What are some examples of hyperbole in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly succeeded.

Twain's famous short story opens with a reasonable statement of fact in the first paragraph then descends--or rises, depending on one's perspective--to hyperbole fit to set the stage for more to come. Hyperbole is a rhetorical term for a device that is used in literary works to elaborate on points made; expand upon characterizations; enlarge imagery; and in general add greater flavor and breadth through the fine art of exaggeration. In Twain's hands, the literary device (being a figurative word scheme) of hyperbole adds humor and comedic effects. [Just as a point of contrast, in Shakespeare's hands, the same device of hyperbole can intensify drama and enhance tragic effects; recall the hyperbole in Hamlet.]

The hyperbole--the exaggeration--in the section quoted above lies here:

• bore me nearly to death
• infernal reminiscence

The first is hyperbole (i.e., exaggeration) because surely the tale did not bring about our frame-narrator's death (the story is first narrated by the friend of the man who wrote from the East, then narrated by Simon Wheeler: "I let him go on in his own way, and never interrupted him once:").

The second is hyperbole because the allusion to infernal Hell fire in describing the recollection of a memory is too strong and surely chosen by the narrator to express his exaggerated annoyance rather than to actually describe the "reminiscence."

Wheeler is no less agile as a narrator in his use of hyperbole. In fact, it is in Wheeler's hyperbole where Twain excels in this literary device. A hardy example, and easy to comprehend, lies in Wheeler's early discussion about Smiley's propensity to bet and to hang onto a bet until its results are fairly determined. Wheeler, speaking as the second narrator, says that Smiley would go to great extremes to determine the legitimate outcome of a bet and emphasizes his point with the following hyperbole:

he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico ....

Other hyperbolic (exaggerated) statementsin the story are:

• After being fed lead"quail shot" (ammunition) Wheeler said Daniel the frog was "planted as solid as an anvil."
• Earlier in the story, Wheeler describes Smiley's bull pup, saying that when money was bet on him "his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat."

What are some examples of hyperbole in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

Three examples of exaggeration in the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain include:

1. The narrator revealing what will be in store for him if he inquires of Simon Wheeler on behalf of his friend

He says about Simon Wheeler: “…and he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me.”

The exaggeration here is that the narrator will be unable to withstand the boring treatise from Wheeler; it will be unbearable and unprofitable to listen to Wheeler’s long-winded, tiresome words.

Yes, people can be excruciatingly boring and tax our time. However, we are not bored to the point of death when this happens. This exaggeration here, though, reveals Simon Wheeler’s character.

2. Simon Wheeler waxing on about Jim Smiley and his gambling

Simon Wheeler embarks on a winding discourse on Jim Smiley’s gambling habits. He basically says that Smiley would gamble on anything, even:

“…if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first.”

The exaggeration here is that Jim Smiley would find a way to make a bet out of anything. It wouldn’t matter how trivial something was; he would see a way to turn the situation into a way to make money and satisfy his gambling urge.

Again, the exaggeration here is used to reveal Jim Smiley’s character. In turn, this exaggeration continues to reinforce Simon Wheeler’s character as noted in the first point above.

3. Simon Wheeler talking about Smiley’s bull pup

Wheeler notes that Smiley’s dog had teeth that “would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces.”

This exaggeration further reveals Wheeler’s character and his propensity to embellish his stories greatly. However, this exaggeration does serve a purpose in the story. It reveals the eccentricity of Jim Smiley. It shows what he had among his possessions. Along with the dog, he owned a mare, as well as “rat-tarriers, and chicken cocks, and tom- cats.”

Exaggeration is an excellent way to bring out the idiosyncrasies of characters, settings, and events in a story to dramatically reveal information to the reader, whether the story is a humorous or more serious one.

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What enhances the humor in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The very notion that there would be a young reverend in a mining camp is humorous because mining camps were notorious for all manner of immoral behavior and the absence of virtuous women and men of the clergy. The invented name of the absent reverend, "Smiley," is meant to emphasize the humor that the narrator has been sent on a fool's errand.

The Western dialect that Simon Wheeler uses is also meant to enhance the story's humor. Nonstandard words and phrases like "straddle bug," "foller' (for "follow"), "bannanner," (for banana), "bully-rag," and "sorter discouraged-like" would be funny, especially to a more educated, or perhaps Eastern, audience unused to such colorful language.

