The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

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English 10B March 28, 2012 “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: Regionalism Regionalism writing describes how regions don’t all have the same feel. It gives the unique quality and details of the region. “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain shows regionalism by using tall tale, hyperbole, and local color. Local color plays and important role as regionalism in this story. Local color is a literary device used to help the reader understand the certain features of where the story is taking place. For example, “I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the barroom stove of the dilapidated tavern in the decayed mining camp of Angel’s, and I noticed that he was fat and baldheaded and had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance” (Twain lines 10-13). Twain uses local color by describing Simon Wheeler’s characteristics and how he was drunkenly sitting at Angel’s tavern. Angel’s camp tavern is an old and rundown saloon. Twain also shares with us in this story, “He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned his initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm, but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous of funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse” (lines 21-27). Twain explains how Wheeler never gives an ounce of emotion when he’s talking, both in his facial expressions and in his voice. This is a perfect description of local color being used because Twain describes his monotonous voice throughout everything he says and the straight face he has. Not only is local color

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