America is my country and Paris is my home town and it is as it has come to be.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Stein expresses a sense of fluid belonging, claiming both America and Paris as integral parts of her identity without conflict.
- In plain terms
- I claim both America and Paris as my places because that is what I am.
- What can you take from it?
- Identity can span multiple places without needing a single origin.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where is your home?
- Must you choose one place?
Another view
Some societies demand singular national loyalty.
More from Gertrude Stein
Adventure is making the distant approach nearer but romance is having what is where it is which is not where you are stay where it is.
Permalink to quote #54 And so I am an American and I have lived half my life in Paris, not the half that made me but the half in which I made what I made.
Permalink to quote #56 It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.
Permalink to quote #53
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