Vocabulary
What word means extreme shortage of food?
What is: Famine
What ordinary object is the focus of Atwood's essay?
What is Bread?
What point of view does Atwood frequently use throughout the essay?
Second Person
Bread literally represents food, but what can it symbolize?
Survival, necessity, security, privilege
Give a synonym for comrade.
Companion/Ally
What word means to resist or survive something?
What is: Withstand
How does Atwood ask the reader to participate in the essay?
She repeatedly asks the reader to imagine different situations.
What is the power of Atwood using "you" as the main pronoun throughout the writing?
It forces the reader to place themselves into the situations
Complete this sentence: "The value of something can change depending on __________"
Circumstances/perspective/need
Which vocabulary word could describe a dangerous journey? Explain and use it in a sentence
Treacherous
If you conjure an image, what are you doing?
What is: Imagining it
What happens to the situations involving bread as the essay progresses?
They become more serious/dangerous and involve hunger, scarcity, or survival
Why might Atwood have chosen something as simple as bread as the central object?
Because it is familiar and ordinary, making the value more influential
What is the difference between the topic of this essay and its theme?
Topic= Hunger, Bread, Privilege
Theme= A message about one of these topics
Why would Atwood's message be less effective if she only descried people experiencing famine instead of asking YOU to imagine being hungry?
The second-person scenarios make the issue personal and harder for the reader to distance themselves from.
Use scavenger and infest correctly in one sentence.
Mrs. Brown chooses
Why does the value of bread change throughout the essay?
Then circumstances surrounding it changes
How does Atwood manipulate the reader's perspective throughout the essay?
She changes the circumstances while keeping bread as the central object
Create a theme statement for "Bread".
Example: People often fail to recognize the value of basic necessities until those necessities become scarce.
What is more important to Atwood's argument: the bread itself or the changing circumstances surrounding the bread? Explain.
Changing circumstances; they demonstrate how perspective changes value.
Define BOTH treacherous and subversive.
What is...
Treacherous: dangerous/untrustworthy
Subversive: challenging a system
What contrast does Atwood create between someone who has plenty of food and someone experiencing hunger?
Bread can seem ordinary/unimportant when plentiful but extremely valuable when survival depends on it.
Describe Atwood's intentionality: What does she want the reader to think or feel by the end?
She wants readers to be more grateful, specifically to reconsider their assumptions about food, hunger, privilege, and survival
How does Atwood use bread to explore privilege without simply telling readers "You are privileged"?
She places readers into contrasting scenarios so they experience the changing value of bread themselves.
In 30 seconds explain how Atwood uses one ordinary object, changing scenarios, and second person POV to communicate her message.
Must mention: Bread as a symbol, increasingly serious circumstances, "you", and privilege.