The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The story's tone is set by the narrator. Although the tone seems somewhat playful, the reader senses a bit aggravation in the narrator. Phrases such as "bore me to death", "exasperating reminiscence", and "long and tedious" clue the reader into the narrator's rather skeptical nature.
This verbiage implies an air of self importance within our narrator.

Simon Wheeler

• Dozing comfortably in a tavern
• Fat and bald
• Expression of winning gentleness and simplicity
• From the description of Simon Wheeler he seems to be a lazy, simple man, with a hint of kindness.

Simon Wheeler's Actions

• "backed me into a corner"
• Never smile
• Voice never changed
• Earnest
• Simon Wheeler is serious about the story he is telling, and does not find it frivilous or funny.

Really Important or Not???

• "I let him go on HIS way"
• Though the narrator says that Simon Wheeler though his story was "a really important matter", he doesn't seem to think it important himself. He shows this questioning nature by stating, " I let him go on in his own way," as if to say this way was not the one true way.
• The narrator also implies that he is better or more educated than Wheeler.

Twain's Humor

• Twain stretches the truth a bit in order to show the extremes Jim Smiley would go to in order to gamble. He would bet on such mundane things as which bird would fly off a fence first or which straddle bug would take the longest to get where he was going. Twain says Smiley would even go to Mexico to follow the bug and get his money.

Irony
Parson Walker's wife has been very ill, so Smiley inquires about her health. The reader thinks Smiley is simply being a good parishioner, but instead he places a bet that she won't live! This is ironic, because one would never expect someone to bet against another's life.

More Humor
Twain continues to riddle his story with humor as he tells of the animal antics of Smiley. Evidently Smiley had a horse that was constantly sick. He would tell his opponents of her ailments. The opponents would feel so sorry for the horse that they would give her a head start, but each time she would come through and win at the very end. Another somewhat comical and somewhat sad story involves Smiley's bulldog, Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson was a fighter, and he had a technique that was sure to win. He would fight and fight until his opponent was wore out, and then he would grab the other dog's hind legs and hold on for dear life. The fight was always called and Andrew Jackson won. One day, Andrew Jackson had to fight a dog with no hind legs. He didn't know what to do, and he lost. Later he went up on the hill, lay down, and died of shame.
Both incidents are rather far fetched and exaggerated - designed for comic effect.

More Irony

Why would you need to teach a frog to jump and catch flies? Isn't that what frogs do naturally?

Even More Irony

The stranger says to Smiley, "I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog", and this is true. There is nothing better about Daniel Webster, in fact, there's something a bit worse... he is filled with lead!

The tone of the inner story is filled with fun, but the narrator is more aggravated than ever. He had experienced enough of Simon Wheeler's story and "took [his] leave" without hearing the last tale.

Jim Smiley loved to gamble, but he especially loved to win with the "underdog" - an old asthmatic mare and a scrappy, old dog.

Simon Wheeler loved to tell a tall tale, especially to a captive audience. He also liked to show people their place, and prove that he wasn't exactly what one might think upon first glance.

The narrator seems to be quite confident and full of himself. He feels that he is far too educated and important to listen to this old minor's stories.

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