1. “The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County”
By
Mark Twain
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2. EWRT 30 Class 9
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3. AGENDA
Terms 9-17
Review
Discussion
Lecture: Setting, Tone
Guided Writing: Adventure Story

4. TERMS 9-17
In medias res
Flashback
Exposition
Conflict
Suspense
Foreshadowing
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
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5. 9. In medias res: Latin for "in the midst of things." We
enter the story on the verge of some important
moment.
10. Flashback: a device that informs us about events that
happened before the opening scene of a work; often a
scene relived in a character's memory.
11. Exposition: the opening portion that sets the
scene, introduces the main characters, tells us what
happened before the story opened, and provides any
other background information that we need in order
to understand and care about the events to follow.

6. 12. A conflict is a complication that moves to a climax.
Conflict is the opposition presented to the main
character of a story by another character, by events or
situations, by fate, or by some act of the main character's
own personality or nature. More loosely defined for
contemporary fiction, it is the problem or tension that
must somehow be addressed (if not perfectly resolved) by
the end of the story.
13. Suspense: the pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens
our attention to the story.
14. Foreshadowing: indication of events to come—the
introduction of specific words, images, or events into a
story to suggest or anticipate later events that are central
the action and its resolution.

7. 15. Rising action
A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play
or story's plot leading up to the climax.
16. Climax: the moment of greatest tension in the story, at
which the outcome is to be decided
17. Falling action
In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax
of the work that moves it towards its denouement or
resolution.

8. The
Group Review
“The Celebrated 1. Character
Jumping Frog of 2. Flat characters
Calaveras County”
3. Round characters
1. PLOT 4. Protagonist
5. Antagonist
2. POV
6. Motivation
3. CHARACTER 7. Plot
8. Chronological
4. SETTING Order

9. Plot

10. Climax: A stranger fills Smiley’s frog
with quail shot and the frog loses
Rising Action: Smiley Falling Action:
gets a frog and trains
Smiley finds out that the
it to win jumping
stranger cheated him so he
contests. Bets with a
chases after him, but the
stranger.
stranger is gone with his money.
Wheeler is interrupted in a
Conflict: Smiley bets on old unfriendly way by the narrator
animals and thinks he can
always win
Resolution: The narrator
Exposition: The narrator enters the
leaves, bitter that his quest was
tavern in Angel’s mining camp and asks
Simon Wheeler about Leonidas W.
worthless.
Smiley. Simon tells a yarn about Jim
Smiley—a betting man.

11. POV

12. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County: POV
Who is the narrator, and, more importantly, can we trust her or
him?
First Person
Through a frame narrative, the narrator (clearly an educated person
from the East) presents the story of Jim Smiley, told in Simon
Wheeler’s uneducated dialect. This is the main device that Twain
uses to present the contrast between East and West: educated vs.
uneducated, refined vs. coarse.

13. The Characterization
of Simon Wheeler

14. Simon Wheeler: Characterization
Method: Directly Describing: “I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the bar-
room stove of the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel’s”
Method: The Character’s Own Words : "And he had a little small bull pup, that to
look at him you'd think he wan's worth a cent, but to set around and look ornery, and
lay for a chance to steal something. But as soon as money was up on him, he was a
different dog; his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat, and his
teeth would uncover, and shine savage like the furnaces.”
Method: The Character’s Own Actions: “Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and
blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the
monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph.”
Method: Detailing Physical Appearance: “I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed,
and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil
countenance.”
Method: Through the Reaction of Others: “To me, the spectacle of a man drifting
serenely along through such a queer yarn without ever smiling, was exquisitely absurd.”

15. Setting

16. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Setting
Where It All Goes Down
Angel’s Camp, California, mid-19th century
Angel's Camp is a gold mining community in the mid-19th
century that the narrator claims to have visited to find Simon
Wheeler. Like any mining town in the West, it was populated
primarily by men, many of them looking for their fortune. As
something of a frontier town, it would probably seem to be full
of loud, uncouth, and uneducated people compared to the
more genteel East.

