The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Samuel Clemens.

The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Samuel Clemens.

 The theme of culture and regionalism is very vital as far as analyzing a literary piece. Consequently, several scholars have analyzed Mark Twain’s (Samwell Clemens’) work, “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. This research paper aims to examine and analyze how authors have utilized this primary source in developing their secondary resources. The main aim is to determine how the secondary sources have discussed the themes of cultural differences and deception as presented in Mark Twain’s work.

The first secondary article that will be analyzed is an article by Kirk Jamir, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: Themes Analysis.” The thesis for this article is the analysis of themes that were used in Mark Twain’s work, “The notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Kirk cites the theme of culture clash by arguing that the Eastern people have been portrayed as educated, civilized, cultured, and advanced. In contrast, the western residents of the U.S. have been described to be less-educated and less-refined individuals. The author supports his points by providing several pieces of evidence. He cites the fact that Simon Wheeler narrates his boring stories in a monotone and uses common language marred with a lot of grammatical errors. The author believes that Simon Wheeler is not educated due to the reasons mentioned above. He also cites that Mark Twain sharply contrasts the narrator and Simon Wheeler since the narrator is depicted as a sensible and well-educated man who speaks grammatically correct English. Mark Twain brought out the theme of cultural clash by portraying Simon Wheeler, a westerner as an educated man (Kirk 2). “ Mark Twain highlighted the theme of deception when the narrator’s friend asks him to visit Wheeler and inquire about the whereabouts of Leonidas Smiley, yet he wanted the narrator to hear the colorful story of a famous gambler by the name Jim Smiley”(Kirk 2). The author further cites that the narrator Laments in the first paragraphs of the book that a friend had duped him into meeting with a strange Westerner. The author argues that this depicts the theme of deception between the narrator and his friend.

Additionally, the author cites the fact that Wheeler had tricked the narrator into listening to a farfetched and improbable story of a renowned gambler. And he further persuades the narrator into listening to another story of a mythical cow at the expense of telling him about the whereabouts of Leonidas Smiley, which was the main reason for his visit. The author further highlight deception when Jimmy Smiley and Wheeler gamble on unfair grounds. He highlights that the stranger stuffed Wheeler’s frog (Danley) with bullets to ensure it weighs more and doesn’t compete favorably with the other frog that was brought by Wheeler. The author concludes that the stranger wins fraudulently hence depicting the theme of deception in the story..

