Process of Performance and Storytelling - Essay Example

Compare and Contrast; Process of Performance and Storytelling Two fable tales, Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and Chuck Jones' animated short film "One Froggy Evening," evoke similarities in their performance and storytelling: Greed, weakness and gambling entail the themes commonly presented in the narratives. The similarities do not end at the surface they are deeply rooted in the exaggerated events and anthropomorphism combined with a full circle narrative; a rarely used technique that ends the story in a similar way that it began. This paper aims to provide a brief plot summary and to compare and contrast their processes of performance, as well as their storytelling. One Froggy Evening is a short film with direction by Jones Chuck and writing by M. Maltese (Lambert et al 34). It involves a construction worker who discovers a box contained in a building’s cornerstone, which when opened contains a dancing and singing frog dressed in a top hat and wielding a cane. When the man attempts to profit from the frog, it revolts and only croaks in the presence of others. When a police officer catches him for allegedly disturbing the peace and he blames the frog, the police officer takes him in, and he is committed to a mental hospital. After release, he reburies the frog in the same building, in a box, before construction workers discover it again in 2056. The man who discovers it attempts again to exploit it. Mark Twain’s Jumping frog was written as a short story in 1865. The story’s narrator is sent on an errand by a friend to Simon Wheeler in order to find another man, Leonidas Smiley. Finding the old man, he asks him about Leonidas, to which the old man responds in the negative, only claiming that he knows Jim Smiley. From this point, the story turns to Jim, who is revealed as a betting man. Apparently, he bets on anything from bulldog fights to Walker’s wife death. One time, Jim captured Dan’l Webster, a frog who is able to jump further than other frogs. Carrying it around placed in a box, a stranger enquires as to what it is, to which he replies truthfully. The stranger is skeptical, to which Jim responds that he would challenge him to a $40 bet if he could find a frog to compete against his. While catching a frog for the stranger, Jim leaves the frog with him, and the stranger puts lead into the frog’s mouth. This leads to his frog being defeated and him paying up. Someone who tells him to have a rest on the porch then calls him up. The narrator comes to the realization that the two Smileys are not connected, and as he begins to leave, the old man catches up and begins to tell him the story of a one eyed cow owned by Jim. Both fables use the performance process of exaggerated events. Mark Twain’s The Celebrated jumping Frog of Calaveras County features fabulous and exaggerated events, which can be referred to as tall tales. His characters are considerably larger than life and exhibit qualities that are extraordinary (Twain & John 50). The story by Simon Wheeler about the bet master Jim Smiley and the pets he owned feature many exaggerations. Wheeler’s description of Jim as a character that would place bets on everything and anything including such petty things as which of two birds would be first to leave a fence is another example of exaggeration in the fable. Dan’l Webster, his Jim’s frog, is said to have literally flew through the air during its jumping and was catlike in its use of legs of legs for scratching itself. Andrew Jackson, who is Jim’s dog, was also described as holding onto other dogs for as long as a whole year for him to win a fight. In One Froggy Evening, the frog is wielding a cane and has a top hat, which is an exaggerated scenario. The frog also sings, and it is revealed at the end that its croaking was actually Martian and it was asking its master whether it could sing for him. Finally, the frog is buried and found later in 2056 having not aged a day compared to before (Lambert et al 33). Both fables also end in a similar fashion to how they started. In The Celebrated jumping Frog of Calaveras County, the narrator finds a man who he has been asked to seek help from in looking for one Leonidas Smiley. However, the old man does not seem to recall anyone by that name but seems ton recall one Jim Smiley (Twain & John 54). He tells the narrator about Jim Smiley’s extraordinary betting life and goes on to tell him about a scenario involving Jim and a jumping frog. When he completes his tale, the narrator starts to leave at which point the old man stops him and begins another tale about Jim’s one eyed cow, a story of similar convolution to the previous one. This style is similarly utilized in One Froggy Evening, with the beginning involving the discovery of a frog in a box by a construction worker. The frog, which could dance and sing, leads the construction worker to see it as an prospect for profit. The worker tries everything to make the frog perform in public. Tired of ridicule and misunderstanding by society and the police officer, the construction worker puts him back in a box, returns him to the old building’s cornerstone and buries him (Lambert et al 36). At the end of the cartoon, in 2056, yet another construction worker comes across the box and in a similar fashion begins to have thoughts of how he could make money from the frog and its performances, and runs while holding the frog just as the earlier construction worker had done. Both fables also utilize anthropomorphism in their narratives. In The Celebrated jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Mark Twain imbues his animal characters with human characteristics. Jim Smiley’s canine, Andrew Jackson, is characterized as a determined, ornery, and proud dog (Twain & John 54). Allegedly, he loved battles, fighting, and especially loved winning these fights. When he eventually came across a dog he could not defeat no matter how hard he tried, he allegedly died from humiliation. Another instance of anthropomorphism is seen where Dan’l Webster, the frog, and Andrew Jackson are said to be intelligent and gifted. The frog, Dan’l Webster, is also said to be straightforward and modest. In One Froggy Evening, the frog discovered by the construction worker actually dances, sings, wears a hat and has a cane as a prop (Lambert et al 40). The frog also seems to be teasing the construction worker by singing and dancing in his presence while only croaking in the presence of other people watching. The two fables also show human weakness and greed in their narrative. In The Celebrated jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Jim is described as a man who will bet for more money no matter what matter or subject was at stake. He even sometimes has to switch sides just to win a bet (Twain & John 56). At the end of this particular story, Jim Smiley places a bet with another man, a stranger at that, that his frog could manage to jump higher than all frogs that he could get in the County of Calaveras. Gambling again, he loses to a cunning artist of the con and is mad at his folly as well as at frog caused by the greed and unfounded ambitions which he harbored. The character of Jim Smiley as a greedy man is furthered as the story continue. Derived from his character traits as a greedy and flat character, it is possible to say that his main motivation and drive is money and gambling addiction. It is not essential if he is winning or losing a bet, he would go after another bet as if the last one had been non-existent. In One Froggy Evening, the construction worker exploits the frog in the face of ridicule just so that he can get money from it. Eventually, the frog is re-buried only to be discovered by another construction worker who attempts to profit from him just like the earlier one (Lambert et al 34). Work Cited Lambert M, Mariam T, Susan F. One Froggy Evening. Saarbrucken: Betascript Publishing, 2011. Print. Mark T & John P. The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County, and other sketches. New York : Marktwainwritings.com, 2006. Print. Read More