The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County

MKark Twain was one of the greatest writers in American history. Twain had a unique life that helped him become such a good writer. As a young boy of only 11 Mark Twain's father died (Meet). Due to to the death of his father Twain was forced to become a printers apprentice. After several years of that Twain finally accomplished his life long dream of being a riverboat captain (Meet). Twain was a captain for many years but when the civil War began and the Mississippi was clsoed to commercial traffic Twain went to Nevada. In Nevada Twain began writing and wrote his first successful story that made him well known in America, The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County. This story is a bit of an odd one. The main character starts out by getting a message form his friend asking him to inquire about a man named Leonidas Smiley to an old man. Once the main character finds out who the old man is, a Sam Wheeler, he goes to the local tavern in order to meet with him. Upon asking Sam Wheeler if he knew anything at all about a Leonidas Smiley the old man, without even thinking, begins to tell the main character a story about a man named Jim Smiley. The old man says " 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 though what makes me think it was one or the another was because the big flume wasn't finished yet; anyway..." (Twain). Just from that quick quote the reader understand several very important things about the story. Firstly, the old man is one of those old men. The kind who will talk for hours about something most people don't even remotely care about. Another important thing the reader can infer from this quote is that this is meant to be a funny story. The main character just asked for a simple yes or no answer from the old man, but you can just imagine Sam Wheeler taking a deep breath in preparation for his story. Proof of the fact that this story was meant to sort of poking fun at these types of people can be seen in the quote from the story of " Oh! hang Smiley and his afflicted cow! I muttered, good-naturedly, and bidding the gentleman good-day, I departed" (Twain). This quote shows that after Wheeler has finished he story about a man completely arbitrary to the main characters question, the main character has had enough of Wheeler's anecdote and must leave even though he did enjoy the joke his friend played on him. I thought this was a nice stroy to read as it was sort of all a practical joke by the main characters friend, and it made the story pretty funny. Knowing each time the old man started on another little detour with the story the man was getting more and more impatient, it is pretty funny to just imagine the man sinking in to his seat as the story goes on.

Meet Mark Twain." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 496. Print.

Twain, Mark "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 368. Print.