¶ … Notorious Jumping Frog
Mark Twain's iconic story "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is one of the most entertaining and interesting examples of a tall tale. Twain uses the tools of literature expertly, weaving human and irony into the narrative with his usual style and flair.
The narrator is obviously from the east, an educated person, and Simon Wheeler, the man being interviewed by the narrator, is from the wild west. Right away there are two cultures interacting, and in effect the two cultures are in conflict, which is traditional between eastern and western values at this point in the settling of the United States. The frontier is an unknown concept to genteel, civilized persons from the east so there is a juxtaposition and a conflict of cultures set up at the beginning, making irony and humor a likely outcome with Twain.
The potential for irony is there. Irony is described in several ways, one form of irony comes to the reader in literature through when the author uses a
The outcome of events in this story is ironic because the result is contrary to what might have been expected by the reader.
Actually irony is also the discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected or intended and what actually happens. Another form of irony is satire, as well, when the silliness or follies of a person is exposed. In this story, Simon Wheeler has been satirized by Twain to extreme lengths. Twain in fact presents a storyteller who -- besides being very boring -- is himself unaware of the "ridiculous and funny" aspect of the story, and hence the irony of that result is humorous to the reader.
The "friend" that Simon Wheeler is asked to recall by the narrator, is not the same person that the narrator specifically is trying to reference. Wheeler actually has not the slightest clue who the "friend" is but Wheeler rambles on describing another person with a name that is somewhat similar to the one the narrator has asked about. Within the context of that situation, Twain has created a humorous encounter. The narrator is bored nearly to death because Wheeler: "…never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned…
Mark Twain The two institutions that Mark Twain attacks and ridicules in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- that will be critiqued in this paper -- are religion and government. There are multiple examples of Twain's brilliant use of his narrative and dialogue to illustrate how he really feels about religion and about government. The novel that Twain produced has been used in schools all over the United States because of
This experience had a profound effect on Huck, as he claimed that "It made me so sick I most fell out of the tree. I ain't a going to tell all that happened" (Twain 226). Huck sees more and more people being killed as he matures and comes to be certain that he does not want to be a member of a society where people see nothing wrong in
The funeral [for Jean] has begun...The scene is the library in the Langdon homestead. Jean's coffin stands where her mother and I stood, forty years ago, and were married; and where Susy's coffin stood thirteen years ago; where her mother's stood five years and a half ago; and where mine will stand after a little time." A little time indeed: Twain died on April 21, 1910. Another health issue: Twain on
Mark Twain, The Riverboat Pilot, Huckleberry Finn In his American classic Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain relates the adventures of Huck Finn and his companion Jim in such a way that the reader can sense that the story is based on true events, especially through characterization, setting and dialog. In essence, Twain has inserted himself into the novel via some very clever plot constructions and one of the best examples of this can
Conclusion The research showed that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn stands out as one of Mark Twain's best works, and it is not surprising that so much has been written about the book over the years. In many ways, Twain is like Benjamin Franklin among major American historical figures. Both of these individuals stand out as being geniuses of their respective eras, for example, and both of them contributed much to
Huck even sounds more like Jim than the other characters in the work in terms of his dialect, and the fact that he pretends Jim is his father underlines the degree to which the two of them are bound in a relationship. The NAACP national headquarters' current position endorses the book: "You don't ban Mark Twain-you explain Mark Twain! To study an idea is not necessarily to endorse the
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