Haley Jenkins's List: Family Scarcity

The bread the author presented to the reader is essentially the image of love that they have with them presently. It has shrunk severely because of some severe situation in their lives that they are in need of more. Without it, they could actually die of a broken heart, or as Margaret Atwood puts it, "hunger".

Another image that Margaret Atwood gave was, "She went to her sister and asked her for a mouthful of bread. 'My children are dying,' she said. The rich sister said, 'I do not have enough for myself,' and drove her away from the door."

The woman in this quote is in need of love and she came to her sister to ask for it. But crudely her sister turned her away because the rich sister thinks she doesn't get enough love and if she spares it, then it would never come back.