Book Overview: The Sun and Her Flowers
3 min read•december 14, 2021
Riya Patel
Riya Patel
Student Life 😎
15 resourcesSee Units
The Sun and Her Flowers: A Review
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2017
ISBN13: 9781449486792
Publisher: Andrew McMeel Publishing
Pages: 256
Genres: Poetry/Feminism
This summer, I was able to read The Sun and Her Flowers, which is written by Canadian-Indian poet and illustrator, Rupi Kaur. This work is Kaur’s second collection of poetry, following Milk and Honey. Although I personally haven’t read Milk and Honey, I’ve heard that it is a bestseller. The Sun and Her Flowers is centered around the stages in a flower’s life. Kaur states, “‘This is the recipe of life,’ said my mother as she held me in her arms as I wept, ‘think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year, they will teach you that people too must wilt, fall, root, rise, in order to bloom.'”
Main Topics per Section
- Wilting: heartbreak and grief
- Falling: struggles with love, low self esteem, and self-abandonment
- Rooting: honoring one’s roots
- Rising: love
- Blooming: empowerment and self-acceptance
With each of these topics, Kaur tries to convey her own traumatic experiences in life without being shy about it through her book. She wants to advocate for herself and show others to learn to love themselves like she learned to. She also explored big issues in the real world such as infanticide and feminism, which are now “hot topics” in today’s media. Along with this, she talked about her mother and the struggles she faced to get where she is today, to add on to an already inspirational story.
Feminism
As I mentioned before, many of the poems reflected a theme of feminism. Throughout the text, I appreciated and admired that she talked about women being oppressed in Indian culture, exploring topics about girl power and female infanticide.
One of my favorite poems from this topic was:
“what is the greatest lesson a woman should learn
that since day one
she’s already had everything she needs within herself
it’s the world that convinced her she did not”
Immigrant Experiences
Kaur was also able to tell her own experiences as an immigrant, which allowed non-immigrants like me to experience what it felt like to adopt a new country as home. She went on to describe the challenges and tough labor an immigrant has to go through in order to survive in a whole new country. In telling this journey, Kaur was able to tell us a lot about her mother’s journey.
For example, one of her poems states:
“she left an entire village to be his wife
now she left an entire country to be a warrior
and when the winter came
they had nothing but the heat of their own bodies
to keep the coldness out”
Illustrations
Along with the themes, I loved the illustrations in the book. All of the illustrations blended so beautifully with her poetry. They helped convey the emotions intended in the poems all at once: sadness, love, frustration, and happiness.
Look at this beautiful drawing!
Overall, Rupi Kaur did a great job with her collection of poems as it really drove through the topic of self-love. She helped inspire women to uplift themselves and not care about the negative comments people around them give and instead, love themselves for who they are. I would definitely recommend it!
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