Bread and butter Quote by Jo Baker
““It was not that long ago that dinner had meant swallowing down whatever you could get your filthy hands on. . . Dinner meant something different here. It meant half a day's work for two women. It mean polished crystal and silver, it meant a change of dress for the diners and a special suit of clothes for the servants to serve it up in. Here, dinner meant delay; it meant extending, with all the complexities of preparation and all those rituals of civility, the gap between hunger and its satisfaction. Here, now, it seemed that hunger itself might be relished, because its cessation was guaranteed; there always was - there always would be - meat and vegetables and dumplings and cakes and pies and plates and forks and pleases and thank yous, and endless plates of bread and butter.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Longbourn, 2013
Dinner becomes a ritual that delays hunger, turning scarcity into a structured, ceremonial experience.
In simple terms: Meals are turned into elaborate ceremonies that postpone true need.
Key Takeaway
Notice how rituals can mask basic needs.
Themes
ritual
class
food
society
ceremony
Mood
contemplative
analytical
Type
literary
social commentary
When to use this quote
- hospitality industry
- family gatherings
- cultural studies
Key Concepts
sociology
anthropology
economics
Questions to Reflect On
- Why do societies elevate simple meals into ceremony?
- How does this affect perception of need?
A Different Perspective
Rituals can create false comfort, hiding underlying deprivation.
![“In order to save the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands to settle the surplus population, to provide new markets. [...] The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question.” quote by Cecil Rhodes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/53b/cecil-rhodes-17121_acquire_in-order-to-save-the-40-000-000-inhabita_202459.jpg)