Smiley's description of the posture of the frog as it attempts to jump (it "hysted up his shoulders so like a Frenchman") is a humorous and harmless swipe at Europeans that would likely amuse the nineteenth-century audience.

The exaggeration of some elements of Wheeler's story also create humor. At the story's end, his claim that the frog "belched out a double handful of shot" is impossible and utterly ridiculous.

What enhances the humor in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The humor of the story is enhanced by the contrast between the narrator and Simon Wheeler, the descriptions of Jim Smiley's betting and the satire of human foibles that Twain is able to communicate. The first bit of humor comes in the form of the obvious distaste the narrator, an Easterner, has for the uneducated Westerner, Simon Wheeler. The narrator says that Wheeler backed him into a corner and "reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph." But the narrative is hardly monotonous. It is full of wonderful descriptions of a con artist who gets conned. The narrator's description of Simley's obsession with gambling is full of funny details, like when he would he would" foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road." Wheeler even bets on the death of the minister's wife. When the ministers says his wife is getting better, Smily thoughlessly says, “Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, anyway.”

In addition, the descriptions of the "15 minute nag" and the bull dog who died of embarrassment are as funny as they are unbelievable. When training his frog to jump, the Smiley is especially funny. But the real entertainment value is the irony at the end of the story when Smiley is outfoxed by a stranger who puts quail shot in his frog. Finally, the narrator has had it with Wheeler's story and says so, but the reader has certainly had a good laugh.

What are examples of comedy in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

In the famous short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain, the narrator visits a tavern to inquire about a man named Leonidas W. Smiley. Instead, the old tavern keeper, Simon Wheeler, in a humorous feat of misdirection, proceeds to narrate a series of tall tales about a person named Jim Smiley, who loved to bet on just about anything and at various times owned a horse that always won races, a bull pup that always won dog fights, and a frog that always won jumping contests. In the end, a stranger outsmarts Smiley by filling his frog's belly full of quail shot.

Twain offers examples of several forms of comedy in this story. First of all, Wheeler's delivery of his story about Jim Smiley can be referred to as deadpan humor, because, as the narrator explains, he presents it without expression.

He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm ...

Wheeler's account of Smiley's activities is also an example of droll humor, which means that it is eccentric or capricious.

The stories that Wheeler relates about Smiley can be described as anecdotal humor. According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an anecdote is "a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident." Anecdotal humor is humor based upon personal stories that may or may not be true. This certainly fits Wheeler's stories about Smiley.

Hyperbolic humor is humor based upon details that are highly exaggerated. Twain gives numerous examples of this in Wheeler's depictions of Smiley's penchant for betting and the strange animals that Smiley owned.

Farcical humor and screwball humor are similar in that they both derive their humorous effects by employing improbable events and frantic action. Twain uses these types of humor when Wheeler tells the final anecdote about the contest between the jumping frogs. The stranger wins the contest, takes his money, and immediately leaves. Smiley wonders what is wrong.

And he ketched Dan'l by the nap of the neck, and lifted him up and says, "Why blame my cats, if he don't weigh five pound!" and turned him upside down, and he belched out a double handful of shot. And then he see how it was, and he was the maddest man - he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketched him.

We can see, then, that Twain does use various forms of comedy in this hilarious story.

What are some figurative expressions in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

Wheeler uses hyperbole, an exaggeration that is a type of figurative language, when he says of Smiley, "he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road." In other words, Wheeler says that Smiley would follow a straddle-bug all the way to Mexico to see if he (Wheeler) had won the bet about how long the bug would take to get somewhere; this is obviously an exaggeration.

Later, Wheeler says of Smiley's pup, Andrew Jackson, "But as soon as money was up on him, he was a different dog; his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat, and his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces." Wheeler uses a simile to compare the dog's jaw to the forecastle (or upper deck) of a steamboat, and he also uses a simile to compare the dog's shining teeth to blazing furnaces.

When Wheeler is describing the jumping frog, he says, "the next minute you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut." He uses a simile to compare the frog's midair acrobatics to the way a doughnut would whirl in the air if it were thrown. Wheeler later says of the frog, "he was planted as solid as an anvil." In this simile, Wheeler compares the frog, who can't move, to an anvil, a very solid object on which other objects are struck. 

What are some figurative expressions in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

Twain uses the dialect of rural California to fully characterize Wheeler with local color.

