What does gertrude steins poem as a wife has a cow a love story mean?
Gertrude Stein wrote in a wonderful flow-of-conscious style which for me demonstrates the processing of emotions and thoughts before the narrator is able to speak. In the story “As a Wife Has a Cow: A Love Story” the narrator is a husband excited into this frenzy of thoughts and emotions as he is experiencing the birth of possibly a first calf. I envision him as just starting out in his career and probably in his marriage. His wife is at the location and probably helping with the birth. There is reference in the story to “six and two and another” which for me suggests that this wife and husband already have eight head of cattle, and another is being born. There does not seem to be any evidence of other characters in the story. The date October 15 may be the date of this birth. No other evidence of setting is offered. Births at that time of the year most often happen in the the tropic zones or in the southern hemisphere, but there’s no other suggestion of place for a setting.
For me, this is a joyous story of love and excitement and elation. Elation is the best term for describing this story. If the reader feels like laughing in the midst of reading and at the conclusion of the story, then Stein has succeeded in expressing the joy and success that the narrator is feeling as he realizes his dreams of a successful herd and career!
There is something freeing and liberating in this story by not having a place setting, nor any cultural restrictions offered in the story. This story could have happened in any culture, ANY!! And for the reader to imagine those possibilities just adds to the joy in reading this great story!
Simple literacy analysis of characters, setting, emotions, themes all based on the evidence given by the story suggest a very simple story. There is no need to ask as some have, “What can a cow do that a wife can not?” That is a ludacrious question and pursuit. The references to In and out do describe the motions of birthing a calf. There is nothing here to suggest anything sexual or erotic.
Truly, this story is up for many interpretations. It could be that a wife has a cow, as in a baby and the narrator is the husband and they are going through the stressful time of actually preparing for it. It could a story of a wedding where there is a lot of preparation and something goes wrong and the stress. It could possibly be of the wife having a cow because of the special date. There is no definitive answer, however Gertrude Stein wanted to challenge and even threaten the way we perceive fiction, that was the whole point.
