Question

Mark Twain was a master at creating ironic situations, and there are quite a few within "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Write a journal entry explaining the irony of Jim Smiley teaching his frog to jump and catch flies. Your entry should be approximately 150 words in length and contain at least one quotation from the story to support your ideas.

Answer 1

Ironically, Jim Smiley spent three whole months teaching his frog to jump and catch flies, considering that jumping comes naturally to frogs - one of the only ways they can move. Additionally, it is worth noting that flies are already a part of a frog's diet, making it unlikely for them to require training in catching them. As such, it seems impossible for Jim Smiley to have spent all his time on this task as he claimed. A quote from the story supports this idea: "And so he never done anything for three months but set in yard and learn that frog to jump." Also, it is worth mentioning that this situation highlights the absurdity of human attempts at controlling nature.

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Answer 2

​The irony of Jim Smiley teaching his frog to jump and catch flies is that frogs already know how to jump since it is one of the only ways they can move. Also, flies can catch flies since it is extinct that frogs have. So it is impossible for Jim Smiley to have to train the frog for three whole months without doing nothing else. A quotation that can support this is "... and so he never done anything for three months but set in yard and learn that frog to jump." Another ironic situation that happened in this short story is that Jim Smiley had lost his bet, in saying that his frog could jump any other frog in the county. The feller he had betted had stuffed the frog with quail shot and set off to the race. Because the frog had been filled he had no longer jumped as far, so Jim had lost his first bet.

Step-by-step explanation:

This has 160 words! I hope it helps!