Blog Eleven

In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Mark Twain wrote about how the character Simon Wheeler sat the narrator down and told him a story. Simon Wheeler then tells a tale of Jim Smiley, a curious man who always bet on things. This man had a frog and would take bets on it. Simon Wheeler wanted to know about a girl with the last name of Smiley and asked Jim about her. He did not really know anything about that topic, so he started rambling about a completely random story. I think this could relate to Ralph Emerson's philosophy on discipline. He wrote that "understanding comes through measuring and classifying, through physical experience and common sense" (Wayne). think that Jim Smiley could have used some more common sense. When someone is telling a story, it is normal for you to want to be included in the conversation. A little comment here and there usually does the trick unless you are someone who really needs attention. Most people find this trait annoying. Jim Smiley definitely wanted a lot of attention. If he had some common sense, he would realize that his story was pointless to the question that he was asked. He could have simply said that he did not know her, but instead he wasted everyone's time with a story about a frog. Emerson incorporated nature with common sense. He believed that nature taught you more common sense (Wayne). Jim Smiley seemed like he got along with nature, but apparently nature did not teach him any common sense. Mark Twain seemed to have a negative view on society, so maybe he thought that a lot of people lacked common sense. Thoreau may have seemed to believe that people did not have common sense in a way. He believed that people sometimes lived lives that they didn't even care for (Wayne). I think that they all looked down on society in their own way. They did not think that people were living for the right reasons sometimes, in my opinion.

Twain, Mark. "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." 301 Moved Permanently. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Nature." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His

Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online.

Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?