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Literary Devices
Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—Wheeler’s Dialect:
Most of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is written in the dialect of working-class people in the American West in the mid-1800s. While the introduction of the story is written from the perspective of a well-educated narrator from the East Coast (who uses a formal writing style), the story itself is told in the form of a monologue by the old miner Wheeler, who uses a conversational speaking style.
In Wheeler’s section of the story, Twain eschews traditional spelling and grammar rules in order to capture the man’s regional speaking style, as seen in the following passage (in which Wheeler describes Smiley’s frog Dan’l Webster):
“Why, I’ve seen him set Dan’l Webster down here on this floor […] and sing out, ‘Flies, Dan’l, flies!’ and quicker’n you could wink he’d spring straight up and snake a fly off’n the counter there, and flop down on the floor ag’in as solid as a gob of mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head with his hind foot as indifferent as if he hadn’t no idea he’d been doin’ any more’n any frog might do.”
Twain changes the spelling of “Daniel” to “Dan’l” (the frog is notably named after real-life politician Daniel Webster), “again” to “ag’in,” “more than” to “more’n,” etc. These changes capture the clipped speaking style and accents of working-class people out West. Twain also captures local grammar in the phrase “as if he hadn’t no idea” (rather than “as if he had no idea”) and local turns of phrase, such as “quicker’n you could wink.” In making Wheeler’s dialect as true-to-life as possible, Twain nods to his respect of different regional customs and cultures.
Related Themes:
