Reflection on "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

Reflection on “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, the author uses tone and irony of a situation to influence the story. The author’s tone in the story is joking of his main character that is hooked on gambling. The author seems to be saying that if you gamble too much, some one will eventually cheat you and you will lose your money and possibly other stuff. The character always gets a lucky animal that he can bet on, but then something bad happens to the animal and he can not bet on them any more. The author seems to be saying that he should just give up and stop betting or else one time he could lose more than just money in his betting. The author also uses irony of a situation when the main character makes a bet with a gentleman that his frog could out jump the gentleman’s frog. The gentleman fills up the main character’s frog with lead pellets so the frog can not jump, but the main character does not suspect a thing. He does not know until after the contest when he picks up his frog, and by then the gentleman is gone. Alas, the main character still does not learn the lesson that the author is trying to teach, and he goes on to continue his betting. There is also some irony of situation in the beginning when the narrator goes to ask about the main character and the man tells the narrator about a different person then he asked about. The author seems to make fun of the narrator also for falling into this trap that his friend got him into.