17. Lecture Subject
Mood and Tone

18. Basic Elements of a Story
1. PLOT - the story line; a unified, progressive pattern of action or events in a
story
2. POINT OF VIEW (POV) - the position from which the story is told
3. CHARACTER - person portraying himself or another in a narrative or
drama
4. SETTING - the time and place of the action in a story
5. TONE - the attitude of the author toward his subject or
toward the reader
6. MOOD - the feeling or state of mind that predominates
in a story creating a certain atmosphere

19. TONE
TONE is simply the author’s attitude toward the
subject.
You can recognize the tone/attitude by the
language/word choices the author uses. His or her
language will reveal his/her positive or negative
perspective or opinion about the subject.
Tone must be inferred through the use of descriptive
words.

20. Tone Example
The girls were playing in the pond, splashing each other
and trying to catch fish with their hands. They were having
fun, but kept looking over their shoulders at the looming
forest. The long grass of the field kept moving, and they sort
of felt like they were being watched… About a half hour
passed and still the girls kept checking the field for
movements. It seemed like a pair of dark eyes was on them.
They even considered going back inside, but that would mean
homework time. So they continued splashing but with
caution now. Their eyes hardly left the field.
The tone of this passage is ominous, suggesting a little bit of
fear or foreboding. Words like "caution, dark, and
looming“ lead readers to the tone.

21. TONE EXAMPLE
Finally, one of the girls pointed to the grass and
giggled. "Meow!" A cat sat on the edge of the
field and licked its paw. They did indeed have
company. The girls ran over to the cat and pet
his belly. They laughed and the cat sauntered
back to the field.
The tone of this passage is happy/contentment as
there was a successful, happy resolution to the
problem.

22. TONE
Identifying and writing TONE is all about using
descriptive vocabulary words. Without an
extended writing vocabulary, it’s difficult to
describe outside of “good” and“bad.”

23. Tone in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County”
S I have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a
myth; that my friend never knew such a personage; and that
he only conjectured that, if I asked old Wheeler about
him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and
he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some
infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it
should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly
succeeded.
S Which words give the reader a clue about tone?

24. Tone: “The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County”
S Disparaging, disbelieving
S The attitude of the narrator toward the subject matter
is one of disbelief that his time has been wasted in
such a way. He’s annoyed that he has had to listen to
such a stupid tale (about Dan'l Webster) from a man
who seems to take it so seriously. His effort to
reproduce Wheeler’s ungrammatical dialect feels
slightly mocking.

25. MOOD
MOOD is the overall feeling or emotion that is
created IN THE READER.
Authors “move” their readers’ moods
through their choice of words and level of
detail.

26. MOOD EXAMPLE
During the holidays, my mother's house glittered with decorations
and hummed with preparations. We ate cookies and drank
cider while we helped her wrap bright packages and trim the
tree. We felt warm and excited, listening to Christmas carols
and even singing along sometimes. We would tease each other
about our terrible voices and then sing even louder.
Mood: Content, happy. How do we know? Words like
"warm, excited, glittered” are used by the author.

27. MOOD EXAMPLE
After New Year's, the time came to put all the decorations
away and settle in for the long, cold winter. The house
seemed to sigh as we boxed up its finery. The tree was dry
and brittle and now waited forlornly by the side of the
road to be picked up.
Mood: Dreary, depressed. How do we know?
"cold, sigh, brittle, forlornly"

28. Mood in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County”
He was the curiousest man about always betting on anything that
turned up you ever see, if he could get anybody to bet on the other
side; and if he couldn't he'd change sides. Any way that suited the
other man would suit him--any way just so's he got a bet, he was
satisfied. But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always
come out winner. He was always ready and laying for a chance; there
couldn't be no solit'ry thing mentioned but that feller'd offer to bet on
it, and take any side you please, as I was just telling you. If there was
a horse-race, you'd find him flush or you'd find him busted at the end
of it; if there was a dog-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a cat-
fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it; why, if
there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one
would fly first; or if there was a camp-meeting, he would be there
reg'lar to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best
exhorter about here, and he was, too, and a good man. If he even see
a straddle-bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it
would take him to get to--to wherever he was going to, and if you
took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he
would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the
road.
Which words establish the mood?

