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.

Reflection

The Outcasts of Poker Flat


When reading “The Outcasts of Poker Flats,” I noticed an abundant amount of characterization between the different characters in the short story. I also saw a good amount of imagery of the setting along with a certain essence of irony. Another concept that struck me as interesting was the main character’s view of Fate and Luck.

Mr. Oakhurst was a successful gambler who lived his life according to poker and Luck. Mrs. Oakhurst or the “Duchess,” was a kind woman who cared for the people around her. “Mother Shipton” was a woman who was thought of being a witch. “Uncle Billy” was suspected of stealing gold and being a drunkard. Tom Simson was also called the “Innocent.” He was a young man who was traveling with his fiancée, Piney Woods. All of these people were driven out of Poker Flats by “A secret committee [who] had determined to rid the town of all improper persons” (Harte 535). In a sense these people were criminals and outcasts of the town.

Bret Harte uses a good amount of imagery in the story to describe the setting in which they are staying which is a makeshift cabin. An example of this is shown by saying that “…over drifted walls of dazzling white that towered twenty feet above their heads” (Harte 540). This shows that they are surrounded by a wonderland of snow.

Mr. Oakhurst lived his own life by Luck and believed that Fate needed to be accepted. For example, during one point of the story Mr. Oakhurst “struck a streak of bad luck on the 23d of November, 1850…” (Harte 541). This shows that Mr. Oakhurst and his companions were in bad shape because of the weather. This resulted in his death which is ironic because most of the characters in the story had hope that they would reach the city in time. Therefore, I have observed many different literary elements in “The Outcasts of Poker Flats.”

"Visuals That Speak" Essay and Visual

Speaking Visually

This poll was asking people “What type of pet would you like to have the most?” After the voting process was complete, the results were similar to what was expected.

The Mammals category received the highest number of votes which was 7. This amounts to about 58% in total. This score was expected because most people are accustomed to having household pets who they can look after and take care of. These type of pets are lovable and affectionate toward their owners. Such animals are like dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and other types of rodents.

In second place, the Fishes received 2 votes which counted as 16%. These types of animals are easier to look after than others because they are confined to a certain space, opposed to animals who must be allowed to run around freely. They are also easy to look after because they do not require much human attention and interest.

Finally, the remaining categories came to a three way tie for third. They were Reptiles, Amphibians, and Birds. They all received 1 vote and this amounted for a mere 8%. At the end of the voting process, it is clear that the Mammals category is preferred over all the others.

Novel Essay

Romanticism Essay

A Malagasy Proverb says, “Better to be guilty in the eyes of men than in the eyes of God.” This quote explains that the reader should be pleasing the Lord and not the men of this earth even if it costs them some social relationships such as the minister and the captain in the following stories. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Mr. Hooper begins to wear a black veil that covers his appearance and this puts his entire Puritan society on edge especially because he refused to remove the covering up until the day of his death. In Moby-Dick, Ahab is the captain of the Pequod and he is on a desperate quest for revenge against his most sought after enemy which is a white whale named Moby-Dick even if he risks the lives of his crewmembers. These short stories demonstrate examples from the Romanticism period in that they are obsessed with the enigma of evil, the obscure sources of behavior and moral judgment, and the symbolism of land and sea. Hawthorne and Melville demonstrate how individuals are cast out of their societies because of their actions using the minister’s conflict with his Puritan society, the symbolism of his black veil, and Ahab’s nature toward his obsession of the sea.


The minister’s conflict with his Puritan society caused him to become an outcast of the town. For example, no attempts to discover the secret of the black crape were made and “the gentle and timid would turn aside to avoid him...children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off” (Hawthorne 324). This conflict shows that the people would refrain from looking at the tortured soul of the man hidden behind the black covering. This also demonstrates that Mr. Hooper felt alone and isolated from everyone else. In addition, when the minister was lying in his death bed he realized that “all through life that piece of crape had hung between him and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love, and kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart” (Hawthorne 326). This shows that the conflict created by the fold of crape caused a separation between his community and the people he loved. This also explains that Mr. Hooper felt imprisoned and was having an internal conflict within his own being. Therefore, the minister became an outsider of his own Puritan society because of the conflicts caused by the black covering.


The symbolism of Mr. Hooper’s black veil worried many people and instilled fear in his town and it also expressed his abilities as a clergyman. For example, when the minister was going to give his first sermon while wearing the mysterious emblem “the subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness…with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked” (Hawthorne 320). This shows that the black veil could be a symbol of secret sin that Mr. Hooper was keeping deep inside himself. This also demonstrates that just by listening to the minister’s voice the citizens of the town felt very alarmed and filled with horror. In addition, along with all of the bad influences of the secret symbol it “had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman…he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony of sin” (Hawthorne 324). This shows that the mysterious emblem could be a symbol of authority or influence over his brothers of the church. This also explains that the minister had power over those in need of consolation and he could sympathize with all their dark affections. Therefore, the symbolism of Mr. Hooper’s black veil placed fear and terror into his town and it helped him to demonstrate his abilities as a clergyman.


