Summary of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

The book Milk and Honey written by Rupi Kaur was a collection of poems that were split up into 4 sections and each section was poems about a different topic. The sections were called The Hurting, The loving, The Breaking, and The Healing.
The first section, The Hurting, had a lot of poems about a daughters relationship with her father. The poem, "A daughter should not have to beg her father for a relationship," was one of the poems I was affected by most because I have always had a special kind of bond with my father and I have always taken that for granted but after reading that poem I realized some people don't have that and I can't imagine what I would do without my dad. The first section also had a lot of poems about rape and I am sure that a person who is a survivor of rape would find it to be very comforting but at the same time probably bring up some feelings and memories that they have tried to forget about.
The second section, The Loving, had poems that talked about how a guy can make a girl feel. I was able to connect with this chapter a lot because a lot of the feelings she brought up I could remember a time were I had felt the same way. There was a poem in the section that said, "I am learning how to love him by loving myself." I found that poem very interesting because that was the first time in the book she had talked about a women loving themselves, before that she had only talked about how people love women or the difference between someone saying I love you and actually being loved.
The third section, The Breaking, felt a lot like a chapter to support people after a break up. This section had poems about guys leaving and a lot of ideas about how a guy will not be over a girl but the girl will have already moved on. My favorite poem from this sections was, "Don't mistake salt for sugar if he wants to be with you he will it's that simple." I liked that poem because it talks about how if a boy loves you then he loves you for you and he will stay.
The fourth section, The Healing, talked about self love and how everything will be okay. One of my favorite poems from this section was, "you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first." I really liked that poem because to me it meant you have to love yourself and be happy with yourself before you can love somebody else and be happy with somebody else.
This book also had a very nice aesthetic. There were a few simple drawings that seemed to look like a sketch on the page. Everything was in black and white and all the poems for the most part were very short. There was no capitalization used in the entire book which I thought was interesting. I really liked how the book looked because it was all very basic and simple.
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I have personally not had to face a lot of the struggles this author has faced but I still really enjoyed it. I have not found myself enjoying a book as much as I enjoyed this book in a long time. This book is great for anyone who has gone through a break up, been affected by rape, had boy issues, girl issues, broken heart, family struggles, or just any struggle someone can have is addressed in this book in one way or another. One of the best parts is that the book is made of poetry so the reader has the freedom to read the poem and make it apply to their life in someway and make them not feel so alone.

Of all the texts that we've read this year, which one is your favorite, and why? Which one is your least favorite, and why?

Out of all the books we have read this school year my favorite has been The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. It was the first formal book this year but as I reflect back on what we have read I was able to enjoy that book the most. I have always had a hard time reading about slavery and I just always feel so horrified knowing what used to and in someways still exist in our society. I found The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas to be very informational and also inspirational in a way because he was able to never give up even when put in very very difficult situations. My least favorite book this school year was The Merchant of Venice. I found the book very hard to read mostly because of the language that Shakespeare's plays are written in. I also didn't find the story very compelling. I did like how we learned about how much Shakespeare's writing has influenced today's writing and learning basic structures of a play. I would probably enjoy The Merchant of Venice more now because after taking Theatre I learned a lot about how to read Shakespeare.

What interested you about this novel and what do you have to say about it?

One thing I wondered as I read The Great Gatsby is how did Gatsby overlook the entitled attitude that Daisy had. It was very interesting to me to see how Gatsby had this amazing image of Daisy in his mind but her personality did not match up with all the amazing things he made her out to be. I wondered if maybe he had just remembered such amazing things about Daisy and thought about Daisy so much that after five years he was willing to over look any of her flaws. After so much time had past maybe he just saw her as the woman she was five years ago. I also thought it was interesting how different Daisy's personality was in the movie production of the book. In the movie Daisy did not seem as entitled as she seemed in the book. I wonder why the producer of the movie made the decision to change her personality or to just tone it down a bit.

Choose one of the themes in the book that we identified and discussed in class (this should be in your notes) and decide which one you believe is the primary theme of The Great Gatsby. Explain why you think this is the primary theme and provide three pieces of textual evidence to support your position.

I believe the American Dream is an unsustainable ideal that gives false hope and artificial happiness is the theme of the book. That theme is the one I wrote in class so I may be a bit bias towards mine instead of the others but I will explain why I think it is the one I chose. The American Dream was something that was not always formally brought up in The Great Gatsby but it was often something that was referenced and when it was referenced it never seemed as if it was being described as a good thing. When the American Dream was brought up or referenced it was talked about as a sort of deceiving thing or something people can't rely on to be a good thing. The reason I put unsustainable is because The Great Gatsby made me believe the American Dream wasn't something you could live forever and that was shown a lot when Gatsby died. The green light, as we talked about in class, was a symbol for the American Dream so on the last page when Fitzgerald wrote, " Gatsby believe in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us." If the green light was a symbol for the American Dream then Fitzgerald was saying the American Dream every year moved farther and farther away which made it less achievable even though Gatsby still believed in it. Also Fitzgerald wrote, "For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant." Since Daisy was living the American Dream basically Fitzgerald was saying that Daisy's world was not real and everything she thought to be so good was not actually.

What is the climax (turning point) of the novel? How do you know? How is the central conflict addressed in the climax? Use textual evidence to back up your claims.

For me the climax, or the turning point, was when Gatsby was shot because it got rid of the love conflict in the book. When Gatsby died there was no longer to guys for Daisy to chose between because the choice was made for her in a way. When Tom Buchanan's mistress died then Tom didn't have somebody to cheat on Daisy with even though he could probably just find someone else in the city. Even if Tom didn't have anyone to cheat with there is still the conflict of who does Daisy love. The climax of the story usually happens during the middle of the book but to me all the other characteristic of a climax were met when Gatsby died. Also, after Gatsby died everyone started leaving and going off on their own. Everything seemed to calm down and separate after Gatsby died.

In chapter 5, when Daisy and Gatsby meet, how is weather used to create mood, and what mood(s) is created?

The scene where Gatsby and Daisy meet exposes a lot about who the characters really are. For the first time in that scene you see the walls of these characters come down and they seem more genuine and show emotions. Gatsby acts like a nervous mess and is clearly hypnotized by Daisy. Daisy also seems to act more genuine and seem like she cares. Daisy seems less sarcastic and shows more part of her personality that she usually hides. The scene where they met also seemed kind of awkward and that is not something that was common for these characters before. These characters usually seem to be able to be normal in social situations and around others. This scene kind of helped put the characters together and tell the readers more about their personality.

In the first two pages of the novel, Nick Carraway claims that he is "inclined to reserve all judgment." Do you find that this is true so far? Please provide textual evidence to support your position.

In the first two pages of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway said that he is, "inclined to reserve all judgment." There are times in the first few chapters where I started to question if that was really true. Most of the time Nick Carraway just played the narrator and explain facts and visual details to really give the reader an insight into what Fitgerald was envisioning. However, there were other times when Nick Carraway seemed to make judgments on people which he said he would not on the first two pages. On page 6 Nick said,"one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty or that everything afterward savors of anticlimax." He says that about Tom Buchanan who is Daisy's husband. By him saying that it seems like he is judging him for having success young and he is making assumptions about what the rest of his life will be. Nick also said on page 7,"It was a boy capable of enormous leverage, a cruel body." That may have just been a way to describe Tom but I found it as Nick making a judgment about Tom and his capabilities just based on the way he looked.