Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein’s “Why Do You Feel Differently” was a bit difficult for me to understand the first time I read through the poem.  The use of anaphora, the repetition of the title contained within the lines several times, and the recurrence comparing small objects to large ones lead me to believe that they were of no significance in the poem; however, I was mistaken.  The ‘turkeys’, ‘sheep’, and ‘snails’ seem like they have no contextual meaning either, but after re-reading the poem several times, they provide ample meaning.  To me, Stein’s purpose of the first few lines have to do with society’s tendency to believe “the bigger the better”.  You feel differently about a larger snail than you would a smaller one because the bigger snails are better, and the same goes for a medium-sized turkey and several sheep.  Bigger is better.  Also, the line, “All nice wives are like that” provides meaning as well.  I believe Stein is referring to the conventional standards of the 1920’s wife, and how they should be.  The use of “to be” and “please” perhaps leads the reader to be a bit confused or lost, and I believe Stein is making a connection between the confusion of these repeated lines and the feelings of these wives that please those around them rather than themselves.