Realism Project: Mark Twain

Mark Twain was a very influential writer in the United States of America, and his writing fits into the realism literary time period, and one of the sub genres of the realism literary period, regionalism. Mark Twain wrote many books, poems, anecdotes, and novels. In these works of literature, he mainly wrote on the society at the time. Many times he would criticize it, and say what was wrong with it. Still, he did this in very fun and colorful novels making them very interesting to read, well loved, and very popular. One of these novels is "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County."

"The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County," by Mark Twain, is really a story inside of a story. One of the characters talks to a man who is looking for one of his friends from long ago. The man recognizes the name, Smiley, but it is not the same person. Instead, the man tells the lookout about a different man by the name of Smiley, a bizarre and interesting man who was an excessive gambler. The man narrates tales of Smiley, which is what creates the story inside of the story. (Twain, 498)This makes "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" a very interesting story by Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

This story obviously fits into the sub genre of the realism literary period, regionalism. A key proponent of how it fits in with regionalism is the dialect of the book, and the fact that it centers around the West. "Dialect is a variation of a language spoken by a particular group, often within a specific region and tim. Dialects may differ from the standard form of a language in vocabulary pronunciation, or grammatical form." (Wilhelm, 497) The narration is what makes one feel like he or she is in the West and talking to one of the settlers, because of the dialect. "Thish-yer Smiley had a mare--the boys caller her the fifteen-minute nag, but that was only in fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster than that--and he used to win money on that horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the consuption, or something of that kind. They used to giver her two or three hundred yards start, and then pass her under way; but always at the fag-end of the race she'd get excited and desperate-like, and come cavorting and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber, sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side amongst the fences, and kicking up m-o-r-e racket with her coughing and sneezing and blowing her nose--and always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down." (Twain, 499-500) When one reads this, he or she can just imagine a Westerner speaking to them, like they are right there listening to the story rather than reading it. Mark Twain does a very good job in writing like this, to where it feels like one is in the actual story. This is what places the book in the regionalism category.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. pg. 498-502.

Wilhelm, Jeffery. "Dialect." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. pg. 497.