In Tissue, what paradox is explored in the later stanzas?

• A. Paper is invincible
• B. Paper can endure anything
• C. Paper is irrelevant to memory
• D. Paper is fragile, yet still controls our lives

Answer: (D)

The main idea being tested here is a paradox: something fragile and seemingly flimsy like paper can still have real power to shape how we live. In the later stanzas of Tissue, the speaker moves from imagining paper as something delicate to recognizing that the marks written on it—maps, borders, official documents, memories—play a decisive role in our lives. Paper carries the authority of government, history, and identity, deciding who belongs, who is counted, what is remembered. The fragility of the material underscores human vulnerability, yet that same material holds the power to govern our world. So the paradox is that something so delicate can exert such control, which is exactly captured by the idea that paper is fragile, yet still controls our lives. The other options miss this tension: the poem isn’t celebrating invincibility or perpetual endurance, nor does it treat memory as irrelevant.