Jan 7, 2010

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | Topics for Further Study

Twain's story was first written as a letter, a style referred to as epistolary. Other examples of epistolary works are Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1982). Discuss how the epistolary form impacts the narrative and the reader's interest in a work.

Research what life—particularly life in a mining camp—was like in California at the time Twain wrote this tale.

Tall tales and folk tales traditionally have been used to present nontraditional...