How Does Mark Twain Use Irony In The Celebrated Jumping Frog

Mark Twain wrote his first short story in 1865 and it was named “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The story had a great success, and still the readers all over the world love it. The plot of the story is simple and looks like an anecdote, told by the barmen Simon Wheeler. The narrator was looking for Leonidas W. Smiley, who may or may not have stayed in the mining camp where barman worked. Still, Wheeler had remembered only Jim Smiley and decided to tell the story about the latter and his frog. The story was charming, but pointless. The narrator had had an idea that his friend sent him to Simon Wheeler as a prank, knowing, that he will be wasting his time listening to the funny stories of the barman. However, the story has …show more content…
Comedy is impossible without a little piece of irony. In the case with Sedaris, he is ironical against his brother’s deeds and his family’s reaction to it. Remembering the case with the bong used as a vase and prank jokes told by Paul to his father, it could be said, that irony in Twain’s comedy is of another kind. It is not that clear and debauchery. Mark Twain used irony very carefully, trying not to affect the feelings of the reader. However, the attitude of the narrator to the barmen is shown when the Wheeler backed him in the corner and blocked with the chair, so the narrator had no possibility to go away despite the great desire he had. In fact, the narrator did it when the barman had to interrupt his …show more content…
Twain and Sedaris used their characters to emphasize the important issues of their times. Use of the special words helped Mark Twain to explain the gap between Southern and Eastern people. That device remained relevant in a century, when David Sedaris was writing his piece of comedy. In fact, both authors wanted to play with the contrast – south and east, clever and stupid, educated and uneducated, refined and coarse, etc. Hyperbole, sarcasm, irony and other tools of the comedy helped them to form the strongest argument for the further examination by the reader.
Mark Twain is a classic writer now, but still not everyone likes his works in general, and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in particular. Some people may consider this story offensive, because the use of words and the type of action, taken by Smiley are not common. In fact, this story can be insulting for southern people, because the protagonist of Mark Twain’s piece of literature shows his stupidity and density, when he start training the frog using flies and