MARK TWAIN
Reading Guide: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “How to Tell a
Story”
All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.
(Ernest Hemingway)
We [modern American writers] are all his heirs. (William Faulkner)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
1. Review events in Mark Twain’s life from his childhood through his early thirties leading
up to the publication of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in 1865.
2. Apply biographical criticism of literature. How might have events in Twain’s life
influenced him to write “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865)
It [the frog story] is the best humorous sketch America has produced yet, and I must read it in
public some day in order that people may know what there is in it. (Mark Twain)
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to
find a moral will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot. (Mark Twain’s
“Preface” to Huckleberry Finn)
1. Apply historical criticism of literature. What historical events might have influenced
Twain to write “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”?
2. Mark Twain kept notebooks and journals. In them he comments on some of his mining
camp buddies:
Jim Gillis: “A bright and smart imagination, turns out impromptu work and does
it well . . . just builds a story as it goes along.”
Fred Franks: “Fred possessed the first virtue of a comedian, which is to tell
humorous things with grave decorum and without seeming to know they are
funny.”
Ben Coon: “[He was] a solemn, fat-witted person, who dozed by the stove, or told
slow endless stories without point or application.”
Cokeman [Twain’s working name for the character before he changed it to Jim
Smiley]: “Cokeman with his jumping Frog—bet a stranger $50.00 Stranger had
no frog and Cokeman got him one. In the meantime stranger filled Cokeman’s
frog with shot and he couldn’t jump. Stranger’s frog won.”
3. Describe Twain’s humor in this tale. Do you think the story is funny?
4. Explain the narrative framework of this story. What is Twain’s narrative point of view
in this story? How do the two narrators differ? What is the sophisticated eastern narrator
looking for? Note the name of the western backwoods rambling narrator.
5. Note that Twain lets us both see and hear his characters. Consider how language helps
create character.
6. What are the names of the frog and bull pup
7. What is vernacular? How does Twain employ it in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County”?
8. What is the specific setting of the tale?
9. How does the stranger win the jumping frog contest?
10. Would you say that this tale has the traditional plot structure of exposition, conflict,
rising action, climax, and denouement?
11. Does Twain attempt to promote any theme (idea, moral, or lesson)?
12. What would you say is Twain’s purpose in writing the tale?
“How to Tell a Story” (1895)
1. According to Twain, how is the American story told? List specific features that Twain
describes in his “how to” essay.
2. How does this “American art” differ from English or French storytelling?
CRITICAL THINKING
1. What are the features of an oral tale? Can you think of any tales that you have heard
rather than read?
2. Connect “How to Tell a Story” with “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County.” Does Twain follow his own advice in his frog story? How? Note passages in
both the essay and the story for evidence.
3. Is the jumping frog story funny to today’s audience? Has humor changed since 1865?
How would Twain hold up against some of today’s comedians?
4. Some critics view the jumping frog story as a political cartoon. Are you aware of any
politics that inform this tale? If it is a political cartoon, then what kind of humor does
Twain portray?
5. Actually, the frog story—in some form—has been around for hundreds of years. Twain
was not the first to tell it. Some critics have found its roots in African folklore or in
ancient Greek literature. At least three versions of the frog tale had been printed in U. S.
newspapers in the 1850s. Is Twain in any way guilty of plagiarism?