The Jumping Frog

Throughout the short story of The Jumping Frog, the author, Mark Twain, relates to realism and uses a great deal of imagery. He paints out a clear picture for his audience. Twain deeply describes the characters to get the audience to relate more to the story. “…I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance.” This quote is used to describe one of the main characters of the story, Simon Wheeler. It gives the audience a physical description and a bit of his personality.

Twain’s diction also stands out to me. Unlike other authors, Twain uses diction to emphasize Jim Smiley’s gambling problem. Twain refers to him as the “uncommonly lucky” man. In many of the examples that he listed, it is inferred that Smiley is indeed lucky. Twain uses the example of Smiley gambling horse races, the health of Parson Walker’s wife, the winning of his handicapped dog in dog fights, etc. to show the extent of Smiley’s gambling problem.

Due to the great use of imagery and diction, the audience was able to paint out a vivid picture of what occurred in the story. This story also contains irony. At the beginning of the story, Ward was looking to find information on Leonidas W. Smiley and Simon Wheeler ends up giving him information on Jim Smiley the whole time. It is not understood why Ward stuck around to hear the story of someone he didn’t know.