Frontier Reflection

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

While reading “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” I noticed a certain element of characterization. I also noticed the distinct writing style of Mark Twain and how it is humorous and included diction.


Characterization seems to be an important part of this story in the way that the author portrays his characters and their personalities. For example, when the author is describing Smiley he says, “Any way that suited the other man would suit him-any way just so’s he got a bet, he was satisfied. But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always come out winner” (Twain 526). This shows that Smiley was a gambler and a very tricky man who would try to bet people out of their money. Another character that is described is the narrator. When the narrator had just finished hearing the story of Jim Smiley and all of his crazy antics, he began to listen to the tale of his strange cow, “‘[the narrator] did not wait to hear about the afflicted cow, but took [his] leave’” (Twain 529). This shows that the narrator was a very educated and sophisticated man and that he did not have time to listen to the nonsense that Wheeler was telling. For this reason he left the room and left Wheeler talking by himself.


Twain’s writing is quite informal and has been given an element of humor and diction. An example of this is shown when Smiley starts to wonder what is wrong with Dan’l Webster, his frog and says, ‘“I do wonder what in the nation that frog throw’d off for-I wonder if there ain’t something the matter with him-he ‘pears to look mighty baggy…”’(Twain 529). Through Smiley’s dialect we can understand his personality and the confusion that he is in. Little did he know that his frog had been sabotaged and weighed down by bullets. Therefore, this story had an abundant amount of characterization. It also has a great deal of diction, along with some humor.