Reading Gertrude Stein was definitely not an easy task. I really had to sit and break apart every line from her poems and her essay. I re worded what I thought she was trying say for each of the pieces, and I looked up whatever caught my attention. I found myself getting really frustrated with all her pieces. I had to keep re reading her work because I would completely misunderstand what I first read. I decided to read everything aloud so I would minimize the times that I had to re-read it, and this worked!

When I read the first poem and saw the repetition about Napoleon at the beginning, I thought that I would have fun reading everything. I was wrong. After a while the repetition became a drag. I started to sound like a fool. “If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him. Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.” Seriously, I can’t get her words out of my head. I had nightmares about it. But I have to give Stein her credit. Because her words are so repetitive, I can remember a good amount of things in her pieces. This technique she used was wise because readers are able to understand the message that Stein wants to convey. She probably does not care whether we are annoyed with her writings or not, she just wants us to remember what she is saying. I don’t know, I feel “bitter sweet” about Stein. I understand that she wants us to understand what she understands, but her trying so hard to get us to understand just makes it more difficult for us, well at least me, to fully understand. Understand?