Milk and Honey is not a typical book you would read, it is a collection of poetry that has no characters or plot. It has four different chapters which consist of love, pain, abuse, and healing. Although, they all tie into the one topic of femininity. I really enjoyed this book because it has multiple ways of describing different kinds of pain, and if you as the reader, cannot relate to all four chapters, you can still connect and feel the emotions that were put into writing this book. Since Rupi Kaur herself has experienced all of these things and felt all of these emotions, she did a great job creating an image of what she felt without bluntly saying it. She also describes what it is like to be a women, more specifically a young women, and the struggles a lot of females go through in the most beautiful and poetic way.
Kaur links women and their femininity to power, strength, and wisdom, and that the things that have happened to women do not define them as a person, but how they have built their power, strength, and wisdom. She clearly states that women are beautiful in their natural state and do not have to be the stereotypical “ideal” women that society makes women out to be. The way that society thinks a women should present themselves is a body hairless, fit, quiet, well dressed lady. Kaur believes that if a women does not want to shave, wear a dress, keep all their energy built up inside of them, they shouldn't have to just because they feel like they need to fit in or feel beautiful. Milk and Honey motivates women to stand up for what they believe in, live the way they want, and to love and support one another.
Self-love is a significant topic in Milk and Honey. Kaur tells the stories of the obstacles she and other women have faced. She shows that self-love is something that needs to be built by making her poems progressively become more positive as the chapter moves forward. This ensures the reader that difficulties only make you stronger and teach you to build a better future for yourself. Not only does she talk about loving yourself, she talks about being in love. She stresses what it feels like to love someone and to be loved back, but she also makes it known that you can easily lose yourself in that love and you can be so blinded by love that you cannot see that in some cases, the relationship you are in might be doing more bad than good for you.
Many abuse victims feel alone during and after their traumatic experience, they feel like they are the only ones who have gone through it. Kaur tells the reader that she has been abused, raped, and harassed which makes the reader feel comforted and reassured that they are not alone and there is a way to move on from what has happened to them. She ends the chapter in a way that makes the reader feel like there is hope and that there will be something good coming from all the trauma that they have been through.
Finally, Kaur discusses the topic of healing. She explains how hard it was for her to move on from all the traumatic things that has happened to her but once she eventually was able to, she felt much better. From the all of abuse she went through, she was able to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Something that I found really interesting was the title of the book, Milk and Honey. The title was said in some of the poems throughout the book, but there was no clear reasoning as to why Milk and Honey was used to name a book that was about such powerful and influential emotions and actions. When I researched and found the meaning behind the title I was very surprised, milk and honey is a combination used in the Indian culture for various health benefits, like healing. Kaur used this combination as her title because it ties her back to her Indian roots and healing is a huge part of the book.
Kaur links women and their femininity to power, strength, and wisdom, and that the things that have happened to women do not define them as a person, but how they have built their power, strength, and wisdom. She clearly states that women are beautiful in their natural state and do not have to be the stereotypical “ideal” women that society makes women out to be. The way that society thinks a women should present themselves is a body hairless, fit, quiet, well dressed lady. Kaur believes that if a women does not want to shave, wear a dress, keep all their energy built up inside of them, they shouldn't have to just because they feel like they need to fit in or feel beautiful. Milk and Honey motivates women to stand up for what they believe in, live the way they want, and to love and support one another.
Self-love is a significant topic in Milk and Honey. Kaur tells the stories of the obstacles she and other women have faced. She shows that self-love is something that needs to be built by making her poems progressively become more positive as the chapter moves forward. This ensures the reader that difficulties only make you stronger and teach you to build a better future for yourself. Not only does she talk about loving yourself, she talks about being in love. She stresses what it feels like to love someone and to be loved back, but she also makes it known that you can easily lose yourself in that love and you can be so blinded by love that you cannot see that in some cases, the relationship you are in might be doing more bad than good for you.
Many abuse victims feel alone during and after their traumatic experience, they feel like they are the only ones who have gone through it. Kaur tells the reader that she has been abused, raped, and harassed which makes the reader feel comforted and reassured that they are not alone and there is a way to move on from what has happened to them. She ends the chapter in a way that makes the reader feel like there is hope and that there will be something good coming from all the trauma that they have been through.
Finally, Kaur discusses the topic of healing. She explains how hard it was for her to move on from all the traumatic things that has happened to her but once she eventually was able to, she felt much better. From the all of abuse she went through, she was able to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Something that I found really interesting was the title of the book, Milk and Honey. The title was said in some of the poems throughout the book, but there was no clear reasoning as to why Milk and Honey was used to name a book that was about such powerful and influential emotions and actions. When I researched and found the meaning behind the title I was very surprised, milk and honey is a combination used in the Indian culture for various health benefits, like healing. Kaur used this combination as her title because it ties her back to her Indian roots and healing is a huge part of the book.