Wheeler uses descriptive language to describe things in a way that uses local color, or dialect representing a region.  Since the frog jumping contests takes place in a rural area of the California hills, Wheeler represents a rural mindset.  To Wheeler, the contest is an “important manner.”

Wheeler is described as a “good-natured, garrulous” country man.  He is a simple man, “fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.”  He “never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key” in which he started. (p. 1)

Wheeler uses idiomatic expressions, or cultural figurative expressions.  For example, when he picks up the frog he uses an idiom.

"Why, blame my cats, if he don't weigh five pound!" (p. 4)

The phrase “blame my cats” is figurative.  He is not actually blaming any cats for the weight of the frog.  Another example is “he was always ready and laying for a chance” (p. 1) meaning waiting and not literally laying, and “he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico” (p. 2).

Wheeler uses unusual adjectives and adverbs, such as “curiosest,”  “uncommon lucky,” and “anywhere” (p. 1-2).

Wheeler uses dialect by pronouncing words differently than we would, and Twain writes them as they sound.  Examples of this are “solittry,” for solitary, “reg'lar” for regular, and  “feller'd” for feller would (p. 1-2).

What are two examples of exaggeration as a comic device in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

Mark Twain's use of exaggeration is great in this story, and it is one of the aspects that makes it so humorous. For instance, in paragraph 5, Twain is describing the bull pup, Andrew Jackson, a fighting dog who has one strategy in every fight—to grab hold of his opponents' hind legs and hold until the other dog gives up. Twain uses exaggeration when describing the dog; for instance, the text says, "But as soon as money was up on him, he was a different dog—his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat, and his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces." Here, the dog is being given human characteristics, understanding that when money was being placed on him for a bet, he knew when to change strategies. Also, the description of his jaw, how it sticks out "like the fo'castle of a steamboat," not only showcases Twain's love of the Mississippi River and steamboats, but it's an exaggeration of how the dog looks menacing.

In paragraph 6, Twain moves to describe other animals that Jim Smiley used in betting, but most notably is the jumping frog for which this story is titled. Twain describes when Smiley found his frog: "He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal'klated to edercate him; and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump." First, a frog would already know how to jump, so there is exaggeration in the idea of teaching a frog, or "educating" him as the story claims. In addition, the description of the frog jumping is so exaggerated that it makes the reader smile to imagine it: "you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut—see him turn one summerset, or may be a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat." All in all, Twain's descriptions and exaggerations make this an humorous story.

What figures of speech are in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain?

One of Mark Twain's earliest stories, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" helped to establish Twain as a one of America's greatest humorists.  This story illustrates Twain's satirical attitude toward  storytelling and the cultural differences between the eastern and western regions of the United States.  Satire is a form of writing that makes use of stereotypes by ridiculing them through exaggeration, an exaggeration that prevails throughout the story, and is termed

hyperbole  [obvious exaggeration]

• Simon Wheeler tells his "interminable narrative" of two men:

[He] admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse.

• Wheeler enumerates all the things that Jim Smiley would bet on anything, saying that he even bet on Parson Walker's wife who had fallen ill.  One day Smiley walked in and asked how Walker's wife was doing, and the Parson told him that she was doing better.  Nevertheless, Similey says "Well, I'll risk two-and-one-half" that she don't anyway."

metaphor [unstated comparison]

• He never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he turned the initial sentence
• At the door I met the sociable Wheeler returning and he button-holed me.

simile  [Stated comparisons using like or as]

• Jim Smiley had a dog that he would fight; when this dog fought,

his underjaw'd stick out like the forcastle of a steamboat....his teeth would...shine savage like the furnaces.

[Smiley had] a "Yellow one-eyed cow (hyperbole)...with no tail and only jest a short stump like a bannanner."

When speaking of his frog, Smiley says that it is "as solid as a glob of mud."  The frog

 scratches his head with his hind foot as indifferent as if he hadn't no idea he'd been doing anymore 'n any frog might do.

Dan'l Webster...hysted up his shoulders so like Frenchmen

The frog was whirling in the air like a doughnut.....turned one summersault or may be a couple or so and come down flat footed like a cat.

What literary devices are used in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain?

Twain uses several literary devices in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". The first technique we notice is that the tale is a "frame story". That means that one story, the story about Twain's conversation with Simon Wheeler, is a frame for a second story, that about Jim Smiley and his jumping frog. The author uses parallel structure to hold together long sentences when describing his characters. For instance, he writes,"

He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm. . ."

