Regionalism in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Mark Twain is one of the best writers of American Regionalism with all of his works from his novels to his short stories like “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” This story is about an man from the East that is duped into believing a story about a Southern man named John Smiley. This story uses many characteristics of Regionalism like a writing style very similar to the vernacular of the setting. Both characters, the Easterner and Simon Wheeler, are very average people, although they are different in many ways. Having simple, middle-class people as the characters in a literary work is a characteristic of the genre of Regionalism.

Language is a very important part of works of Regionalism because the language used is able to connect the setting and characters to the overall theme of the story (Anderson). This particular story indeed has a language that is related to the setting. The story takes place in the South, and one of the main characters is a Southerner who speaks with the vernacular of the area. This man, Simon Wheeler, uses words like “feller” and “thish-yer” that are clearly words that would be used in the South (Twain 499). Although these simple differences in language may seem unimportant, they actually are used to help create a believable setting that can in turn convey the theme of the story.

Along with writing style and language, having characters that are middle-class, average people are an important part of the genre of Regionalism (Anderson). The story does that with both the characters of the Easterner and Simon Wheeler. Simon Wheeler is simply a man from the South that has many stories to tell. Oral stories are a very popular tradition in the South and this may be why he told the Easterner this story. He was not necessarily trying to be cruel to the man, and he could in fact have heard of a man named Simon Wheeler and just told the story as he had once heard it. The Easterner on the other hand also has the persona of a very normal person. Even though he ends up being duped by Simon Wheeler, this is nothing unexpected because he is simply a gullible person that is not from the same parts as Simon Wheeler (Twain 501). These characters lack any super characteristics that would make them extraordinary heroes in any means, but this is exactly the goal of writers of Realism and Regionalism.

Mark Twain is one of the greatest American authors of all and also one of the best writers of Regionalism and Realism. Many of his stories affectively use the different literary devices associated with Regionalism to create some of the best works of all time. He uses setting to relate the story to its theme. The characters are quite often average, middle-class protagonists, which is one of the fundamental characteristics of Regionalism. His writing style of use of the vernacular of the setting also makes the story more believable and connects the setting to the characters. All of these traits that are found in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” make it a great example of Regionalism and Mark Twain’s great literature.


Works Cited


Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds."regionalism." Encyclopedia of American Literature: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, vol. 3, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Online. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1330&SingleRecord=True. February 16, 2011.

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