Introduction
Margaret Atwood’s “Bread” offers five situations in which the value of bread is perceived differently. Readers begin to rethink what bread is as they go through the different contexts. Atwood is convinced that only when faced with choices that play a decisive role in later life can one realize the value of bread as a resource and take on new intangible values.
Analysis
In paragraph 1, the author suggests that bread is not a luxury. Bread is used as a symbol to show how wealth changes the value of material objects. The text states, “Some of the honey runs out onto your fingers, and you lick it off” (Atwood 1). From the abundance of bread, its value has already been lost because there was not even a moment when it was extracted with difficulty. In this situation, the author comforts the reader, and he does not have to think about the meaning of bread.
In paragraph 2, the author argues that the value of bread is perceived in terms of who needs it most. Bread symbolizes how the availability of resources affects decision-making. The text says, “You think of going out to see if you might find something that could be eaten, but outside, the streets are infested with scavengers, and the stink of corpses is everywhere” (Atwood 1). Some resources cannot be replenished, and their value is perceived now. The representation of hunger is a situation in which human values are redefined.
In paragraph 3, the author discusses how a resource can become a decisive factor in life. Bread, in this case, symbolizes the consequences that various decisions lead to. The text states, “It’s not the hunger or the pain that is killing you but the absence of the yellow bowl” (Atwood 2). Bread is a choice that only deceptively bestows good once a decision has been made. The use of prison and bribery demonstrates the conditions under which one’s choices affect the state between one’s life and the lives of others.
In paragraph 4, the author assumes that bread becomes a symbol of the passage of the material into the immaterial. Bread symbolizes accumulated wealth, which has no value without good use. The text says, “The rich sister said, ‘I do not have enough for myself,’ and drove her away from the door” (Atwood 2). Wealth by bread does not equate with moral values. The contrast between the poor and the rich is based on the difference in their perception of their values.
In paragraph 5, the author concludes that bread symbolizes an unattainable illusion that frightens the reader. Bread represents those values, which at any moment can disappear because the reader has taken them for granted. The text says, “You don’t want to know whether the bread is real or whether it’s just a hallucination I’ve somehow duped you into seeing” (Atwood 2). Bread can cease to exist for the reader because he has forgotten its value. In this setting, bread determines how man-made all perceptions of material objects are and how much they change according to perception.
Conclusion
Thus, Margaret Atwood in “Bread” forces the reader to consider that values cannot be limited to material resources such as bread. By considering different situations and rethinking the value of bread, the reader believes that taking any bread for granted can lead them into difficult situations. In such situations, one has to make choices for the present and the intangible rather than dwell on bread.
Work Cited
Atwood, Margaret. “Bread” in Murder in the Dark. Web.