Ahab’s fascination with the sea caused him to become an insane and temperamental captain of the Pequod and made him lose the loyalty of his shipmates. For example, the ship had begun its whaling voyage and “it was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-colored waters” (Melville 230). This demonstrates how Captain Ahab viewed the ocean and how he admired it to the extent of living on it his whole life. This also shows that his crew no longer believed in his quest to defeat the white whale, they misunderstand his passion for whaling and would just see him as a crazed maniac. In addition, when Ahab was losing his temper he began to tell his lazy shipmates that the “unsounded ocean you gasp in, is Life; those sharks, your foes; those spades, your friends; and what between sharks and spades you are in a sad pickle and peril poor lad” (Melville 338). This explains how Captain Ahab felt about the deep blue sea and what it meant to him, it was his life and his home. This also shows how his crew misinterpreted his drive and determination for madness and obsession. Ahab became an insane and explosive captain and lost the faithfulness of his shipmates because of his fascination with the sea and its inhabitants.


The way individuals are cast out of their societies because of their actions is demonstrated using the minister’s conflict with his Puritan society, the symbolism of his black veil, and Ahab’s nature toward his passion of the ocean in Hawthorne and Melville’s stories. The minister was cast out of his community because of his choice to wear a black covering. This mysterious emblem had both undesirable and desirable influences in his society which shaped the way he lived his life forever more. Ahab’s fixation with the sea caused him to lose the dependability of his crew and made him into an insane and highly strung captain. There are many lessons that a reader can learn from these stories such as the fact of not becoming too focused and obsessed with one goal to the point that one excludes the more important things in life. If the reader is self-centered and does not realize that the things one does affects the people around them, then the most important relationships will be shattered and most likely ruined. Therefore, cherish the moments that one has now and do not waste time striving for things that one cannot achieve without the help of the Lord.

Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc, 1999. (318-327).
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Bantam Books, Inc. New York, New York, 1967.

Cause and Effect Essay - Final Draft

The Effects of Smoking

Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur at middle age. Internal and external damage to the body, and also Second Hand Smoke are some of the effects of cigarette smoking.


One effect of cigarette smoking is the damage and hurt of certain internal organs due to disease. A statistic that shows approximately how many people smoking affects is, “About 90% of deaths due to chronic bronchitis and emphysema diseases are …” (Johnson). Some of these diseases are more serious than others and may have an immediate or a slowly progressing affect on your health and on your life in general. These diseases include emphysema, bronchitis, lung cancer, and physical and psychological addictiveness to the substance. More internal effects of cigarette smoking are delayed conception and fertility in women, amputation of limbs, heart attack and stroke, and swelling of the lungs. This is what causes the chronic coughing and wheezing in smokers. The swelling of the lungs causes the smoker to have hard time breathing. Smoking can damage your internal organs and hinder you from living a healthy life.


Another effect of cigarette smoking is the external and outward appearance of your body. Over time, smokers tend to look much older than they really are, “smokers in their 40 appear more like 60 year old nonsmokers” (Smoking and Beauty). This premature aging is due to the wrinkles in a smoker’s skin and the change in color and texture. Years of smoking can make your cheeks look hollow and increase the wrinkles around your eyes and mouth. More external effects of cigarette smoking include yellowing of teeth and nails, bad breath, weight loss, cataracts in eyes, and the decrease of saliva in mouth. It has also been proved that a smoker is three times more likely to lose their teeth than a non-smoker. Therefore, external appearance of your body can be altered by the smoking of a cigarette.


The final effect of smoking is the ongoing pollution of second hand smoke that has been passed on to others. Second Hand Smoke also known as passive smoking, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), or involuntary smoking. This action occurs when the exhaled smoke from one person's cigarette is inhaled by another person. The Environmental Agency issued a report in 1993 estimating that “3,000 lung cancer related deaths in the US were caused by passive smoking every year” (Johnson). Non-smokers exposed to second hand smoke are at greater risk for many of the health problems connected with direct smoking. Second Hand Smoking is especially risky for children and pregnant women who are carrying babies. It can cause them to have a low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis, pneumonia, and middle ear infections. Cigarette smoking can also cause second hand smoke which has been killing millions of people.


Therefore, internal and external damage to the body, and also Second Hand Smoke are some of the effects of cigarette smoking. Please stay away from smoking and try not to be a victim of second hand smoke. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people already. Don't be another statistic.

Works Cited

Johnson, Len. “Quit Smoking Stop.” 2005. Oct. 22, 2007. <www.quit-smoking-stop.com/harmful-smoking-effects.html>
Johnson, Len. “Effects of Second Hand Cigarette Smoke.” 2005. Oct. 22, 2007. <www.quit-smoking-stop.com/harmful-smoking-effects.html>
Smoking and Beauty. Oct. 22, 2007.