On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a declaration of thirty rights that belongs to everyone. Ali Smith, the British writer, has found inspiration from this declaration of human rights. She expounds the violation of freedom of movement within the borders of each state and that we are all born equal and free. This is the issue that Ali Smit expounds in her short story “The Go-Between”, which was written in 2009 for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The protagonist is describing himself as a 33 years old man. He is originally from Cameroon, but is now in Ceuta which is in Northern Morocco. There he helped people get over the border fence to Spain. This leads to the title of this text; “The Go-Between”. …show more content…
Ali Smith shows her intention with the text with inspiration from Article 13. Article 13 is a Universal Declaration of Human Right. In the declaration it for example says: “Right to life, ban on torture, right to freedom of movement, right to asylum”. These examples of the Article 13 clearly aren’t true based on what “The Go-Between” tells us. “So they opened the big gates and rounded us all up with dogs and threw us all out. We were in Europe. They were meant to process us, even if we didn’t have the papers” (page 2, line 20-23). This quote is followed by another: “What they did, instead, was they chased us with dogs, sticks electric shock sticks and guns…” (page 2, line 24-25). What Article 13 tells us about the human rights, clearly doesn’t show in this text. Therefore, Ali Smith’ intention with this, is to show us that not all European countries follow the rules and that the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is no celebration at
The protagonist is describing himself as a 33 years old man. He is originally from Cameroon, but is now in Ceuta which is in Northern Morocco. There he helped people get over the border fence to Spain. This leads to the title of this text; “The Go-Between”. …show more content…
Ali Smith shows her intention with the text with inspiration from Article 13. Article 13 is a Universal Declaration of Human Right. In the declaration it for example says: “Right to life, ban on torture, right to freedom of movement, right to asylum”. These examples of the Article 13 clearly aren’t true based on what “The Go-Between” tells us. “So they opened the big gates and rounded us all up with dogs and threw us all out. We were in Europe. They were meant to process us, even if we didn’t have the papers” (page 2, line 20-23). This quote is followed by another: “What they did, instead, was they chased us with dogs, sticks electric shock sticks and guns…” (page 2, line 24-25). What Article 13 tells us about the human rights, clearly doesn’t show in this text. Therefore, Ali Smith’ intention with this, is to show us that not all European countries follow the rules and that the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is no celebration at