Gertrude Stein: Master of Words and Sounds

Gertrude Stein was a modernist poet whose life shined through her
works. Stein was born in the US, but she spent most of her infancy abroad
until she came back to Oakland. Then, in 1903, she moved back to Paris to
spend the rest of her life in France (Evans). Stein's life and personal struggles
heavily influenced her use of repetition and word play inside and outside of
poetry, her literary style, and her personal life.
Gertrude Steins personal struggles with finding herself played an
integral role in forming her personality and style of writing. She attended
many prestigious universities. All of which she did not finish her studies at.
When Stein attended Johns Hopkins, she did not finish because as she
figured out that she was a lesbian, she became bored with medicine and quit
medical school (Evans). She officially came out with her sexuality in the book
Q.E.D, published in 1956. Stein struggled with finding herself through the
deaths of both of her parents while she was trying to figure out her sexuality
(Shuman). This only lead to Stein becoming angry with herself and stopped
writing for a while. Through these struggles, she found someone that would
be there with her. Her name was Alice B. Toklas.
It was Gertrude Steins habit to write through the night, while her
beloved Alice slept. Stein would leave notes for Toklas to find when she rose
in the morning, ready to type the pages Stein had written out in longhand
the night before (Evans, Discussion). The House was

Just Twinkling in the Moon Light is one of these love notes, which remained
unpublished until 1999 when Kay Turner edited a selection of them and wrote
a thorough and incisive introduction in Precious Baby Always Shines:
Selected Love Notes Between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (Evans,
Discussion). The notes are not great works of literature. In fact, one might
say that Stein wrote them after she was finished writing, so theyre not
literature at all. But these short pieces are nevertheless indisputably
charming, and, because they were written not as public art but as private
gestures, they also afford us a uniquely intimate glimpse of the inner
workings of one of the 20th centurys most fascinating marriages (Shuman).
Steins life greatly affected her use of repetition and word play in her poetry.
Perhaps the best example of this use of word play and repetition is in her
poem Susie Asado. The first 2 lines of Steins poem repeat the high pitched
sound "sweet". This is repeated throughout to indicate a sign of urgency. In
line 16, she talks about trees that shade her. The trees represent men and
how they protect her. Then the line says that when shoved from under the
shade she is vulnerable and has no protection. Back in the early to mid
1900s, women were not allowed to have jobs so they would depend on the
men to survive. When pushed from under this shade of protection her
social norms were shaken or bobbled. Once again the last line of the poem is
high frequency "sweet" also signifying urgency. In the middle of the line
where she says when the ancient light is clean it is yellow. This signifies that
women are intelligent and can think on their own. Ancient refers to old

traditions and light refers to intelligence. Then Stein states it is a silver

seller (Stein 7-8), propagating that women can work and make money like
men. "This is a please" (Stein 9) is referring to her cry out for men to
please let loose of her chain. "A lean on the shoe means slips slips hers" can
mean something underneath. The message underneath this poem is that
women have rights and can be independent from men. If they step away
from the old traditions of men being dominant over women then they can
accomplish things on their own. Steins tradition of feminism shines through
this poem with her rabid use of symbolism and repetition (Stein, Susie
Asado). Her poem titled Red Faces has the same repetitious quality as her
other poems but it is not as hard hitting and obvious. In line 1, Stein says the
phrase "pretty flags". It is not clear with which flag she is referring to as she
lived in both the US and France and both flags contain the color red. In the
last 3 lines, Stein writes, "The region and the wheels. All wheels are perfect.
Enthusiasm." These lines are random and it is ambiguous as to what Stein
means by this (Stein, Red Flags). Stein died of stomach cancer in July of
1946. Toklas wrote of the "troubled, confused and very uncertain" afternoon
of the surgery. "I sat next to her and she said to me early in the afternoon,
what is the answer? I was silent. In that case, she said, what is the
question?" However, in a letter to Van Vechten ten years earlier, Toklas had
written:
About Baby's last words. She said upon waking from a sleep--What is
the question. And I didn't answer thinking she was not completely

awakened. Then she said again--What is the question and before I could
speak she went on--If there is no question then there is no answer.
Stein's biographers have naturally selected the superior "in that case what is
the question?" version. Strong narratives win out over weak ones when no
obstacle of factuality stands in their way. What Stein actually said remains
unknown. That Toklas cited the lesser version in a letter
of 1953 is suggestive but not conclusive (Evans, Discussion). Stein had
many influences on her works; most of which were hidden under a layer of
rigid social beliefs and possibly a few lines of repetitious prose.
Stein was influenced by many modernists of her time period in many
different ways. Some of the many influences include philosophical and
artistic influences. William James was most likely the greatest personal
influence on Stein and her writings. Under James, Stein performed some of
her first language experiments. A theory called "automatic writing", which
stated that the subconscious mind could, in fact, write comprehensibly while
the conscious mind held a different conversation. Stein published two articles
on this philosophy, but later concluded that automatic writing was not
possible (Evans). From this, she became fascinated with the rhythms of
speech in her subjects, which she showed later in her poetry.
Stein was also influenced artistically by many cubist artists, the most
influential of which being Pablo Picasso. Cubism advocates the repetition of
shapes and values, and that is what Stein was most famous for: her
repetition of word sounds to create a different sense of reality in her poetry

