he Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County

Samuel Clemins, more commonly known by his pen name Mark Twain was arguably the greatest regionalism writer in American history. Known for his influential novels following the famous characters of Tom Sawyer, and Huck Finn, Clemins popularized the Missouri region and fleshed out the dialect and speech patterns of the people in the region.

As regionalism is defined by Werlock is, "A literary subgenre that emphasizes the setting, history, speech, dialect, and customs of a particular geographical locale or area, not only for local color, but also for development of universal themes through the use of the local and particular." Clemins is notorious for his use of dialect when his characters speak and the outside narrator who recollects the entire tale to the reader while offering his own opinions of the region, its populace and their customs.

As evidenced through lines Twain wrote such as, "There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley," and lines like, "Why, it never made no difference to him---he would bet on any thing---the dangdest feller (499.)" Twain is able to seamlessly flesh out his characters speech pattern with local words like dangdest and feller, to their use of double negatives to get their point across to the listener. Along with dialect Twain would almost always include something about the Missouri river and a steamboat, which was one of his favorite things to do growing up, watching the steamboats float down the peaceful waters of the Missouri as he demonstrates with this line, "his underjaw'd begin to stick out like the fo'castle of a steamboat...(500.)" The setting of the novel allows him to reference these standard characteristics that any local of Missouri would be able to recognize in an instance, and we are again shown his use of dialect through words such as fo'castle, a term for the upper deck of steamboats.

The characters in his novel are extremely identifiable due to the dialect and distinguishing characteristics that make his characters seem like real people. Made identifiable by distinguishing traits such as always having a pipe filled with tobacco and thus the character's speech was somewhat slurred by the pipe was a common idea used by Mark Twain when he wrote his characters. Common themes like these tied the characters together and gave them distinguished characteristics of the region that gave the setting and time period very important roles in the novel.

Through his use of dialect and speech patterns along with his regionally dependent characters Mark Twain was able to successfully paint a convincing picture of regions, mainly along the Missouri river, in his novels. These common characteristics paired with his writing talent land him among one of the most influential and highly respected American regionalism writers in the nations history. His novels put towns like Hannibal Missouri on the map and his short stories such as "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County" are known for their regionalist traits. His abilities and talent are unrivaled to this day and he is regarded as an American great.




Werlock, Abby H. P. "regionalism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0581&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 15, 2011).

Twain, Mark. "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 498-502. Print.