The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County - Analysis

The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County is quite a change of pace from our usual stories during the realism literary period. The story is what is known as a "frame story," where the narrative begins and then another story is "framed" inside it (Bloom). The story begins with the narrator of the tale going to meet a man by the name of Simon Wheeler (Bloom). When the two men meet, a mix up with the name of a past friend gets the narrator telling a story about a man named Jim Smiley (Twain). Smiley was a man who had a gambling problem, but it always seemed to work out perfectly. Smiley was able to gamble on horses, dogs and chickens, and he always won the bets. One day, Smiley caught a frog, and for three months, he dedicated himself to training the frog to jump (Twain). Once again, Smiley was very successful with the bets he placed on his frog, and even named him Dan'l Webster (Twain). One day, a stranger came to the mining camp that Smiley lived on and challenged Dan'l Webster to a jumping contest. He bet that there was a frog in the county that could out jump Dan'l Webster. Since the stranger didn't have a frog, Smiley placed the $40 wager down and went to find a frog to compete with. While Smiley was gone, the stranger filled the frog with lead, and when Smiley returned, Dan'l Webster didn't jump at all. The stranger took his money and left, and Smiley then realized that his frog was full of bird shot (Twain). The narrative inside the narrative ends with Smiley running after the stranger, full of anger.

This story seems to be a stray away from realism writing simply because of the silly subject matter. Upon further investigation, however, the story is based on a similar event that occurred at a mining camp in 1865 (Rasmussen). Realism writing tells the story of events that actually occurred, which is why this story is closely related to realism writing.




Bloom, Harold, ed. "'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'." Mark Twain, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1998. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMSSMT03&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 29, 2012).


Rasmussen, R. Kent. "'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'." Critical Companion to Mark Twain: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCMT0347&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 29, 2012).


Twain, Mark."The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.498-502. Print.