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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

by Mark Twain

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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", Jim Smiley's character is exaggerated through six hyperboles: 1) His compulsive betting on any event; 2) His obsession with training his...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" showcases realism through its use of regional dialects, detailed descriptions, and authentic character portrayals. The story captures...

12 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The moral of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is that anyone, regardless of their intelligence or education, can be fooled. Jim Smiley, despite his cleverness, is outsmarted by...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The use of humor and satire in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" highlights human gullibility and the absurdity of competition. Twain employs a deadpan narrative style and exaggerated...

7 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," humor is enhanced through hyperbole, dialect, and comic situations. Examples of hyperbole include exaggerated descriptions of Jim...

16 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Jim Smiley is a cunning and persistent gambler. He is known for his resourcefulness and determination, often betting on anything he can. His most notable trait is his ingenuity, as he always finds...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Irony in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" arises from the unexpected twist where the conman, Smiley, gets conned himself. Smiley's overconfidence in his frog, combined with the...

7 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the contrast between the first narrator and Simon Wheeler enhances the story's humor. The first narrator is formal, educated, and...

18 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a frame narrative because it contains a story within a story. The outer story involves the narrator's interaction with Simon Wheeler, while the...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The narrator's friend suggested asking Wheeler about Leonidas Smiley as a practical joke. The narrator's friend likely knew Wheeler would bore the narrator with long, irrelevant stories, such as the...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Regionalism in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is depicted through the use of dialect, local color, and setting. Twain captures the unique speech patterns and mannerisms of the...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Mark Twain uses vernacular and dialect to enhance authenticity and humor. Characters like Simon Wheeler speak in a regional dialect with words...

12 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Smiley is deceived by a stranger who fills his frog, Dan'l Webster, with quail shot, rendering it unable to jump. This trick allows the stranger...

4 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Twain's story is a frame structure--a story within a story--and it fits well with Twain's style of writing which often includes an outsider's or traveler's point of view.  His collection...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Simon Wheeler is prompted to tell Jim Smiley's story because the narrator asks about Leonidas W. Smiley, which reminds Simon of Jim Smiley. Despite there being no connection between the two Smileys,...

4 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The narrator finds Wheeler to be annoying and amusing all at the same time, but is in reality a bit irritated with Wheeler's ramblings, and anxious to escape them.  You can find evidence of...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Western humorists such as Mark Twain make extensive use of exaggeration, hyperbole.  For example, westerner Simon Wheeler exaggerates when describing the frog's talents: "You never see a...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Mark Twain was deliberate in his writings. His writing reflects imperfect "exactness". Always remember one thing when reading Mark Twain, satire. He wanted the reader to be there in the story....

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” a man named Simon Wheeler describes an “uncommon lucky” gambler named Jim Smiley who is “always ready and laying for a...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Three of the animals in this story are named: The Fifteen Minute Nag, Andrew Jackson, and Dan'l Webster; The horse gets her name from being so slow in races--at least at first--but somehow, she...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

This is an interesting question, because it isn't as straightforward as you might think.  It is Twain telling the story, so in that sense, it is written in the first person point of...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Mark Twain uses the names of prominent Americans to give each animal in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" a personality. Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States....

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Wheeler is the voice of Twain mocking the 'snobs' and the way they write.

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Imagery is used in Mark Twain's short story to help readers understand what the story is about. By describing how things appeared, sounded, smelled, tasted, or felt, we can get a better idea of what...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Well, the horse seemed completely useless for racing; Smiley describes her as "so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the consumption, or something of that kind". ...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The narrator's reaction at the end of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" tells readers that the narrator doesn't believe that Simon Wheeler's tale about Jim Smiley and his frog is...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In the opening paragraph, the narrator provides a frame for the entire story, reporting that a friend of his asked him to go and visit a man named Simon Wheeler. This Wheeler turns out to be an...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

I'd say the main climax in the narrative is in this paragraph: “Now, if you're ready, set him alongside of Dan'l, with his fore-paws just even with Dan'l, and I'll give the word.” Then he says,...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Smiley bets on all kinds of things and events. He bets on horse races, dog fights, cat fights, and chicken fights. If there are two birds sitting on a fence, he'll even bet on which one will fly away...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The exact quote from the story is: he was the curiousest man about always betting on anything that turned up you ever see, if he could get anybody to bet on the other side; and if he couldn't he'd...

4 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the narrator becomes involved with Simon Wheeler due to a prank by a friend who sends him to inquire about a fictional Leonidas W....

5 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The answer to this question can be found in the text of the story. Jim Smiley has trained his frog Dan'l Webster to be a good jumper. According to Simon Wheeler, Smiley did nothing for three months...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

A static character in literary terminology is one who undergoes no change in their inner nature relating to values, motives, understanding, or insights etc through the course of the narrative. In...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The conflict is that he is sent to learn about the Reverand Leonidas W. Smiley and Simon Wheeler proceeds to tell him about Jim Smiley.  A trick has been played on the narrator which he...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Overall, most of the characters in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" are not painted in a very flattering light.  The characters demonstrate ignorance, laziness, an addiction...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Well done for identifying this excellent example of an implied metaphor, where the movements of Simon Wheeler are clearly being compared to some form of wall or large object that prevents escape....

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The narrator of this story is a friend of Smiley’s and not much older than him. They seem to be about the same age, as Twain says “we were boys together.” The narrator has come to the frog contest...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Twain finds it necessary for Wheeler, the old man, to begin "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by relating other stories about Smiley's bets with animals because he wants to establish...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the sesterer, Simon Wheeler, exaggerates his description of the frog's talents.  For instance, he acts as though the frog were...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

I think of the "Jumping Frog" as a story about a reporter who comes to town and has to write about this strange event. The jumping contest is the "news" (this is an essay). He has an opportunity to...

3 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Wheeler "back(s) (his listener) into a corner and blockade(s) (him) there with his chair", making it impossible for him to escape while he "reel(s) off (his) monotonous narrative".  Wheeler...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Here's what Twain says about Smiley and his frog: You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted. And when it come to fair and square jumping on a dead...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the protagonist is Smiley, a man who loves to bet on anything, while the antagonist is the stranger who tricks Smiley by feeding his frog...

5 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In the mid-nineteenth century there was a great divide between the civilization of the East with its factories and cities and the West, a part of the country where there were tremendous expanses of...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

There are several tricksters in Mark Twain's "The Celebrated (or Notorious) Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." The first is the talkative slacker, Simon Wheeler, who the narrator seeks out for...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

One of the themes of this story is the "culture clash" between the eastern and western parts of the United States during this time period.  In those times (and to some degree still) the East...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The main character of Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Jim Smiley (not Leonidas W. Smiley) is obviously an addict to any form of gambling and a true character of the...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

To some extent the answer to this question is up to individual reader opinion. There are times when I feel that the use of dialect is detrimental to the story. This occurs when the dialect is so...

2 educator answers

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

In Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the author's use of the vernacular with Wheeler and Smiley might serve one of two purposes. On one hand, it might...

1 educator answer

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Jim Smiley was a gamblin’ man – as Simon Wheeler tells the narrator, “he was the curiosest man about always betting on anything that turned up you ever see.”  He would make a bet, and if no...

1 educator answer