Milk And Honey Literary Analysis

One of the many misunderstood forms of literature would have to be poetry. Some people, including modern youth, do not get how it works, sometimes with broken, gibberish sounding sentences, and often with large loads of symbolism. But, when it is put into a book about modern issues, like sexual abuse, mental health, and feminism, it can be powerful to young and old minds alike. In Rupi Kaur’s first poetry book, Milk and Honey, with everything she covers, it can at times be difficult to figure out what type of conflict Kaur is dealing with. Though, with careful consideration, one is able to figure out that though there are multiple conflicts throughout the book, the ongoing conflict is person versus self. The reasons for that are how the sections
Each section flows into the next one, with the transition of a couple of poems. The one thing that stays the same about the sections is that they are primarily about Kaur’s emotions and how she feels about the events that take place (Kaur). Even though during the sections, there are different conflict types, the main focus stays on how Kaur is mentally and emotionally dealing with them. She focuses on how she has been affected more than what the situation is. This helps the book’s sections flow together, more as one large period of time than four seperate ones. Another way that the sections connect is the events that go together (Kaur). The hurting is about her childhood struggles, with inequality and abuse. After that, the loving is a sweet section about a caring relationship that helped her through hard times, and helped her feel happier. The breaking is about the end of that relationship ending, and how she felt about that, and the healing is about her journey to find happiness again. All of these have one thing in common; Kaur’s emotional and mental health. That is why how the sections of the book connect prove that the conflict is person versus
Kaur typically describes how she is feeling instead of the actual events (Kaur). Most of her poetry is focused on how she feels about a situation after in happens, not what is actually happening in the moment. Her poems are predominantly past-tense, giving her an appropriate platform to express what she feels or is feeling. “What I miss most is how you loved me. But what I didn’t know was how you loved me had so much to do with the person that I was. It was a reflection of everything I gave to you. Coming back to me,” (Kaur 138). In that excerpt of a longer poem, the reader can tell that Kaur is more reflecting on the event than recalling it. She more talks about her struggle coming to terms with these events in the past and present than how they actually happened. In fact, the reader gets very little explicit information on the events themselves, Kaur leaves that part up to inferences from the small parts she discloses. That is how the tone of the person versus person poems proves that the conflict is person versus