“The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County” is a short story by Mark Twain that deals with deception and cleverness. This story is a first person account of an incident in which the (nameless) narrator was tricked by a friend of his into listening to a lengthy story told by the monotonous and lethargic Simon Wheeler. Ironically, the story Wheeler tells regarding the “celebrated jumping frog” is about a man named Jim Smiley who, like the narrator, is beguiled and deceived by another individual. In Wheeler’s story, Jim Smiley practices a certain level of deception and trickery on a regular basis and ends up having the tables turned on him. This story suggests that trickery and deceit will eventually catch up with you.
Dishonesty and taking advantage of people can too easily be disguised as luck. Jim Smiley was a deceptive, betting individual that would swindle anybody and everybody whenever given the opportunity. Simon Wheeler said that Smiley was simply lucky but it’s quite obvious that Smiley knew what he was doing with each bet. From the horse that would always “miraculously” catch ...
A friend has asked the narrator to find Simon Wheeler and to ask him about the Reverend Leonidas W. Smiley.Simon Wheeler doesn’t remember a Reverend Smiley,but he does start to tell a tale about Jim Smiley,a man who loved to make bets.We learn from the start that Smiley loves to gamble,but more importantly perhaps,he likes to bet an animals.”I found simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the bar-room store of old dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angels.”Here explains how Simon is,his behavior this part shows he's a lazy an old school sleeping in a ancient camp that looks like from Angels.”Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blocked me there with his chair and then sat me down and rolled off the monotonous narrative which
Mark Twain in his essay “A Presidential Candidate” uses hyperbole, irony, and diction to accost politicians and show their faults to the well-read voters. Twain’s use of hyperbole, which is seen through his past stories such as the incident involving his grandfather, establishes an exaggerated sense of himself as a candidate which creates the image of a forthright yet malicious man running for office. He also uses reductio ad absurdum to show the ridiculousness of the politicians running for office and how they are deceitful about small things while he is willing to tell how he killed his grandfather for snoring. Twain’s diction as seen through such phrases as “prowl”, “heartless brutality”, and “Napoleonic” set up a sarcastic tone that was
Mark Twain’s use of humor in the story mocks and shines light on the issues of our society’s political system from back then that continue
Ever since the day the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was introduced to the readers, the critical world has been littered with numerous essays and theses on Mark Twain’s writing achievement, yet many of them are about the writing style of Bildungsroman, the symbolic meanings of the raft and Mississippi river, the morality and racism color. Whereas few of them ever talked about why Mark Twain wrote so many lies in this novel. Probably because people usually thought that the splendor of this masterpiece will be obscured by the immorality nature of lying. But actually this is no the thing, even Mark Twain himself does’t think lying is an immoral thing. As what he said in his lecture on a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford, the essay later published as “On The Decay of the Art of Lying” , he called the art of lying “a Virtue, a Principle...a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man's best and surest friend, is immortal” (Twain, “On The Decay of the Art of Lying”). We can see that Mark Twain has a mature understanding about the value of lying and he wanted to share with us his philosophy of lying through Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Therefore, the major task of the paper is to investigate this philosophy of lying in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Twain’s attitude changes from the first half of the story to the last half since it is many years later. But, years later, when he thinks about how much pride he had in his successful crime, he cannot relieve himself of guilt. In fact, he can’t even convince his own mother that he lied. “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!” (6). He built his heroism on a lie and now that he tries to tell the truth to his mother, she won’t believe that he lied. After all, they say that people believe what they want to believe, even in the face of truth. Twain, as a teenager, participated in Simmons’s show for the attention, and thirty-five years later his guilty conscience continues to haunt him. But, it wasn’t only his wrongdoing, the townspeople and Simmons are all to blame.
Have you ever read the story of a princess kissing a frog, having it turn into a prince? Well, what if it didn’t become a prince, but she turned into a frog herself! This is called irony, something we would not expect to happen. In the story of the princess we would not expect that to happen. In the story “The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson, we see this situation in another form. She uses irony to bring out the point in her story. “The Lottery,” offers an “ironic twist of fate” that causes wonder and makes one sympathize with the characters.
Cane Toads are now a major problem in Northern Australia’s ecosystem. They have threatened and made many other species of animals extinct. Cane Toads are harmful to the environment and should be killed because they are growing rapidly, wiping out other species, and don’t have many natural predators.
