The Notorious Jumping Frog

Words: 741
Pages: 3

This an evaluation of the short story "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain. This is a short narrative about a man telling a story, about the story of Jim Smiley. Mark Twain was mainly interested in capturing the reader’s attention. The theme of the story is Deception. The frame of the story affects the main action by giving it different points of view.
The story begins with the narrator being sent by his friend to visit Simon Wheeler. He is told to find out about his friend Leonidas W. Smiley. The narrator mentions in the beginning that he believes that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth, but he does it. When the narrator ask about Leonidas W. Smiley ,Wheeler says that he doesn’t know anyone by this name, however he does know a man name Jim Smiley. From there Wheeler begins to tell the story of Jim Smiley a man who is willing to gamble on anything. Smiley is said to be also a very lucky man and eventually uses his luck to train animals. Wheeler explains that Smiley has succeeded in training a frog to jump higher than any other frog in Calaveras County one day he finds a stranger who’s willing to bet that his frog can’t
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The part of the story that I found most interesting was Jim Smiley. Jim smiley was so good at what he did he could turn any underdog into a winner .The main character was a man of perseverance that always believed in himself. He was in fact so confident that he didn’t care what he was gambling on or what position he took. Jim Smiley recognized that the side he bet on was the winning side and I admired this about him. Jim Smiley trained animals by teaching them one trick that allowed the animal to stand out and become a winner. Although Smiley does go through losses throughout the story, I appreciated that the author didn’t allow this to change his personality or his