Essay On The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County

English Long Test The literary texts from the Era of Expansion, namely The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain and The Baron of Grogzwig by Charles Dickens have evoked a humorous response from the audience and the readers. They had used various literary techniques to achieve and to get these kind of responses. In Twain’s story, one of the literary texts he used was symbolism, the usage of famous political personalities such as Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster as animals in the story is one of the examples in the story. However, Twain may have implied another reason to use these names. He might have wanted to mock the political system by, for example naming the bulldog Andrew Jackson maybe to tell something not good
about them, the bulldog in the story was described as that if you look at him you'd think he wasn't worth a cent. Another was by naming the frog Daniel Webster, wherein in the story, it was mentioned that Jim Smiley wanted to “educate” the frog. From my interpretation, he was trying to criticize the political system and maybe pertaining the government officials as “uneducated” and needs to know the facts. Another literary technique was irony, in the story, Jim Smiley was described as a man who loved to bet in a lot of things. He somehow “cheated” having money by betting in everything he could bet on and luckily, winning the bet. The irony here is that when he bet on his frog in which he teach him and worked hard with, he was cheated by the stranger, by putting handful of shots on Dan’l Webster. In short, the cheater, Jim Smiley had been cheated by another cheater and he lost a bet due to his stupidity, even though he mostly win all of his bets. Also, when the narrator or the persona in the story listened to a story he was not expecting and so, for him, it doesn’t make any sense listening to it. Going to Dicken’s story, he used ridiculous characters in the story from the Lincoln greens to the main character Baron Von Ko'ldwethout himself. The baron who wanted amusement in his life, at first had an interesting life to begin with but it got unstable once he had a wife and children. He plans to kill himself but then realizes that his life is still fine for him. As the genius lets him remember the “bad” in his life, he remembered good things in life and he didn’t continue the act and ends up laughing. From having a suicide thought to being in a state of laughing very hard. Also, the baron has discovered the beauty of life after meeting death or the genius. Dickens, also may be implying something else, if you’re losing hope in life, think about the bright things that cheer you up and do not mind the instances that make you feel bad. Dickens also used sarcasm in the dialogues which may have been funny for the readers. He created the genius to be a serious but sarcastic one. The two literary texts were the same in a way that the authors explained the characters in the start, described them as being successful personalities. The authors introduce them with a foundation in the beginning before going to the humorous part of the story. The moral of the story comes when the humorous part is going. For me, the difference these of literary texts is that Twain’s was about being all about lucky and winning and being successful while Dicken’s explored the thought of being in a state of downfall and having a thought of killing one’s self. Also, Twain failed to relate the story to the real life that is happening. This somehow failed to evoke the humorous response of the readers. Towards the end, Charles Dicken’s approach was more effective for me. He prominently showed the humor in his literary text through irony. The moral of the story was also showed obviously to the readers, the advice in the story which has led readers with a sense of a good feeling. Also, it was harder for me to understand the humor in the literary text of Twain. The characters in Twain’s story were flat characters, there weren’t any really apparent changes in the characters throughout the story. However, in Dicken’s story, the characters mostly changed especially the baron. At first, he was successful in life and he wanted to experience more in life, though when he has a wife and children, he had a miserable life and he lived in a life of despair and sadness. This sad life was changed again when he met the genius, and now he is living a good and happy life again. Mark Twain, an American writer wrote about The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
American humor, based on the story mostly has a positive vibe throughout the story. As depicted in the story, you wouldn’t see any undesirable thing happening in the story. The story circled over Simon Wheeler telling a story about the gambling addict Jim Smiley, he was described as a person who loved to do bets and, well he always win in everything except for the frog bet. He was cheated, however he didn’t have any grudge about the person. He stayed positive and you wouldn’t see anything bad going on there. The humor in this particular story, is that it is so much ironic. Jim Smiley who is a professional gambler just lost to a stranger because he was cheated. He was cheated because of his unwariness and stupidity. Another is that, the persona in the story or the narrator wanted to get some information about this fellow named Leonidas Smiley, but instead he listened to a very long background story of a man he had no interest on, Jim Smiley. American humor also is about using symbolism. Comparing famous personalities to insignificant and not-so-important things. Comparing political people to animals in the story that is described as not-so-well characters in the story. American humor also tries to ridicule two sides, the East and the West. In the story, the persona or the narrator comes from the East and Simon Wheeler comes from the West. It is depicted that the people of the East are
educated and sophisticated, as what is represented by the narrator in the story. People from the West is depicted as uneducated and somewhat distracted. And lastly, American humor is more on about entertaining the reader through what they’re reading. As for this example, this literary texts tries to let the readers laugh when they read this particular story. Through the use of different literary devices, such as irony and symbolism, the author attempts to let the people have a laugh on what they’re reading. Charles Dickens, an American writer wrote about The Baron of Grogzwig. As what I have understood in the story, English comic on the other hand, was more on the sad side, more on misery and failures. It tackled humor as well but in a more different approach. The use of changing characters such as the baron himself in ironic situations but somehow miserable. In the story, the baron wanted to find amusement and so he tried to find a wife, but instead of finding amusement, it became misery. He got into debt, his melancholy and sadness increased. As what I have interpreted, English comic depicts positive and good situations as first, but as the story goes on and the character develops, the character changes and becomes more miserable and sorrowful due to new and bad experiences in the story. Towards the end of the story, the character’s problem is solved and is back to his natural state. English comics also wants to preach about something. The realizations of the character conveys the message what the author wants to tell the readers. As of this story, he was trying to say that there is still hope in everything. If you want to end your life, look and think of the bright side. Don’t see the negative side of the situation, think of what you can improve in that particular situation. English comics also use mockery and sarcasm in its dialogues, as seen from the exchange of dialogues between the genius and the baron. From my interpretation, Compared to American humor, English comics are typically in a state between a good situation – bad situation – back to good self. The moral from English comics can be applied to real life and can be helpful in the lives of the people as they can get the advice from the story and think about it and apply it. Each of the literary texts explored the theme of death.
It is somewhat hard to locate the subject of death in Mark Twain’s literary text because there weren’t really any death mentioned in the story. Concluding from what was stated in the literary text, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, there was the death of the pride of Jim Smiley, the death of his gambling addiction. After working so hard to “educate” the frog, to teach him to jump and however, he was cheated by a stranger, and I think, for me, this certain event, Jim Smiley lost his pride and somehow his gambling addiction has been lessened because of this. Also, there was the death of the hope of winning another bet. In Charles Dickens’s story The Baron of Grogzwig, he explored a lot of themes of death in the story. First was financial death wherein the family had a lot of debts that led to the misery of the baron. Physical death, where the baron tried to kill himself by cutting his neck with a knife, this wasn’t continued however when he met the genius and the baron looked at the bright side of life. There also was the death of death, the death here is pertaining to the Genius of Despair and Suicide, and he disappeared because he cannot tolerate sounds of laughter and happiness. And last but not the least, the death of the negative things. After meeting the genius, he then changed his view of life, instead of looking in the bad side, he turned to view the bright things in life. Noticing the beauty of
life after meeting death, how ironic, isn’t it?

References https://www.shmoop.com/celebrated-jumping-frog-calaveras/contrasting-regions-theme.html http://www.smcm.edu/events/twain/