Tender Buttons Literary Elements

Modernist Poetry

Written between 1912 and 1914 while Stein lived in Paris

There is no discernible narrator or point of view.

Confusing, distorted, whimsical, playful

As a non-linear, non-narrative poetry collection there is no protagonist or antagonist

The major conflict is a matter of perception and conception. Stein creates poems which appear nonsensical and the conflict arises on behalf of the reader on behalf of the reader who strives to parse any narrative or meaning. By this measure, Stein alters the position of the reader and makes them an active participant in the novel, not just a passive recipient of information.

As a collection of seemingly unconnected poems, there is no discernible climax in Tender Buttons.

The first page of the section "food" contains a list of capitalized words, such as "ROASTBEEF," "SINGLE" and "END OF SUMMER." There relevance is not immediately apparent; however, it is quickly realized that they are the names of the poems in the sections. It is unclear why Stein offers this foreshadowing in the "food" section and not the "objects" section.

The idea of understatement is not particularly relevant to Tender Buttons. Stein does not make straightforwards statements in the first place so whether or not they are over or understated is not necessarily applicable. She does, however, make several simplifications that could be perceived as understatement. For example, she writes that "pleasure is not wailing." Of course pleasure is more complex than not crying.

While it is difficult to parse other literary elements in Tender Buttons, there are several recognizable allusions in the work. "The sister was not a mister" is a reference to Stein's lover Alice B. Toklas. The reference to the "room" is Stein's famous parlour on 27 Rue des Fluerus where she famously entertained many monumental artists of the 20th century.

As mentioned in the imagery section, Stein's imagery is of a mixed medium. In that said, she employs imagery in the very foundation and construction of the poem itself. It is a visual imagery, not just a literary imagery. She uses capitalization, paragraph breaks and block text to create a work that is visual like a piece of art.

Stein gestures towards the paradox of representation. Without saying as much, she is suggesting that it is a fallacy to represent physical objects merely with words. She resorts to exaggerations and bizarre statements to prove this point. For example, "a dog" is "a little monkey goes like a donkey that means to say that means to say that more sighs last goes." While that does not immediately describe that which a dog is, Stein is positing that her method of representation is as truthful as simply saying "the dog is brown and shaggy."

There is parallelism with the repetition of poem names. This includes two consecutive poems titled "Milk," "Potatoes,"Cream," "Eating," "Orange" and "Salad Dressing and an Artichoke." There are four consecutive poems titled "Chicken." This parallelism allows Stein to compare and contrast the poems between one another, often taking different approaches and posing different suppositions.

This is a particularly rich scope to study Tender Buttons. As Stein plays so much in the basic conceptions of things and words, metonymy and synecdoche could be found everywhere. For example, when she speaks of "eating" can that be extended to human consumption in general? Is "A Dog" a representative of all creatures that are not human? The discerning of this is up to each individual reader, as Stein certainly does not answer the question.

Stein personifies each object she focuses on by describing them with sentience and anthropomorphic qualities. For example, "Tails" are "cold pails, cold with joy no joy" as if tails are capable of experiencing any emotions such as joy.