Hello. You have not shown which text this question refers to, which makes it impossible for it to be answered. However, after searching for your question on the internet, I was able to find another question, exactly the same as yours in the book "Dobey and son." If that's the case for you, I hope the answer below will help you.
Answer:
The role of this image is to make an analogy about how the baby is wrapped like a muffin being put out to bake.
Explanation:
"Dobey and son" is a novel written by Charles Dickens and presents a darker and more reflective story compared to the other stories by the author. In this novel, we get to know a man who feels overwhelmed by not having a child, which causes him to reject the only daughter he has.
The babies within this narrative are highly valued and in the opening paragraph, we are presented with the image of a muffin. At first, the reader may not understand what this image means, but the reader can see that, as reading progresses, the image makes an analogy to how babies are wrapped in a sheet. The baby rolled up resembles a muffin packaged to bake, as we can see in the lines:
"Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new. "
