What is the main conflict in Melanctha by Gertrude Stein?

Stein does a great deal with her sentences that may challenge—and even anger—readers used to fiction that uses clear, direct, and grammatically correct language. In "Melanctha," her primary experimental technique is repetition, which she employs in both narrative structure and sentence structure. Repetition in the sentences has many effects on the reader's experience, especially when combined with her use of a very limited vocabulary. A series of highly abstract words—"wisdom," "wanting," "knowledge"—and the simple colloquialisms that Stein used to suggest black dialect make up the full texture of her story.