Mark Twain – "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County"

This work is comical, just as a good deal of Mark Twain's works. It is complete fiction, but it is very interesting, and shows something different from the Realist period than most people are used to seeing. Mark Twain basically wrote two stories when he wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" (Twain). First, he wrote a man that had been asked by his friend to talk to town citizens about a man named Leonidas W. Smiley (Twain). In this story, the author describes that he asked a bartender who got Mr. Smiley confused with a Mr. Jim Smiley (Twain). This begins the second story, which is all about Jim Smiley (Twain). The second story talks about the fact that Jim Smiley was willing to bet on anything, and even though he did not normally have any idea what the outcome would actually be, he often won because of pure luck (Twain). It talks of a few different animals that Jim Smiley had that, though seemingly tame and meek, always managed to win whatever bet Smiley had on them (Twain). This work is Realist, because it is really about two friends conversing about an old one, which makes it in the moment and realistic (Twain). It is realistic that one could ask about a person they used to know, and the person that they asked happens to like telling tall tales (Twain). That person could have made up a tale like this one, and that goes to show that this story is realistic (Twain). This story is not Naturalistic, because this work has nothing to do with science or studying the reactions of different people (Twain). It is also not Regionalistic, because it has nothing to do with different regions of the United States (Twain). This work reflects some of society somewhat well, because it shows that some of the more rural towns still were places where everyone knew everyone else (Twain). It shows that they were all still friendly with each other and were willing to lend a helping hand (Twain). It does not have anything about religion, government, or nature, but there is a little about human nature (Twain). This work shows that some people like to have a lot of attention and that they will do ridiculous things such as making up insane stories, just so they will get all of the attention that they want to get (Twain). There is nothing about the American Dream in this work, because it is more of a made up story than anything else (Twain). There is no moral to it, and it shows nothing of people moving up in society (Twain). This work has no figurative language, although it consists of dialect, so it can get mildly confusing at times (Twain). There is nothing about a Hero in here, because the Hero ties in pretty closely to the American Dream, which is also not in this work (Twain). Mark Twain was an incredible author that wrote many works that are still influential to a number of people even today. Many people look up to him, and it is right that they should do this because he was such a good author.

Twain, Mark. ""The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County"" American Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 496-502. Print.