(Shuman). Stein was very social, as she had many friends outside of poetry,
many of which were artists. She used this to her advantage and became
popular among many avant-garde artists for her experimental writing and
her deliberate use of word sounds (Evans, Discussion). As an avid lover of
art, Stein tried to achieve what Picasso and other cubist artists achieved on
canvas by using words on a page.
Stein was influential on both readers and other great writers alike with
her strong use of language and her mesmerizing use of repetition her prose.
She later became identified with
many avant-garde painters of the modernist era, as her poem structures
became more widely known throughout the world (Evans). Steins trademark
style is what got her to be so famous throughout the world of poetry.
Steins style was very unique, for it represented everything that she
was as a person. Her repetitious nature is apparent in most of her writing.
She uses repetition to complete her goal of achieving what Picasso did on
canvas with a pen and paper. Her use of repetition also symbolizes what was
going on through her head when she wrote. There possibly couldve been so
many thoughts that she just plucked one from her brain and wrote about that
one, repeating it over and over again. The best example of this from Stein is
From Four Saints in Three Acts. This poem is the best representation of
Stein's repetitious nature. It was featured as a libretto in an opera by
composer Virgil Thomson called From Four Saints in Three Acts (Stein,
From Four Saints in Three Acts). Stein avoided most words that had negative

connotations that dealt with social issues. Her work also avoided anxiety,
fear, and anger to achieve a harmonic and integrative system of toying with
the sounds of words (Shuman). Stein not only wrote poetry, but she also
wrote a number of novels. She mirrored the unconventional language used in
her poetry to the diction and syntax of her novels.
As Steins style is mirrored over into her novels, her influences are too.
The Making of Americans is one of Gertrude Stein's many novels. It traces
the genealogy and history of the fictional Hersland and Dehning families.
Stein also includes many allusions in the novel to her process of writing it
(Evans, Discussion). Q.E.D. was among the earliest "coming out stories".
Stein was inspired to write this novel while she was having a three-person
romantic affair at Johns Hopkins, which caused her to drop out of medical
school and also which correlates with the novel (Evans, Discussion). Another
novel written by Stein is Tender Buttons. It is a small book composed of
many 'hermetic" works split up into the sections of food, objects and rooms.
This compilation of works contains many uses of repetition as seen in Steins
poems (Shuman). Word Portraits was another novel that was a compilation of
many of Stein's essays about some of her closest friends and acquaintances
(Evans). All of these novels contain Steins captivating use of language that
was influenced by many of her close friends and family.
Gertrude Steins life shines through all of her works. This is seen
through her trademark style which was formed by philosophical and artistic
influences alike. Stein was the most complex and socially rigid characters of

the Modernist era, which makes her unique in that no other poet or writer,
for that matter, has influenced as many as she has.

Works Cited
Evans, Robert C. "Stein, Gertrude." In Evans, Robert C., ed., and Patricia M.
Gant, gen. ed. Student's Encyclopedia of Great American Writers:
1900 to
1945, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. Bloom's Literature.
Facts On File, Inc. Web. 7 Mar. 2016 <http://www.fofweb.com/
activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE54&WID=19270&SID=5&iPin=SEGAWIII1308&Sin
gleRecord=True>.
Shuman, R. Baird. "Gertrude Stein." Salem Press Biographical
Encyclopedia(2016):
Research Starters. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Gertrude Stein, Susie Asado from Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein.
(New York: Peter Smith Publishing, 1992). Copyright 1992 by
Calman A.
Levin, Executor of the Estate of Gertrude Stein. Reprinted with the
permission of the Estate of Gertrude Stein.
Gertrude Stein, [The house was twinkling in the moon light] from Baby
Precious Always Shines: Selected Love Notes Between Gertrude
Stein and
Alice B. Toklas (St. Martins Press, 1999). Reprinted with the
permission
of the Estate of Gertrude Stein.

Evans, Robert C. "Gertrude Stein: Discussion Questions." In Evans, Robert C.,

ed., and Patricia M. Gant, gen. ed. Student's Encyclopedia of Great
American Writers: 1900 to 1945, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File,
Inc.,
2010. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 22 Mar. 2016
<http://www.fofweb.com/
activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE54&WID=19270&SID=5&iPin=SEGAWIII1317&Sin
gleRecord=True>.