In Samuel L. Clemens' short story entitled, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", he reveals to us that he believes that everyone is susceptible to gullibility. Using not only humor and characters in the story, Clemens actually makes his point by drawing the reader into the story as unwitting victims as well. The story illuminates gullibility on three separate levels. First, the main character of the story within the story, Jim Smiley, is a victim to his own misguided ways. Then, the narrator of the story is shown to be gullible as well. Finally, the reader of the story realizes that they have also been somewhat duped by the whole experience. This theme of Clemens' story is an interesting one in that it is unique, but it also is successful on multiple levels.
Mark Twain’s piece of literature ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ is a grounding book for many analysis. One may find similar themes in all Mark Twain books very much eminent particularly in this one book. Most of Mark Twain literatures tend to be more in a form of South-Western folktales. The following essay will discuss how and in what ways does the use of vernacular language contribute to the story’s most significant themes.
Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is a short story with the lesson that what goes around comes around. In this short story, which first appeared in 1856 and his first successful story, Twain uses local customs of the time, dialect, and examples of social status in his story to create a realistic view of the region in which the story takes place. The way that the characters behave is very distinctive. Dialect is also used to give the reader a convincing impression of the setting in “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The social status of the main characters in this story also was something that Twain took into account in writing this story. Mark Twain is a realist who concentrates on the customs, dialect, and social status of specific regions of the country.
Author Shirley Jackson uses irony as an ongoing theme to trick us unexpectedly, only creating a bigger confusion to what’s actually happening. Jackson short story is truly stunning in the sense of uniqueness; she is able to show us this shift in paradigm. The Lottery is about a village that does an annual lotto during the first day of summer, expect the winner is killed not given a huge cash prize as expected.
As a very gifted writer and philosopher, Mark Twain, maintains his audience with the use of humor. He starts the essay out by saying, “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinion is” (1). The
His compulsive gambling is out of control. When he is given the opportunity to arrange the bet, or, even if the other person arrange the bet, he always win by deceiving the other person. Smiley is very confident in his betting tactics and think that he can out smart everyone, until he is outsmarted and deceived by the stranger. The stranger proved that Smiley is not the only person with secrets and deceit. Out of all those wrongful winning, Smiley finally gets a taste of his own medicine. Smileys use of deceiving tactics has caught up to him and he is left puzzled. In this story, Mark Twain has illustrated to us that what comes around goes around. The Golden rule is that if you do wrong, wrong will come back on you. It may be sooner who it may be later but it will come back. It is better to fair in your dealing than to be dishonest,
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.
Now that brings me by a natural and easy transition to Simon Wheeler of California; a pioneer he was, and in a small way a philosopher. Simon Wheeler's creed was that pretty nearly everything that happens to a man can be turned to moral account; every incident in his life, almost, can be made to assist him, to project him forward morally, if he knows how to make use of the lesson which that episode teaches, and he used -- well, he was a good deal of a talker. He was an inordinate talker; in fact, he wore out three sets of false teeth, and I told about a friend of his one day -- a man that he had known there formerly, and who he had a great admiration for, of one Jim Smiley, and he said it was worth a man's while to know Jim Smiley. Jim Smiley was a man of gift; he was a man of parts; he was a man of learning; he was -- well, he was the curiousest man about always betting on anything that turned up that you ever see, if he could get anybody to bet on the other side, and if he couldn't he would change sides. As soon as he got a bet he was satisfied. He prepared himself with all sorts of things -- tomcats, rat terriers and all such things, and one day he ketched a frog; said he calculated to educate him. And he took him home and never done nothing but set in his back yard and learn that frog how to jump. Yes, sir, and he did learn him to -- he did learn him to. When it came to jumping on a dead level there wasn't no frog that could touch him at all. Come to jump on the dead level, why, he could lay over any frog in the profession, and Smiley broke all the camps around there betting on that frog. Bye and bye he got a misfortune. He used to keep his frog in a little lattice box. The frog's name was Daniel Webster, and he would bring that box down town and lay for a bet. And one day a fellow came along, a stranger in the camp he was, he says, "What might it be that you have got in the box?" "Well," Smiley says, "It ain't anything particular, it's only just a frog," "Well," he says, "What is he good for?