Jumping+Frog

This story was very entertaining. I find Mark Twain's stories to be very interesting. They always tell a good story. I think that's why I like his stories so much. This one is kind of cool because it's sort of told in someone else's voice. The other thing that makes it funny is that the person that's actually telling the story is not a very good speaker. I believe by his words that he uses in telling this story that he probably lived somewhere down south. The odd thing though is that this story is sort of wierd but by the way the narrator is telling it, it makes it sound way more interesting than you really think it is. All in all, this story was about some frog, but it somehow was still interesting to read. I enjoyed it. 1205189255

I also liked this story. Although, I thought Mark Twain described the main character a little too much I still thought that it was good. It was good that he described Smiley as one who loved to gamble or else the second half of the story would not have been that great. I thought that it was kind of funny when the person who bet against Smiley scammed him into getting him a frog to compete with and then he feeds the frog shot. I thought that was dumb of him to leave his betting piece with the man that he was betting against. Then to make it even worse the guy gets away with it. That just tells you that not all people in the world are as kind as they might seem.

1205197751

I thought the first half didn't make any sense because it was only explaining about other people that didn't really have a big part in this story. It was basically one stranger and Smiley that had the biggest part in the story. I think Smiley wanted to get his point across that his frog is not the same as all the other frogs because it might have made him a little ticked off when the stranger said that all frogs are the same. Smiley believed this frog had something special. Not only it had a great jumping ability, but it had the ability of creating a friendship with Smiley. Smiley was very attached to Dan'l. I think the name though to the frog is way too sophisticated. A name like that for a frog is unneccesary, it needs a simple pet name, but a name that he will always have respect for. Overall I liked this story very very much. I especially like it that he puts himself in another person's shoes and starts having different personalities and making his characters sound like their voices are south-western. I noticed too that he likes his characters to have a hillbilly accent in some of his other works like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. He's just down to that old mellow tone of his books that make it sound unique.1205203936

I thought this story was comical. His humor isn't as funny as writer's today, but he has a dry sense of humor along with exaggeration. I thought that this story would be able to tell to a younger child, only if some of the words were translated. I thought the only troubling part about this story was his language. He uses old southern English and for teenagers in the 21 century, it can be difficult to deal with because we are unfamiliar with it. I think the main idea of the story is funny and cute. It seems like Smily was a good man with a lot of confidence...especially with his frog! I think that he had a good heart by always believing in his frog and had a sincere heart. I would deffinitly read another story like this again! 1205278151ape2

I liked this story a lot as well. I think the story was very different compared to the stories I read now, but I still find it kind of funny. His storiies humor was a lot different then what we think is funny today. Today we like humor that is more dirty that is simple and everyone can understand it, but his humor is requires you to think about what he is saying. Its not something your average person can get, you need some wit. I look forward to reading some more of his stories in class too. Even if his English is kind of hard to understand, it is still pretty good. 1205281951

This story was pretty good, it was very original and funny. I would have never have thought that someone can think up a story about a gambler and a jumping frog and put them together in the way he did. he also added the language which even made it better. It was really cool because you can kind of relate to some part of the story too. whether you have a funny gambler chracter in the family, or you have done something as outright dumb as train a frog to jump. Even gottne tricked into losing a bet and be completly clueless about it for an hour or so. This sotry's language was really creative and just added to the effect of the story being completly insane already. The story was a little "redneck" and the "redneck" langauge really made the story seem like someone was telling it to you right at the moment you were reading. it made it seem like someone was narrating the story in a room and you were sitting in front of hime listening to his outrageous stories he was telling about a frog and a gambler. I really liked this story, a whole lot more than the Dickinson or Thoreau. These stories are actually entertaining and don't have completely hipocracy and insanity behind them.

1205284890

This story was a good one. It was funny on so many levels. 1st the language. The author took the time to convert the story into the redneck language. I like this because i am fluent in redneck, and i have friends that talk like this guy. The language that he uses makes the story have a light feeling to it from the beginning. 2nd any story about a guy who bets on everything and wins alot is bound to be funny. In our society we look at betting as a good way to lose money, but in this story the guy makes a living off of it. The humor in betting is great when he bets on the guys wife dying, who does this? 3rd the main character who never loses comes up short. When the other guy fills the frog dull of "quailshot" it is funny, because he is so confident that the frog will leap to the heavens, but the thing cant even get off of the ground. The greatest part of the story is the relization that this guy was set up. Someone sent him to go ask for a priest, when they know that the old guy is going to talk till the poor guys ears bleed. This is such a good practical joke, I could see myself doing this to Alex. Overall this story was quite entertaining. MMe

I also really liked this story. This story was written differently from the other stories that we have read which I thought was kind of nice to read something different. Plus this story was kind of funny. The humor of the story was really different but I thought it was funny how the story went from and educated point of view to the story of a person with terrible grammar. Also the humor in the story was much more different to today’s humor which is usually inappropriate and the humor in the story actually causes you to think about it, I really liked this story and am looking forward to read some more of his work. 1205357150

At first i thought the story was kind of lame and wierd but i tend not to find old liturature funny but mark twain changed my opinion on that. Just how when your reading this story you feel smarter than the narator his english is HORRIBLE its pretty funny. Its not like that the whole time though it swops back and forth a guy with great grammer to a guy with horrible grammer and i think that is sweet how he did that. I think Smiley wanted to get his point across that his frog is not the same as all the other frogs because it might have made him a little ticked off when the stranger said that all frogs are the same. Smiley believed this frog had something special. Not only it had a great jumping ability, but it had the ability of creating a friendship with Smiley. I found this story very entertaining.1205367602

This story seemed to possess a different twist to it, In that, I mean the other stories we have read don't really compare to this one. This story at first was really entertaining, I like the way it switches from an intellectual perspective to a uneducated point of view. I agree with aar, I think it's interesting how the comedy in this story is so much different to our comedy. It's funny how much everything has changed in our society.In this story the comedy made me think. It wasn't very forward, you had to read between the lines kinda thing. Overall, I thought his work really challenged me intellectually and I really liked this story and I'm looking forward to reading more of his work. 1205443382

I liked this story mainly because of the humor. It was nice to see a change and expierence the dry humor Twain had to offer. I agree with mme I thought it was really funny when he bet on the man's wife dying, thats just ridiculous. It was also funny how confident the main character was in the end when he bet the guy his frog could jump further, and the frog didn't even jump off the ground! A little bit of the story was hard to follow but overall I'm glad we read this because we basically haven't read anything with ANY humor all year, so although this wasn't hilarious it was a nice change of the style of reading we usually cover. 1205445418

the activity we did in class about the phrases that Brother Tom selected from this piece of literature and had us interpret and convey in our own words was very interesting. today literature seems to take on a new form. overtime, it seems as if society today does not trulyt budnerstand the literature of the past. it is very difficult to udnerstand literature of the past for us. today there is a great deal of interpretation that takes place in reading the literature written in the past, for in the past they had very different ways of expressing themselves and getting their points across. because of the lack of interest in literature today, i feel that it is a big reason why we struggle in interpreting these pieces of the past. however, with an open mind, these pieces are open to all sorts of interpretations. 1205471392