The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 20072458

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 20072458 김유찬 20082510 라인회 20082511 박수현 1

Context - Author Summary Character Symbolism & Allegory Setting Narrator Point of View Structure 2

Mark Twain ◆ Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 -1910) was an American author and humorist. ◆ It was during the Civil War that Mark Twain's life as a writer started. ◆He became nationally famous with his short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”(1865) ◆He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). ◆Twain was popular, and his wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers. 3

summary v. A man from the East comes to a western mining town. At the request of a friend, the narrator speaks with Simon Wheeler in order to ask after a man named Leonidas W. Smiley. Instead of giving the narrator the information that he asks for, Wheeler launches into a tall tale about a man named Jim Smiley. The story goes something like this: Jim Smiley was a man who would bet on anything. He turned a frog into a pet and bet a stranger that his frog, Daniel Webster, could jump higher than any other frog. While Smiley wasn't looking, the stranger filled Daniel Webster with quail shot, and Smiley lost the bet. Before he could figure out what happened, the stranger disappeared with the $40 he won by cheating. Sick of the long-winded tale about Jim Smiley and his frog, the narrator tries to escape from Wheeler before he launches into another story. The narrator realizes that his friend probably intended for him to suffer through Wheeler's tedious tale. 4

character Narrator Mark Twain is the author of the story and he wrote it as a first-person-narrative. Twain portrays himself as the educated condescending Easterner who knows better than to believe what he hears from an uneducated Westerner. Yet he ends up the butt of the joke. He can be seen the stereotype of Eastern snobbery during the nineteenth century. Simon Wheeler The storyteller who relates the tale of Jim Smiley and his notorious frog. Though Simon Wheeler is bald and lazy, and seems simple, he may be cleverer than he looks. He is certainly very aggressive in getting the narrator to listen to him. Jim Smiley The main character in Wheeler’s tall tale. Smiley was at Angel’s Camp in Calaveras County in 1849 or 1850. His most outstanding characteristic was his avid gambling. He would bet on anything regardless of how absurd the bet may be. 5

character Andrew Jackson Daniel Webster Jim Smiley’s bull-dog pup who is named after the seventh president of t he United States Andrew Jackson. To anyone but Smiley, it looked like Andrew wasn’t worth much. However, when Smiley places a bet, the dog’s character changes and he grabs the hind leg of his opponent and hangs on until the fight is finished. Daniel Webster is a frog that Jim Smiley caught and trained. He trained the frog to jump on command so the frog, Daniel, became a champion jumper. However, Wheeler says that despite his ability Daniel is modest and straightforward. Unfortunately, Daniel loses a bet for Smiley when a stranger loads him with quail shot. 6

character The Stranger is a con artist who successfully outwits Smiley and wins a bet against his frog. The Stranger who dupes the local hero (Smiley) parallels and contrasts with the visitor (Twain) being duped by the local (Wheeler). The final deception in Wheeler’s story that of the Stranger duping Smiley underscores an important them in the story, that of deception. 7

Symbolism & Allegory Andrew Jackson Daniel Webster His name reminds us of the seventh American president of the same name. Before becoming president, Jackson was a lawyer who practiced in the frontier (the "West"), a gambler, and an advocate of democracy for all the states. He had the reputation for being a scrappy populist, the kind of politician who fights for "the little guy. " Humor The names for the dog and the "educated" frog hint at some possible political undertones. The famous senator and Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, a lawyer and orator who believed strongly in the cause of American nationalism. Though he tried running for the president of the United States, he lost – and tried again later in his life. As Secretary of State, he advocated for a strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in order to preserve the union. Though Webster’s political history is interesting and can be linked thematically to the frog Daniel Webster’s short stint as a competitor. 8

Setting Angel’s Camp, California • Like any mining town in the West, as Angel's Camp , it was populated primarily by men, many of them looking for their fortune. As something of a frontier town, it would probably seem to be full of loud, uncouth, and uneducated people compared to the more genteel East. mid-19 th century • Golden Age 9

Narrator Point of View First Person er • Through a frame narrative, the narrator (clearly an educated man from the East) presents the story of Jim Smiley, told in Simon Wheeler’s uneducated dialect. • This is the main device that Twain uses to present the contrast between East and West: educated vs. uneducated, refined vs. coarse 10

Structure They will find that Twain has devised a story-within-a-story framing structure by making his narrator the reluctant audience for his storyteller, Simon Wheeler, and by distinguishing his storyteller from his protagonist, Jim Smiley. Frame : the real world The tale of fiction Hoax Tall Tale 11

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