The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | Literary Qualities
The frame tale structure of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is one of its most important literary devices. In a frame tale, one story appears in—that is, it is framed by—another story. In "Jumping Frog" the outer tale focuses on Mark Twain and his meeting with the talkative old storyteller Simon Wheeler. This meeting occurs at the request of a friend of Twain's, identified in some versions of the tale as A. Ward, who supposedly wants to find out about an old acquaintance named Leonidas Smiley. Twain reveals, however, that he suspects his friend's request was merely...
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