What are the motifs in Melanctha by Gertrude Stein?

Time is a recurring idea. According to William James, the psychologist with whom Stein studied at Radcliffe, an individual perceives the world not in discrete temporal segments of past, present, and future, but as a continuous awareness of the moment being presently lived. In her long, static narratives, Stein sought to evoke this atemporal sense of a continuous present.