Gertrude Stein's contributions to literature, particularly through her extensive exploration of American identity in "The Making of Americans," have often been overshadowed by her vibrant persona and her connections with notable artists such as Picasso and Hemingway. Despite this, Stein's novel stands as a significant modernist work alongside those of Proust, Joyce, and Dos Passos. In her own appraisal in "Everybody’s Autobiography," Stein emphasized the novel’s importance, urging readers to engage with it.

Publishing Journey

The path to publication for "The Making of Americans" was long and arduous. Although Stein penned and refined her ambitious narrative between 1903 and 1911, it was not until 1924 that parts of the novel emerged in Ford Madox Ford’s "Transatlantic Review." A more accessible version, an abridged edition of 416 pages, came out in 1934, later reissued in 1966. This edition became the cornerstone for Stein's American lecture tours, providing an entry point for readers and scholars alike.

Structure and Style

Stein’s narrative style in "The Making of Americans" is as unconventional as its publication history. Rather than adhering to a traditional plot structure, the novel expands laterally through rhythm and repetition. Initially focusing on the Dehnings and the Herslands, Stein soon shifts her full attention to the Hersland family, employing a deliberate withholding of plot details to delve deeper into psychological portraits. The novel's characters often share names, symbolizing the transmission of intrinsic traits across generations. This can lead to criticisms regarding the novel's repetitive nature, with some arguing that Stein's exhaustive exploration of personality became tedious even to her. Yet, these challenges are integral to her broader goal: crafting "a history of every one and every kind of one and all the nature in every one and all the ways it comes out of them."

Exploration of American Identity

The novel's subtitle, "Being a History of a Family’s Progress," indicates Stein’s intention to shape a narrative of American identity, particularly among immigrant families. Stein opens her work with a reflection on the privilege of American identity, suggesting that the brief span of sixty years is sufficient for new traditions to take root. Through the lens of the Hersland and Dehning families, Stein transcends her personal familial background to construct a subjective history of Americans, one that questions the very notions of objective history and linear progress that defined the Victorian era.

Philosophical Underpinnings

As Stein recounts in "Wars I Have Seen," she perceives traditional linear history as "dead dead dead," opting instead for a portrayal that encompasses various "kinds" or "types" of personalities. This focus on systematic categorization over discrete events repositions the narrative from a historical account to a psychological framework, challenging the belief in humanity's linear progress. The generational decline depicted in the novel, where successive Hersland and Dehning generations seem increasingly confused and degenerate, underscores this shift. It's a reflection of the inheritance of flawed "bottom natures" from one generation to the next.

Complex Narrative Consciousness

The novel concludes with an abstract twenty-page coda that discards conventional narrative elements in favor of a dense, evolving narrative consciousness – a hallmark of Stein's literary prowess. Through this, Stein seeks to redefine what it means to "make" Americans, urging readers to reconsider their connections to history. "The Making of Americans" stands as a testament to Stein's literary ambition, inviting an examination of identity and history in a uniquely philosophical and challenging manner.