-years old man who helps other people, his a boarder-crosser, but he’s also between two sides, and he has to make big decisions – a so-called go-between.
The man talks about his terrible experiences, and how the illegal refugees are being treated awfully. “You know what Spain is?” is the first sentence in the story, and here we are already involved, and it makes the short story more interesting. Instead of being the one reading the story, we are now asked a question, so we, as readers, have a role in the short story. Another thing, which also makes the story catchier, is the narrative technique. It’s a first person narrator, which is a common thing in the newer short stories. A first person narrator changes the way of reading the story, and it makes the story more real and it really stimulates the story. Especially when he tells us about how he, together with 500 others, tried to cross the high fence, and the police afterwards came after them. Here it feels like we’re almost there. Even though the first person narrator makes the story more interesting, you have to keep in mind that the narrator is unreliable.
In this story I think that the story feels more like a conversation because of the way the story is being told. As he asks question it makes it more like a dialogue. I get the impression of that the man has a sense of self-ironic. When he in line 123 says: “Philosophical Professor Me”, I think it sounds like he don’t believe in himself, and makes fun of the title that he just gave himself. But I’m not sure whether it really is self-ironic or not. When we hear about what he has been through it’s difficult to believe that he hasn’t been damaged by his experiences. Maybe the sense of ironic is a symbol for a shield to protect him from looking week. He most likely thinks that when he’s the one helping everyone else, he’s not supposed to be the weak one. It’s like when our parents cry – they are the adults, and the ones to protect us, they are not supposed to cry. So the ironic is maybe only his weapon against his weakness.
Due to the fact that it’s a story about a story being told, it makes the story a little bit more messy and unstructured. The story is not chronological, it’s more like a short story being told after another. Even though he jumps around in the story I would still like to comment on some points in the story. From line 40 he describes how he helps the other refugees. At this point I think that he have realised that he won’t succeed in settling in Europe, and therefore he decides to help all the other refugees. In line 45 until about line he tells about how he helped a little dying boy. In my opinion it could be a point of no return, because he has made a big decision, and turned in to a different person. When the man lived in Cameroon he was a microbiologist, but ends up with being a boarder crosser, who can do a little bit of doctoring and a little bit of translating. I think it indicates that after what he has been trough it’s impossible to be the same person as before.

I think that “The Go-Between” has got a lot of different themes. One of the main themes would properly be Article 13 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is where Ali Smith got her inspiration. The article is the right to freedom of movement, which is the main problem in the short story. “The Go-Between” is an excellent example of Human Rights offence. The refugees are fleeing to Europe in search for freedom, but when they arrive in Europe all they get is a kick out of the country back to their native country. Their conditions is indescribable unfair, but they want to live there anyway.
Sympathy could be a theme just as well. I think that the man shows a lot of sympathy when he wants to help all the other refugees, instead just trying to save himself. The man’s earlier experiences really improved his view on life, and you could think of it as a symbol of that the experiences maybe have strengthened him.
On the last page it seems like his a bit confused. He tells us about a dream he has – he walks down the streets in Madrid, but suddenly parts of his body starts to fall off. A part of him wants to be in Europe, but when his arms starts to fall off, it could be because he has been trough so many things and maybe it’s not a good idea anyhow.

The last two sentences are difficult to figure out, because for me it looks like there are more than just one explanation. What I think is the meaning, is that when he keeps his hat down his ears, it’s not just to hide his ears, but also to keep the voices and everyone else out of his life. When he says:” I keep my hands folded, so no one will see the loss in them”, he talks about a loss, and it’s not just the loss of his fingers. I think that he means the loss of what he had in Cameroun, the loss of his personality, which he had to leave back there. This is another ----- to show us, that when you are a refugee, the awful condition, or maybe the no existing conditions destroy you, and turn you into another person.

Ali Smith wrote the short story to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but when we know, that situation like this one is happening in real life, what’s there to celebrate? Because apparently they break the human rights, so Ali Smith most likely wanted to give the world a wakeup call, and make us realize that we have to do something about the refugees’ conditions.