29. MOOD WORDS
S Cheerful S Furious
S Relieved S Disappointed
S Gloomy S Dreamy, foggy
S Bleak S Content
S Uncertain S Satisfied
S Bittersweet S Angry
S Relaxed S Motivated
S Lazy S Inspired
S Hopeless S Confident
S Tense S Eerie

30. Guided Writing
Guided Writing

31. An Adventure Story
S One morning, you get out of bed, slide into clothes, pick up
your backpack, put ____________ into it, and go down the
stairs, skipping one because _________.
S __________ smells good, but you have plans with your
friends, so you pass kitchen. You overhear ___________
talking, but they don’t notice you go by. So you walk
____________ quietly, open the side door, and sneak into the
garage.

32. It is pitch black inside. You run your hand up the
wall, searching for the light switch, and you touch
____________, which feels ____________. You try to
wipe it on your __________. Then, you find the light
switch with other hand and turn it on. You look at your
_______ hand and see _________. You find ________to
clean it with.
Finally, you secure your mode of transportation, open the
garage door, and head for __________ house.

33. You travel down _________street, past
__________ (landmark), to (A’s) house. You
___________ to get his or her attention. He/she
looks out a window and you say, “___________.”
(Blank) comes downstairs and you hear him/her
in garage. Then you hear a __________. When
the door opens, you find out what caused the
noise. The two of you take off, to go to B’s house.

34. You and A travel down __________ street, past (landmark)
on the way to meet B. On the way, (A) calls (B), and says
“meet us at the corner of (blank and blank) and bring (C)
with you.”
You all four meet at the corner. You travel together down
_______ Avenue/Drive/Boulevard and past (a landmark).
You see somebody you want to avoid, so you
___________.
You arrive at _______ (store) on the corner of (blank and
blank), and you go in and you buy _________ for your day.
Finally, you get back on the road, traveling about five miles
out of town, to the edge of the forest.

35. You pull over and sit there for a minute, discussing the benefits
of entering the forest. Some people say the forest is
____________, but you don’t worry because you’re invincible.
One friend is resistant.
One is enthusiastic.
And one is apathetic.
Pick who is who and begin your characterization of each of
your companions. (Give them qualities that make them
individual. Consider looks, behavior, attitude, and speech
patterns, for example)
Finally, you decide you’re all going in.

36. As you make your way into the forest, even though it’s
now late morning, it gets ______ and _________ and
_________ and _________ because _______________.
The forest gets so ___________ that it is difficult to
make your way. You stop at a ___________to have
conversation about how far you’re going in. Describe
the forest here. (include the five senses here. What do
you see, hear, smell, taste, touch)
Take off again and walk for _________. All of the
sudden, the forest gets deathly quiet and very _______.

37. You soon come into a clearing of sorts. It is still quiet. The
four of you express varying emotions.
You look around, trying to assess your location. To your
right, you see a cave hidden behind thick bushes. To the
left, in the top of this big _____ tree, there’s a
___________tree house. Straight ahead of you, in the
distance, sits a mansion/castle.
All of a sudden, you hear _________. And you say, “hey,
that came from the (cave, mansion/castle, or tree house)!

38. -convince your companions to enter
the ____________
-develop your characters
-figure out what made the noise
-determine your plot, conflict and
climax
-establish setting, mood, and tone
-tell your story

39. Homework
S Post # 9: Guided writing
(draft)
S Read: “The
Chrysanthemums”
S Study Terms