Which line from The Emigree emphasizes border permeability?

• A. It underscores the power of borders
• B. It highlights border permeability
• C. It shows borders as sentimental but fixed
• D. It denies any border significance

Answer: (B)

The line is about borders as something porous, not solid barriers. In The Emigree, the speaker keeps a vivid memory of the city that remains with them across the political and physical divide, so the border functionally allows memory, identity, and feeling to pass through it rather than stopping them. This emphasis on memory crossing the boundary shows permeability: borders don’t completely sever the speaker from home because the city lives on inside their mind.

The other ideas—that borders are powerful and controlling, that they are sentimental but fixed, or that they have no significance—don’t fit the poem’s sustained idea that personal memory can travel beyond the state’s lines and keep the place alive.