The Go Between by Ali Smith

634 Words2 Pages

Wars, civil wars, poverty, natural disasters and many more factors forces people to leave their home behind in search of a new place to settle down. There are around 15.4 million refugees in the world – people who has nowhere to go because their homes have been destroyed. But who are going to help these refugees, who have already lost so much. This short story, The Go-Between written by Ali Smith focuses on a 33 years old African refugee, who has repeatedly tried to cross the Spanish border unsuccessfully.

The narrator is an educated man; he used to be a microbiologist. He escaped from is own country and now works as a go-between for other refugees, who wants to get into Europe. He works in the Spanish town Ceuta in Morocco, and here he connects the refugees with the French doctors. The narrator speaks multiple languages because of his high education, ”The French doctors can be Italian, Spanish, French, English, for in-stance. I speak these, and also some others.” (p.3, ll.31-32), which is very helpful in his profession. It is clear that he is proud of his achievements, and the people he has helped. This might be because no one helped him. Before he settled down in Ceuta, he himself tried to get into Europe three times, but he failed every time; the Spanish police or the border police caught him and threw him out the country.

The narrator explains how the other refugees suffer from the Spanish Blindness, which means they only see Spain as a passage to the great free Europe where everything is good. These refugees have paid the “Network” to get to Spain. But the Network is not trustworthy
”All the men in this building suffer from it, Spanish Blindness. All you can see is Spain. All you can think is Spain tonight, Spain tonigh...

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...to the reader by using a first person narrator. This makes the reader feel like they are sitting across from the person telling the story; it makes the narrator more relatable. And by asking questions throughout the story directly at the reader; ”You see those lights across the bay?...You see that fence?” (p.2, l.2), “A miracle, no?” (p.5, l.117) , “Don’t you understand?” (p.4, l. 80) Smith also manages to get the reader to really think about the story’s message – the refugee issue.

The writer uses a lot of humour and irony to make the rather depressing story more ingestible for the reader. The narrator often makes fun of himself, and renders violent experiences in a humoristic tone: “The Cameroon swimmer. Philosophical Professor Me. Border Crosser Extraordinaire.” (p.5, ll.123-124).
This makes the reader able to smile, and sympathise even more with the narrator.

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