Barack Obama once stated, “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.” He talks of a nation where race and ethnicity do not define your status or who you are as a person. Rupi Kaur immigrated to Canada when she was just a young girl. Throughout her life, she had experienced so much more than that one event. Kaur has not allowed this one event that happened to shape her life in adulthood. This is why in her poems, “All You Own is Yourself,” “How is it so Easy for You,” and “Most Importantly Love,” Rupi Kaur uses her experience as a first-generation immigrant to demonstrate that past events do not define one’s future. In her poem, “All You Own is Yourself,” Rupi Kaur uses repetition to show that if you …show more content…
For example, she writes, “How is it so easy for you/ to be kind to people he asked,” (l. 1-2) Clearly by stating this the other speaker, besides Kaur in the poem, has struggled with kindness in the past. Kaur however before answering takes a pause and thinks about her answer, “Milk and honey dripped/from my lips as I answered.” Up until adulthood Kaur has had major upsets in her life and hasn’t always been treated the kindest. Rather than reacting in the same way Kaur has made it obvious through her poetry, “cause people have not/been kind to me,” or in interviews and on social media, “And I couldn’t have it if I was letting other peoples’ opinions impose themselves on me.” (girlboss.com) that just because something has affected you in the past doesn’t mean that it should affect who you are. Through the repetition of this belief in all aspects of her life she is able in her poem, “How is it so Easy for You,” to use dialogue to make the point that everyone should be treated with respect and kindness regardless of who they are or used to