The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

1
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

• Western Humor

2
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

• This story is an example of a Tall Tale
• similar type of humor as a practical joke
  (someone gets fooled, to the amusement of others
  who know the truth)
• Twain got the idea for the story listening to
  local storytellers while mining for gold near San
  Francisco
• The storytellers would tell this tale, and
  others, without ever cracking a smile

3
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

• Twain learned two lessons from these storytellers
  about humor writing
• The manner in which a person tells a story is
  what makes it funny
• A successful humorist should always pretend to be
  dead serious

4
Literary Terms

• Tall Tale
• A distinctively American form of humorous story
• Its humor comes from the use of local color, or
  regionalism
• Features exaggeration as its main device

5
Literary Terms

• Local Color (Regionalism)
• Writing that truthfully imitates ordinary life
• Brings a region alive by portratying its typical
  dress, mannerisms, customs, character types, and
  dialects
• Smiley was monstrous proud of his frog, and well
  he might be for fellers that had traveled and
  been everywheres all said he laid over any frog
  that ever they see.

6
Literary Terms

• Exaggeration
• Stretching the truth to an unrealistic extent
• Here, Twain exaggerates the lengths to which
  Smiley would go to make a bet.
• If he see a straddlebug start to go anywheres,
  He would bet you how long it would take him to
  get toto where ever he was going to, and if you
  took him up, he would foller that straddlebug to
  Mexico but what he would find out where he was
  bound for and how long he was on the road

7
Literary Terms

• Dialect
• A distinct form of a language spoken in one
  geographic area by a particular social or ethnic
  group
• A groups dialect is reflected in its
  pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions, and
  grammatical constructions

8
Literary Terms

• Dialect
• Twain reproduces the dialect spoken in California
  around the time of the Civil War, as seen here
• And he had a little small bull-pup that to look
  at him youd think he warnt worth a cent but to
  set around and look ornery and lay for a chance
  to steal something

9
Study Sheet for The Notorious Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County (pp.679-685) Front Back

• Literary Terms
• Write the four literary terms on pages 679
• and 685 and their definitions.
• Tall Tale
• Local Color
• Dialects
• Exaggeration
• Readers Notebook (p.580)
• As you read. Jot down unfamiliar words and
• expressions and what you think they mean.

Answer the following questions using the P.I.E.
format extended examples (Point, Information,
Explanation) Think Critically (p.685) 2
Answer with an extended example (Three sentence
PIE format) 3 Answer with an extended
example (Three sentence PIE format) 4 Answer
with an extended example (Three sentence PIE
format) Extend Interpretation (p.685) 6
Create a paragraph with two extended
examples (Topic Sentence, Point, Information,
Explanation, Transition Word, Point,
Information, Explanation, Conclusion Sentence)