The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County Summary

In the 1867 Folktale “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain, the story is told within a story about a man who makes bets but is deceived by a cheating stranger. Simon Wheeler is trying to get the narrator to listen to the story, but the narrator is thrown off guard and soon walks out. Twain uses vernacular diction in Wheelers’ vocabulary to indicate his character qualities. For Example, Wheeler says “Bananer”, this demonstrates the poor vocabulary Wheeler uses. Meaning to say “Banana” Wheeler adds the “-er” sounds to the endings of words, signaling he may have an accent. Also, there is slang in Wheelers accent to emphasize it’s there, “Cal’klated to edercate him”, the accent is present but understood. Furthermore, the