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“The Celebrated

Jumping Frog of

Calaveras County”By

Mark Twain

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EWRT 30 Class 9

AGENDA

Terms 9-17

Review

Discussion

Lecture: Setting, Tone

Guided Writing: Adventure Story

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TERMS 9-17

In medias res

Flashback

Exposition

Conflict

Suspense

Foreshadowing

Rising action

Climax

Falling action

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.

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.

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.

The

Group Review

“The Celebrated

Jumping Frog of

Calaveras County”

1. PLOT

2. POV

3. CHARACTER

4. SETTING

1. Character

2. Flat characters

3. Round characters

4. Protagonist

5. Antagonist

6. Motivation

7. Plot

8. Chronological

Order

Plot

Exposition: The narrator enters the tavern in Angel’s mining camp and asks Simon Wheeler about Leonidas W. Smiley. Simon tells a yarn about Jim Smiley—a betting man.

Rising Action: Smiley gets a frog and trains it to win jumping contests. Bets with a stranger.

Climax: A stranger fills Smiley’s frog with quail shot and the frog loses

Falling Action:

Smiley finds out that the stranger cheated him so he chases after him, but the stranger is gone with his money.

Wheeler is interrupted in a unfriendly way by the narrator

Resolution: The narrator leaves, bitter that his quest was worthless.

Conflict: Smiley bets on old animals and thinks he can always win

POV

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.

The Characterization

of Simon Wheeler

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.”

Setting

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.

Lecture Subject

Mood and Tone

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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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?

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.

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.

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.

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"

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?

MOOD WORDS

S Cheerful

S Relieved

S Gloomy

S Bleak

S Uncertain

S Bittersweet

S Relaxed

S Lazy

S Hopeless

S Tense

S Furious

S Disappointed

S Dreamy, foggy

S Content

S Satisfied

S Angry

S Motivated

S Inspired

S Confident

S Eerie

Guided Writing

Guided Writing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 _______.

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)!

-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

Homework

S Post # 9: Guided writing

(draft)

S Read: “The

Chrysanthemums”

S Study Terms