Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Routine helps to distract Winnie from the empty nature of her day. The bag and all its contents protect Winnie from the meaninglessness of her life by giving her a purpose, something "to do" in a world of nothingness (1.31). It gives her a tie to the physical world that has left her behind—her past—and she certainly spends a lot of time thinking about the past and how good it was. How about focusing on today, Winnie? After all, YOLO.
The items in the bag help Winnie establish a routine that allows her to continue on with her life, which is about interesting and exciting as watching paint dry. Living in a mound really kills your social life. The routine functions as a distraction to the purposeless nature of Winnie's everyday life and gives her a welcome escape from really thinking about what it all means.
The thing is, Beckett thought that we all do that to some extent or another. For example, have you ever wondered why you do the things you do, when you do them, and in the manner that you do them? That's something that most of us prefer not to think about. Why? Well, maybe it's just easier to keep doing what we're doing.
The black bag is also a place where Winnie can find happy memories. After all, thinking about the past is a whole lot easier for Winnie than dealing with her present situation…We bet she'd really like a ride in Doc's DeLorean. Those memories are all she has left, which makes the objects pretty important to her. Did you notice how things start spiraling out of control for Winnie after she's unable to go through her bag, which brings up the question, how important are things to people? How much do we depend on objects to help us through the day or to remind us of important events in our lives?