Mark Twain – "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County"

"The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" is written in a different and interesting way. The story itself is composed of two short stories. The first short story is about a man that had been asked by his friend to question locals about a man who calls himself Leonidas W. Smile. In this first story, Twain artfully describes the confusion between two men and their dialogues. The second story is next. The second story is about a man who calls himself Jim Smiley. The second story refers to the fact that Jim Smiley would bet on anything. This is silly and ironic because he never knew what the outcome would be, and he only won due to his good luck. While Realism and Regionalism both play a large part in the story, Naturalism seems to be missing apart from descriptions of some nature that surrounds the events of the story. There is also no substantial mention of God or any other kind supernatural or divine power, which honestly gives the story a more easy going quality because I think that stories that don't drag religion out into the open are more universal and often more entertaining and enjoyable for the reader. Society is also an important role in Twain's work. His characters try and try their very best to keep a steady form of income, but sometimes it just feels too difficult. Smiley, however, must have had some trouble finding work because he makes his money in only one fashion, by gambling. Luckily, though, Smiley has "practiced" so much that he wins most of the time, so, for him, this "work" really pays off. Wheeler, another character in "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County," talks about Smiley's success at horse racing, dog fights, cat fights, cock fights, bird fights, and finally bug fights, listing them in descending order by size, and how Smiley also bets on Parson Walker's preaching and his ill wife's chances of recovering. Clearly, religion is part of this story because he is even able to make bets against God himself. But, other than the mention of God, religion is not important in this story's main plot. Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" is a good example of Regionalism. As mentioned earlier in this blog, Mark Twain was a key author of the Regionalism movement. A pioneer of his field, if you will. He was one of the first authors to start writing in the local dialect. For Twain, his dialect was a lazy Southern drawl, and it shows in "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County". there are many examples of the local dialect, such as when Simon Wheeler talks about how Smiley "learned" a from to jump. People do not say that anymore- they say taught. Also in the lines, "There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley in the winter of '49 - or maybe it was the spring of '50 - I don't recollect exactly..." (Twain 499) This local dialect is used so much as to become a nuisance. This was a common occurrence in Regionalism. "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" reads much like other works by Twain such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Government and religion are also missing from this story as well. It seems that these were not very important in Realism works.

Twain, Mark. "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 498-502. Print.