In addition,, Twain uses colloquial diction to give an authenticity to the dialogue of the story. For example, "Wheeler ignores many grammatical rules, and speaks with an "accent'' of sorts. He says "feller'' instead of "fellow," "reg'lar" instead of "regular," and even "Dan'l" for "Daniel." Twain uses personification when he describes the animals in the story. "Andrew Jackson, Jim Smiley's dog, is described as proud, ornery, and determined." The frog is described as "indifferent as if he hadn't been doin' any more than any frog might do".  Using similes, the frog is also "like a cat" and whirls "like a doughnut." Finally, the story is full of satire, especially when it come to depicting the stereotypes people believed about uncultured Westerners and educated Easterners.

What examples of grotesque humor can be found in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

First. the term grostesque humor is loosely defined as something comic and based on a character or event that is painful to see and funny at the same time, bizarre, abnormal, unnatural--it makes you laugh or smile, but you feel uneasy about it.  Grotesque humor arose out of art and sculpture during a period in the 19thC. known as the Gothic Revival, which was based on art and sculpture during the Gothic Period (from the 12thC. to the 16thC).  Many Gothic cathedrals, for example, are decorated with sculptures of gargoyles, frightening and fanciful monsters, and next to the gargoyle, there might be the sculpture of a man who happens to be picking his nose.  That is an example of what came to be known as grotesque humor.

Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" could be said to be an example of  grotesque literature because the entire story is based on a bizarre, abnormal character, Jim Smiley, who will bet on anything.  The first grotesquerie, that is, a scene or event that is grotesque, is Smiley's willingness to bet on life and death as if he is betting on the next day's weather:

Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once . . . and Smiley asked how she was, and he [Walker] said she was considerable better thank the Lord . . . and Smiley, before he thought, says, "Well, I'll risk two- and-a-half that she don't, any way."

The grotesque humor here, of course, is that Jim Smiley is such a habitual gambler that he fails to make any sort of moral calculation about his bets, and he wagers that his friend's wife will die without any consideration for Reverend Walker (or his wife).  In this story, Twain has created a character whose view of the world, seen through the lens of his gambling addition, is upside down, the perfect situation for grotesque humor.

Later, Jim Smiley decides that he wants to have a dog fight between his dog, Andrew Jackson, a good fighter, and another dog that is sure to lose.  His choice of the dog is another grotesquerie:

. . . he harnessed a dog once that didn't have no hind legs, because they'd been sawed off by a circular saw. . . .

For most readers, this is a painful scene because of the dog's condition, but Twain converts the purely grotesque into grotesque humor by having Andrew Jackson lose the fight because his main fighting technique--latching onto another dog's hind legs and holding on--is useless because there are no hind legs to latch onto.  Even as we smile, however, we are thinking uncomfortably about a dog with no hind legs.

The celebrated frog, too, provides some grotesque humor when Smiley's opponent fills him up with quail shot, which makes it impossible for him to jump.  As we smile or laugh at Jim Smiley's losing another bet, we are also aware that the frog has been treated inhumanely.  

Smiling or laughing, while feeling uneasy about smiling or laughing, is the hallmark of grotesque humor.  Clearly, Twain, who adopted grotesque humor as a consistent literary technique in most of his stories and novels, enjoys making his readers laugh and feel guilty about it.

What are some similes in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

Mark Twain's use of similes in the text heightens the humor found in the piece as well as adds to the Local Color aspects of the story. For instance, when describing Jim Smiley's dog, Andrew Jackson, Twain writes that when the betting was getting serious, the dog's "underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat." Twain, who takes his name from steamboat and boating terminology, uses a simile that places this story with the adventurers of the Mississippi and West. The "forecastle" of a steamboat is the portion of the boat that sticks out in the front and was used for storage of things like the anchor or stage planks. Twain uses another simile in the same sentence describing Andrew Jackson that also relates to steamboat terminology: "his teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces." The furnaces were used to boil the water that created the steam.

Another way Twain uses similes is to create humorous imagery. The second of Smiley's animals that Twain describes in detail is Dan'l (Daniel) Webster. When describing the "jumping frog of Calaveras County," he writes, "you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut—see him turn one summerset, or may be a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat." When one thinks about a frog jumping, he or she imagines a simple jump up and down, but Twain's similes create a more humorous image of that frog. All of Smiley's betting animals did not look or act as one would think, like the mare that had asthma, but the fact that they all could win bets for Smiley adds to the disbelief created in this story, thus adding to the humor.

List and explain two humorous accounts in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

The narrator of the inner stories in this Mark Twain classic, Simon Wheeler, tells a string of anecdotes that run into each other—all related to the gambling habit of Jim Smiley. All are humorous, even the idea of betting on which preacher at a camp meeting would be the "best exhorter." The story about the horse and the one about the dog each relies on dialect, imagery, and irony for its humorous effect.

The story about Smiley's "fifteen-minute nag" uses humorous dialect in the following phrases: "for all she was so slow and had the asthma," "she'd get excited and desperate-like," and "always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down." These quirks of language reveal the narrator's lack of education and folksy style, which add interest and color to his stories. The sight and sound imagery of the nag kicking, coughing, sneezing, and blowing its nose brings a very funny picture to mind, like a cartoon. The fact that this apparently asthmatic and ungainly horse can consistently win its races is surprising, which adds to the humor.

Smiley's bull pup named Andrew Jackson was likewise an unlikely winner, but the irony hinges on how the pup loses rather than on how it wins. Andrew Jackson is unable to win against a dog with no hind legs because Andrew Jackson's "pet holt," or favorite place to bite, was the hind legs. Wheeler tells the story descriptively so we can picture the bull pup reaching for its favorite spot to bite, finding no legs, looking betrayed, and slinking off to die. Again Wheeler's dialect adds to the humor with phrases like "he got shucked out bad," throwed in the sponge," "looked sorter discouraged-like," and "would have made a name for hisself if he'd lived." There is no denying that this anecdote also relies on a type of humor called dark humor, gallows humor, or grotesque humor. In such humor, a victim is mocked or something that one should not laugh at is made fun of. As much as readers want to feel sorry for the opposing two-legged dog whose legs were "sawed off in a circular saw" and for Andrew Jackson, who "limped off a piece and laid down and died," they find themselves snickering and possibly even guffawing at the story because of the way Wheeler tells it.

The stories related by Simon Wheeler are hilarious because they use imagery that creates outrageous visual pictures, dialect that is unusual and colorful, and surprising situations. Twain is even able to pull off gallows humor in the form of mocking a disabled dog and the death of another dog through the side-splitting narration of old Simon Wheeler.

List and explain two humorous accounts in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

To me, the humor in this story is mostly in the absurdity of the things that Simon Wheeler is saying.  The humor is not subtle -- it's just really goofy.

For example, I really like the story of the dog that would win its fights by grabbing the other dog's hind leg and never letting go.  The idea that the dog would die of a broken heart when it fought a dog with no hind legs is just ridiculous.  To me, it's the absurdity of the situation that is funny there.

In other places, what's funny is the wording of the story.  I think, for example, that this description of the frog is pretty funny

You never see a frog so modest and straightforward as he was, for all he was so gifted.

The idea that a frog could be modest is pretty funny because that just isn't a characteristic a frog could have.

I hope that helps... it's not easy to explain why something is funny.

What literary device can be used in a thesis for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

You may also want to consider Mark Twain's use of colloquialisms and regional dialect in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Few American stories of any kind at this time in history used the natural language of the region like the characters he created in this tale. Twain's own narration reflects a proper use of English diction; however, when he reverts to Simon Wheeler, Twain uses the vernacular of characters he has met in the American West. Wheeler's colorful dialect is full of shortened words and improper grammar that gives the character and story a feel of authenticity few American writers had been able to establish in the 19th century.

What literary device can be used in a thesis for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

While his customary satire is present in Mark Twain's short story "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," there is a cloaking of this satire as Twain's narrator is not directly involved.  Instead, the story is related as an epistolary tale.  So, for a thesis about the use of literary devices, you may wish to analyze how Twain's use of the frame story, or epistolary tale, is his clever way of disguising his satire of the American West and the American East by giving the story a sense of authenticity with the reporting of the main narrator.

Another literary device that you could build a thesis around is the use by Twain of hyperbole.  Hyperbole is a figure of speech that involves obvious exaggeration; it greatly helps to advance the satire of Twain's piece by increasing the level of humor as Twain ridicules the stereotypes of the East and the West of the United States.   Here is one example of Twain's use of hyperbole for humorous and satiric effect:

[Wheeler] never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was any thing ridiculous or funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse.