Link from: black milk

Writers in one literature class suggested the following associations for 'black milk of daybreak':-

the bitterness of captivity which the prisoners face all day, every day, and find hardest to face when they wake up

the staining of the snow, which the prisoners press to their mouths in thirst, with ash from the crematoria

the polluting of anything the prisoners ate or drank to survive with the ash from the crematoria, reminding the prisoners they were living because others were dying

the blood of those dying throughout the war

the knowledge of their own deaths which the prisoners expected each day

milk is normally white and sustaining: black milk is the opposite. It's dangerous and poisons you yet you have to drink it to survive

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