Stormy Knaak

Professor Holt
English 3375
February 24, 2016
The Power of Narration
In Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog, author Mark Twain utilizes various narrators
with specific characteristics to outline the unsettling and negative idea of an interloper telling the
story of a region they do not understand and are not interested in. He is able to do this primarily
through his juxtaposition of a well-to-do, shrewd young businessman and the friendly, talkative
Simon Wheeler. Meanwhile, this juxtaposition is also successful in highlighting the amiable
characteristics of the region Simon Wheeler comes from, posing various aspects of realism and
regionalism in the short story, and mirrors the themes that are meanwhile taking place in the
narration of Jim Smiley and his jumping frog, including the themes of being swindled by
strangers and the dangers of outsiders. Twains short story, through the application of a framed
narration, suggests that an outsider is not fully capable of capturing the insiders story.
This short story embodies a regionalist form of writing, and Twain uses contrasting points
of view in order to highlight specific characteristics of the region that the story takes place. For
example, the short story begins with an unnamed, business-like narrator, as shown through the
line if I asked old Wheeler about [Leonidas W. Smiley] 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, (63). From this insight into the narrators mind, the reader is told that the
narrator does not care about Simon Wheelers memories of Jim Smiley and sees the conversation
he had with Wheeler as a waste of valuable time and useless to him. The narrator is not likeable

because he appears condescending and judgmental of the personable Simon Wheeler, and it is
apparent that he does not understand nor is he interested in the characteristics of this mining
town. Because this unnamed narrator is in opposition with the narration of the friendly, talkative
Wheeler, it makes the reader have a more positive response to the region that Wheeler is from
and illustrates specific characteristics of this region. Due to Wheelers dialect and phrases such
as Thish-yer Smiley had a mare (64), his narration suggests that the region he is from is
dilapidated, uneducated, and unglamorous, yet the area feels immediately personable because of
the contrast with the business-like and straightforward characteristics of the previous narrator.
The framed form of narration that Twain uses for this short story is able to highlight a localized
setting of the bar-room stove and characterize it as a friendly, comfortable place. Twain is
successful in characterizing this region as friendly and comfortable by his juxtaposition of the
unfriendly, brusque narrator in the beginning of the short story. Because of the unlikeable nature
of the businessman narrator, Twain demonstrates the unsettling idea of a judgmental,
misunderstanding outsider telling the story of a region, and Twain highlights the realization of
the unfairness of the circumstance. The outsider doesnt understand the region in which he is
visiting, seems uninterested towards the characteristics of the region, and is generally in too big
of a rush to put forth the patience and open-mindedness it requires to capture the truth of the
region, therefore it seems unfair for this same outsider to have the opportunity to tell the story of
the region.
While Twain is able to portray Simon Wheeler as a likeable character by contrasting him
with the terse unnamed narrator, this does not save Wheeler from appearing as unreliable. Almost
immediately in his quest to tell the story of Jim Smiley, Wheeler says in the winter of 49or
maybe it was the spring of 50I dont recollect exactly, somehow (64), which depicts Wheeler

as an unreliable narrator with a faulty memory. This unstable memory whilst storytelling, while
unreliable in narrative, does establish a realistic sounding conversation. Because Wheeler is an
elder man, he realistically would have difficulty in recollecting a story from years prior.
Additionally, the situation that Twain sets up with a young, professional narrator in an interview
setting with an aged, rough, talkative man is humorously relatable and realistic in that the man
would be excitedly talkative and the young man would feel trapped listening to the reminiscence
of the old days. There are also several cases of Wheelers narration including disorganized and
disarrayed speech, such as the following passage:
And a dog might tackle him . . . and throw him over his shoulder two or three
times, and Andrew Jacksonwhich was the name of the pupAndrew Jackson
would never let on but what he was satisfied, and hadnt expected nothing else
and the bets being doubled and doubled on the other side all the time, till the
money was all up, (65).
This narration exemplifies realism because it is not carefully organized, which you can see when
Wheeler interrupts himself after referring to the dog by name because he realizes he has not yet
said the dogs name is Andrew Jackson. This speech is also not eloquent in a romanticized way,
but rather it is heavy in dialect and natural, conversational-styled every day speech, which is
evident when Wheeler makes the grammatical error of saying hadnt expected nothing else,
rather than the grammatically correct hadnt expected anything else. Wheelers speech is
utilized as a tool by Twain to exemplify the mannerisms of realism, including the idea of realism
being about the everyday and ordinary, mundane aspects of life instead of a beautiful, ornate
representation.

And finally, Jim Smiley, who appears as the main protagonist of Wheelers narration,
highlights the central themes of the short story. For example, through his experience with the
stranger coming into town and fooling him by filling his frog with shot, Smiley surfaces the
theme of being swindled by an outsider, and how it is important to be aware of the danger of
dishonesty. When Smiley goes to find a frog for the stranger to use in a frog jumping
competition, [the stranger] set there a good while thinking and thinking to hisself, and then he
got the frog . . . and filled him full of quail-shot, (66). Just as Smiley stops paying attention to
the stranger, the stranger commits an underhanded and deceitful act against Smiley and his
jumping frog.

Similar to the unnamed business man and Simon Wheeler, an outsider is

contrasted with a likeable protagonist to be portrayed as untrustworthy. The theme of this mishap
with the frog parallels the overarching theme of Twains use of inside and outside narratives to
render the question of who should have the privilege of representing a culture.
Mark Twain utilizes different points of view in his short story Jim Smiley and His
Jumping Frog in order to highlight an overarching and daunting question of the reliability of an
outsider telling the story of a culture they dont fully understand. Through the narration of the
friendly Simon Wheeler, Twain is able to illustrate very specific ideas of the region that Simon
Wheeler comes froma familiar, personal, dilapidated townby juxtaposition with a shrewd
businessman narrator who is an outsider to the town. The narrative choice that Twain makes in
Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog emphasizes a more personable yet somewhat unreliable
narrator, which plays a role in the genre of realism because his speech has a conversational
manner and sounds ordinary. The framed manner of narration that Twain uses for this short story
allows for a careful juxtaposition of an outsider who seems professional, businesslike, and
punctual with the narrator Simon Wheeler who is an insider to the region, talkative, and more

personable. Because of this carefully constructed juxtaposition posed by Twains narrators, the
apparent questionability of the unnamed outsiders right to tell the story of Jim Smiley is
illustrated through his lack of understanding and interest to Simon Wheelers region.