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Symbols
Bread is a cheap, wholesome food that is integrated into the routines and comforts of family life. In this story, the girl’s ability or inability to “feel the bread” symbolizes her perceived fitness or unfitness for wholesome family life. As her last bit of advice, Mother tells the girl that she should always feel bread to ensure that it is fresh. The girl, still uncertain about the rules of propriety that Mother seeks to instill, asks what she ought to do “if the baker won’t let [her] feel the bread.” The question brings about a rebuke from Mother, who believes that her worst suspicion (that the girl will be a slut) has been confirmed by the girl’s uncertainty about her worthiness to feel bread. Mother implies that she will lose social value if she becomes a slut, just as bread loses value when it is no longer fresh.
Bread Quotes in Girl
The Girl quotes below all refer to the symbol of Bread. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Girl Quotes
Always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?
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This is Mother’s final piece of advice and the second instance in which the girl speaks. Again, Mother insists that there is a proper way to do things—this time, buying bread—but, the girl questions, for the first time, whether Mother’s way of doing things is “always” reliable. The girl’s “what if” question raises the possibility of something that Mother might not have considered—that the baker might not want her to feel the bread. However, to Mother, the fault for this would lie with the girl. If he (given his right to judge, the baker is presumably a “he”) does not Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consecte
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Bread Symbol Timeline in Girl
The timeline below shows where the symbol Bread appears in Girl. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Girl
...showing her “how to make ends meet,” and also by advising her to “always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh.” This latter advice prompts the girl to ask what she...
(full context)
