Comparison Of The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County By Mark Twain

“…eyebrows and moustache were as black as the night” (66). The author wanted to engage your sense of sight by having a descriptive illustration that would come to mind. Showing that Zaroff’s facial attribute are very dark implies that he may be a serious adventurous man. The reader thinks of a resilient, bulk man that has a very deliberate expression on his face. Connecting to the theme, it shows that both should be fit to survive. Zaroff is the one that does not have time to shave because he is a very audacious person. All that you could perceive from a quote that is a simile. “…door opened as if it were on a spring, and Rainsford stood blinking…” (64). The author is trying to show that Rainsford knew he was coming by saying that the door sprung open, as if he knew that he was there, or knew he was coming. These actions show that he there is something wrong or suspicious about Rainsford because of his assiduous actions. This is increasing the reader’s ability to infer about a certain character. Similes escalate the insight of the passage and help develop your understanding as a

Example, Reason, Detail, or Fact from the text: John Muir added in a simile. In the phrase “I was able to wander many a long wild fertile mile in the forests

In “A River Runs Through It,” similes are used constantly. They usually relate a person or object to an animal or living entity. For one example, Maclean uses a simile to compare life’s

Throughout Life On The Mississippi and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County the authors show many instances of how the authors wanted things in literature to be perceived as how they really were instead of being described as how they made someone feel or being dark about their description. While reading Life On The Mississippi Twain talks about how the captain of the boat was describing mile marker on the river and he says “they all looked about alike to me; they were monotonously unpicturesque.” (Twain 2). This quote shows that the captain was describing these objects as they were meaningful to himself as Twain just saw the objects as what they were to him, just objects. This section of the text explains how writers were going to a form of

Ray Bradbury also shows similes in his story through word choices and descriptions. When he says, “...lurking in the trees with colorful flights of butterflies, like animated bouquets, lingering in her long hair.” I see a bunch of butterflies flying around a beautiful girl, and then all of them lifting her into the air, and he singing the whole way up.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.

In the story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain, the use of diction provides differences upon the certain class of characters. The text consist of three characters as the narrator looks for someone known as Smiley. He comes across a man by the name of Simon Wheeler and is caught in his story of another man by the name of Smiley which provides a story within a story. As clear of a difference as black and white, the diction of the narrator is more profound and well educated than other characters is this humorous fiction piece. The differences is the use of diction is a bit extreme, providing a possible time era and a separation in educational class.

Many critics agree that Twain's skilled use of the satirical literary style, defines himself as a writer. "If the prevailing spirit of Mark Twain's humor is not a sort of good-natured self-satire, in which the reader may see his own absurdities reflected, I scarcely should be able to define it" (Howells). This similarity was present in all three short stories.

Right near the beginning the author writes “Gusts of wind made bits of paper dance between the parked cars” which is an example of personification. This use of figurative language helps develop a gloomy mood and the fact neighborhood might be poor. Next the author writes “Father’s words like the distant thunder that now echoed through the streets of Harlem” which is an example of a simile. By comparing “Father’s” words to a distant thunder it makes the reader think his father is a big, strict, loud, and that the character and his father are probably in an argument. Finally, the author describes Lemon Brown’s voice as “high and brittle like twigs being broken” which is an example of a simile. By describing the voice as high and brittle it makes the reader think the voice may be from an older person who is potentially a woman. Walter Dean Myers makes great use of figurative language in the story Treasure of Lemon Brown.

One writing that Mark Twain is not as famous for, but is still a well known piece of work for showing the use of humor in his writings is, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. This work starts off slow without much humor until later on in the writing. The humor picks up as Twain includes bits of sarcasm to the mix. The humor in this short work is not so hidden or subtle as it may have been in some of Twain’s other writings. One example of this sort of dry humor is, “And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, ‘It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, may be, but it an't it's only just a frog.’” (Jumping Frog). This shows a side and type of writing that is not usually seen with Twain. Usually the humor in his writings was always sort of hidden away and harder to pick out, but in this work, it is more obvious that he is trying to make it humorous. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” may not be as widely known as some of Twain’s other work, but it is a good example of how he includes humor into his writings to catch the reader’s attention and to provide some comic relief from, at times, tense situations.

Not only are the similes potentially overlooked, they also create a bigger problem in deterring readers from finding the more interesting themes, such as truth and loyalty, in the novel. If they skim over the similes, they will most likely skim over some of these important, and interesting, themes. His interactions with

The purpose of this essay is to help explore the history of Mark Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County”, and how this short story was affected by the current events going on during the late 1800’s, Mark Twain uses of the surrounding around him to help both inspire and craft that into his stories, and lastly how Mark Twain studies and understanding of literary techniques to help form The Celebrated Frog. This essay will look into three different articles that touches into each of these points that will help both and discuss and understand how Mark Twain was able to write one his most famous short story “The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County”. We will start with the history of this short story by looking at Gina Burkart article entitled “The Jumping Frog—both Old and New” which showed how Mark Twain was able to craft this short from an older story that he heard from word of mouth along with Twain’s trip out West to California. Next, we will look at Twain’s ability to use literary techniques such as making your story reflect the dialect that he was trying to target to help sell his short stories, and how Twain was a pure genesis at crafting this literary technique to a tee. Finally, we will see how the events going on during the late 1800’s affected Twain’s writing, and how Twain writing could be seen as writing of that time period.

An example of his use of similes is “...and his eyes have all the seeming, of a demon's that is dreaming…”.

Authors use stylistic techniques to convey meaning and to bring richness and clarity to their pieces of writing. In the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” a man named Smiley is cheated out of a bet after he was so confident that he was going to be victorious. In the short story “Cannibalism in the Cars,” a train full of political figures is stopped by a severe snowstorm, preventing them from continuing their journey. In “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Cannibalism in the Cars,” Mark Twain uses imagery, characterization, and foreshadowing in order to aid a reader's understanding of the stories.

Mark Twain uses humor to show all that is wrong with society in many different ways. Humor is mostly shown through hypocrisy in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” which is conveyed through the people in Huck’s life. Twain uses wit and humor to show what needs to be reformed in society.