Mark Twain – The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County

While reading this short story, I was not surprised to find that this writing style was quite similar to the way he wrote Huckleberry Finn. The dialect was somewhat difficult to understand, but gave a good tone to the story, as well as gave a good background for the reader to better understand what is going on. I found this short story fun to read as well, because Mark Twain is not talking about some kind of death or a morbid topic, because sometimes, people need to read something uplifting, like about frogs racing. Although somewhat peculiar, I found that it was interesting and fun to read, as opposed to reading Red Badge of Courage, and disliking it immensely.

Even though the topic of the short story was somewhat lighthearted, realism was still demonstrated throughout the story. Back in that time period, people were trying to make ends meet, and did not have many fancy things to help them be happy. Therefore, the characters in this story seemed to rely on frog racing for their form of enjoyment. Whatever floats their boat is how the saying goes. They had to make do with what they had, regardless of the disparity of their situation and conditions.

Having just come out from a war, many people had lost almost everything. Although this war was not as severe as World War II would eventually become, it was still a hard blow to the people of the United States. Mark Twain uses realism once again to take his readers away, therefore creating regionalism, and helping the readers to forget their own problems and become absorbed into someone else's problems or issues, regardless of how silly or unimportant it may seem (Twain).

One of the lines that I liked in this story was when Mark Twain says, " 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. And you bet you he did learn him, too. He'd give him a little punch behind, and the next minute 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. He got him up so in the matter of catching flies, and kept him in practice so constant, that he'd nail a fly every time as far as he could see him. Smiley said all a frog wanted was education, and he could do most any thing and I believe him" (Twain 500-501).

That short passage illustrates and gives a background about the initial frog racing and training, which is something most people do not need knowledge about, but gave the readers something unique to read. Therefore, Twain just used his resources and unique, but fascinating imagination, and created a story that is still being read today, like many of his stories.

Works Cited:

Twain, Mark. "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 498-502. Print.