"What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them" by Gertrude Stein

    

"There's no such thing as magic!"

The readers (pictured on bottom), hearing everything Gertrude Stein 

(pictured on the top) is saying and not believing it one bit

       Gertrude Stein writes unlike any other author, therefore, receiving both extremes of criticism; supporters that dote her and critics that say she is of no importance.  "What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them" was originally written and read as a lecture at Oxford and Cambridge.  The well-known French author tries to explain how master-pieces are related to human nature, the human mind, and identity in order to define them for her audience; her audience being those interested in finding their own master-pieces.

       Stein slowly builds throughout the essay towards her final purpose, but never seems to get there.  At the end of the essay, Stein says that, "If there was no identity no one could be governed, but everybody is governed by everybody and that is why they make no master-pieces..." (Stein 138).  If everyone is governed, and government causes death to master-pieces, then how can master-pieces exist?  By creating an impossible definition, Stein is not only failing to create an argument, but confusing her audience as well.  One would think that her purpose would be to answer the questions posed in her title, but her answers are all too vague for the audience to even take into consideration.  Every so often, in the midst of her jumbled sentences,  Stein repeats certain words in an attempt to clarify what she means.  On the second page of her essay, Stein writes, "It is very difficult so difficult that it always has been difficult but even more difficult now to know what is the relation of human nature to the human mind..." (Stein 132).  By emphasizing the fact that it is difficult to understand the relation between human nature and the human mind, Stein takes away from her main goal of writing this essay.  If Stein's purpose was to confuse her audience, she achieved it with ease.  Whether one agrees with Gertrude Stein's style or not, it is clear that "What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them" is no master-piece.

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