The second article that will be analyzed is from Novel explorer, “the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County: themes and characters.” The thesis for this article is centred on analyzing themes and characters in the short story, “the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County.” The author argues that the easterners have been portrayed as well-educated while Easterners have been portrayed as semi-literate. For instance, this author cites the fact that Simon Wheeler tells a far-fetched story in a tall tale manner contrary to the accepted form of storytelling taught in Eastern Schools. He also cites the fact that Wheeler occasionally speaks in a vernacular language, which consists of slangs, idiomatic expressions, improper grammar, and several syntax errors. On the other hand, the narrator (Easterner) logically tells his story, and his speeches are free from grammatical errors. The author concludes that Twain intended to capitalize on stereotypical differences between Easterners and Westerners as far as education. The second article argues that westerners were depicted in Twain’s story as people of high moral value. This is argued out by the fact that the stranger who duped Simon Wheeler is not named.  He argues that the stranger was constantly referred to as “stranger”  to emphasize on the fact that his behavior of conmanship is not allowed among the Westerners.This second article further suggests that Easterners had been portrayed as snobs in Twain’s story. The author argues his points by mentioning that the” narrator from the East” was bored by Simon Wheeler’s story and attempted to run away from him when he was called to the backyard. The author further mentions that “the narrator from the East” walked out of Simon Wheeler when Wheeler tried to trick him into listening to another far-fetched story. Consequently, the author concludes that Westerners were intentionally depicted as snobs by Mark Twain in his short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”The second article further suggests that although Mark Twain’s story sharply highlighted cultural differences between the Easterners and Westerners, the story suggests that such differences should be preserved and celebrated. The author argues his point that although the “narrator from the East finds Wheeler’s story to be boring and off-topic, he still takes his time to write the entire story. The author argues that “the narrator from the east” views his interaction with Wheeler as an anthropological endeavor that should be recorded to help in preserving the culture of people who reside in western parts of the U.S. The author of the second article highlights deception in a number of ways. For instance, he argues that Jim Smiley was a typical con artist by tricking people into wagering on everything around him. He highlights the fact that Jim Smiley preferred to use an old and feeble donkey for his competitions to make his opponents think that the competition would be an easy one, while in the real sense, Jim was certain of the outcome of the races. He further mentions that Jim preferred taking his dog (Andrew) to dog fight competition even though Andrew was not in a good state. The author mentions that this was part of Smiley’s strategy of tricking his opponent into believing that he would easily lose the competition. In fact, the author highlights the fact that Jim was a deceptive man who would even bet on someone’s life. He further suggests that Jim would go as far as betting on birds that were on a twig, he could sway his opponents to wager some money on the bird that will fly first between two birds on a twig.” He allowed his opponents to choose first since he believed he had to win since he was a lucky man. This brings out the fact that Jim was a lucky man who made his bettings look so easy so that he could trick people into gambling with him”(NovelExplorer). Additionally, the author mentions the fact that Jim was a real fraudster who even went the extra mile of training animals with the sole intention of earning some bucks during competitions. This second author further mentions that the theme of deception is depicted in Twain’s book right from the introductory paragraph when the narrator’s friend dupes him into visiting a boring old stranger, Wheeler. “The narrator’s friend asks him to visit Wheler to ask him about the whereabouts of Leonidas Smiley yet he knew very well that the narrator will be bogged by endless boring stories by Wheeler” (NovelExplorer). This author goes ahead and cites theme of deception when Wheeler tricks the narrator into listening to an improbable story of a famous gambler, Jim Smiley instead of telling him about the whereabouts of Leonidas Smiley. Additionally, the author highlights the theme of deception by citing case of gambling between Jim Smiley and the Stranger. He argues that the strangers is a con artist who employs dubious means to rob Jim Smiley of his cash. He mentions the fact that the stranger stuffs bullets into Danley to ensure he was too heavy to jump and ends up winning the bet. The stranger manages to dupe Jim Smiley of 40 us dollars.

The first article by Kirk Jamir has logically presented its pieces of evidence. It supports its thesis by logical pieces of evidence that are drawn directly from Mark Twain’s work. The author even uses direct quotations to ensure he accurately argues his points. The article brings out the theme of cultural differences between eastern and Western Americans. The article further brings out the theme of deception accurately by citing points such as the gambling between the Stranger and Wheeler. It further supports the theme of deception with direct quotes from Mark Twain’s book. However, it doesn’t bring out its argument clearly by citing more logical points and pieces of evidence. For instance, the article only cites a few points when explaining the theme of deception, although deception is one of the central themes in the entire short story.

The second article that was retrieved from Novelexplorer is very accurate as far as explaining the themes of cultural differences and deception. This article provides precise and substantial shreds of evidence directly from the short story by Mark Twain. It gives more substantial pieces of evidence to support each of its themes. For instance, he brings out the theme of cultural differences by suggesting that Eastern U.S. citizen were depicted as snobs by Mark Twain. This betrays a thorough research work that was performed by the author of this article. The article further cites more point as far as bringing out the theme of deception hence it sufficiently supports its arguments. However, some of the points cited by this article are vague as far as supporting a given argument. For instance, the article argues that cultural difference should be preserved because the narrator went ahead and wrote the story that he was told by Wheeler. This is very vague since the point doesn’t reflect on any cultural differences between Eastern and Western U.S. citizens.

After assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the two articles, it can be concluded that the article from Novelexplorer is very accurate as far as analyzing themes of cultural differences and deception in Mark Twain’s book. The first article doesn’t support its evidence with substantial facts compared to the second article. For instance, the first article doesn’t describe deceptions that were committed by Jim Smiley during his “gambling career”. The article only explains deception by criticizing the “stranger “, narrators’ friend and Simon Wheeler.

Work Cited

Kirk, Jamir. “Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: Themes Analysis.” IvyPanda, 27 Dec. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-notorious-jumping-frog-of-calaveras-county-by-mark-twain/. Accessed 19 Apr. 2020

NovelExplorer. “Themes and Characters.” Novel Summaries Analysis, www.novelexplorer.com/the-celebrated-jumping-frog-of-calaveras-county/themes-and-characters-85/.

Twain, Mark, and David Stone Martin. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. ” The Gold Mine”, 1962.