Prospective

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Analysis of Prospective Immigrants please note: This poem is saying that people who are possible immigrants have possible outcomes that are clearly stated in stanza one: Either they will go through the door, or they won't. Going through the door means though they may change their name, it does not necessarily mean they will change who they are. There is a risk of remembering themselves as they were before going through the door. The poem warns that people will look at you and what you do twice but you have to let them look at you and you have to look back. If you do not go through this door the poem is saying that it is possible to live your life fully but you might wonder many things that will not have answers like: what would have happened if you had gone through the door? If one does not go through the door you may regret it or you may not. No one knows what the cost of not going through the door is because it is different for everyone. Finally, the poem reminds the reader that no matter what happens, the door is an inanimate object. It promises nothing because it is only a door. All of the promises that the door could hold for the one going through the door are thought up by the person set on possibly going through the door. In other words, whatever promises the door has for the immigrant (or whoever, for one could find other meanings for this poem as well) are put in that person's mind by no one other than themself.