The jumping frog and the conman

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
January 17, 2008
Journal #5 Twain



Quote:
"And he ketched Dan'l by the nap of the neck, and hefted him, and says, "Why blame my cats if he don't weigh five pound!"(Twain 107).



Summary:
Smiley has challenged a stranger in town that no frog in calaveras county can out jump his frog, Dan'l. While Smiley is off getting a frog to compete with Dan'l the stranger fills Dan'l with lead shot making him unable to jump and ultimately Smiley loses his money.



Response:
The humor that appears in this short story is very unique to the American humorist. All other short stories have a punchline that is built up throughout the story but in the case of Mark Twain the whole story is humorous. First there is Simon Wheeler who tells the story of the jumping frog, but also goes on all these wild tangents. This is part of what makes this short story funny is that the story goes nowhere. It is almost like a bunch of random thoughts put together. Here is the narrator trying to find a man only to be thrown on a wild goose chase. My favorite part is when Smiley gets cheated out of his money by the conman. Now he knows how it feels to be cheated out of many just like he has done. I can just imagine hoe mad Smiley was when he realized he had been cheated out of forty dollars based on his own eagerness to cheat the stranger. What I think is clever about the story is that the Stranger seems to be the True Smiley that the narrator is looking for. Only the ultimate conman could con Smiley and his frog.
I also want to comment on what Juliet said yesterday in class. The Simpson's analogy that she used was very good. When she brought up the episode that has Krusty dealing with a gambling problem it does a perfect job of showing me what Smiley is like. I love the line about Krusty asking Fat Tony who he has on the opera. The connection between Smiley and Krusty is just amazing.