Mood: chatty
Topic: Media
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
This really brings up some great points. I have read the short story many times, and have never put that much thought into it, I guess. I was never the best English student, I was the one working twice as hard to find an exception to prove the teacher wrong, than to just do the work assigned. I reacall a discussion about Shakespeare that reminds me much of this. She was telling us and quizzing us over what certain sections REALLY meant. "You have to read INTO the story." When I was asked, I returned the question with her thoughts of Robert Frost's comments that his famed poem, when asked the hidden themes and meanings, was simply about a snowy evening. She left it alone, though I think she was impressed. I am sure Mr. Samuel Clemens had much in his mind when he wrote this short story, but while you may be able to spend a lifetime studying it and extracting all sorts of hidden meanings, I urge you to put down the notebook and pen, and just read it as a short story and enjoy it with a child. I do have to confess that my kids didn't understand the dog fighting, and I didn't go into great detail describing it other than that we humans used to do some horrific things, and some still do. I talked with them about what they think would really happen to a frog if you filled it with lead bird shot. But overall, we had a good laugh about it and they enjoyed the story. (which I believe is what Mark Twain intended)