Comparison of You Cant Kill the Rooster and the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country - Literature review Example

Number] Compare and Contrast Essay on ‘You can’t kill the Rooster by David Sedaris’ And ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras country by Mark Twain’ David Sedaris’s autobiographical and humours tale ‘You can’t kill the Rooster’ is an espionage occurrence of how peculiar and unacceptable phenomena become prioritized and adequate with the hint of unconditional love gestures. The author is renowned for his witty narration of how his younger sibling changed the decorum of the family without getting into bad books. ‘Paul’ the North Carolina’s native is the central character of this subversive tale. The author with disdain describes the unacceptable traits of Raleigh state, which become apparent when the family moved to North Carolina, but he also aptly interweaves how the unacceptable and aggressive language, pitch, tone of the State became acceptable and adored; just with the presence of his young beloved brother in the family. The author has used both personal and sardonic tone to interweave the melodrama of his family life. Similarly, the author has identified and chosen personal narrative style to entertain his readers. The storyline is not exactly comic, but the way differences of different regions and native life are elaborated; incorporates colour and life in the tell-tale. The author has used one lead character to paint a vivid and melodramatic tale. The story keeps the author at the back stage. Giving very minute details about his life, but it centres around the discreet and distinctive personality of his younger sibling. Similarly, Mark Twain’s story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ entails the description of the life of a single character, ‘Jim Smiley’, the trickster and gambler who is tricked by another native man. The tale entails how Jim outsmarts people with his betting habit and how he ends up losing $40 due to the cunningness of another competitor in the town. Simon Wheeler, the narrator is also looking for a listener and tries to entertain his unknown visitor with his gibberish but entrancing tale. The author and listener is not happy as he is looking for his old friend in the Angel’s Camp, but later on writes the heard tale effectively for the readers to learn few things from it. The first thing that he mentions is that education does not assures wisdom neither it can become a resistance against stupidity. Hence, one should not rely on education to avoid tricky and challenging situations even from native and naive people. Simultaneously, the author has used superiority and incongruity to express his ideas upon the characters. Both stories contain ironic humour, but Sedaris’s tale is contains less moral lesson than Twain’s. “My brothers voice, like my own, is high-pitched and girlish. Telephone solicitors frequently ask to speak to our husbands, and room-service operators appease us by saying, "That shouldnt take more than fifteen minutes, Mrs. Sedaris." (Blauner, 118). Sedaris’s tale contained some hint of the author, who also describes his voice as a bit girlish and high pitched. Author has not only interweaved his trait (high pitched voice), but also described the characteristic of ‘Paul’, who is neither smart nor decent, but gains recognition with his foul tongue and good fortune in the family. The author is ironically comic and uses personal flaw to entertain the reader. The way he represented his being is both amusing and humours. Although, the above mentioned passage does contain disapproval and disdain towards his fundamental characteristic (girlish voice). Likewise, Twain’s tale describes Jim Smiley’s luck, who bets on everything and usually wins it due to his good sense of prediction and coincidence. His character owned a mare, a bull pup and a frog, all of them were an odd reason for him to win different bets. They all had peculiar tricks, which were evident in the first glimpse and Jim Smiley succeeded with his bets, until he was outsmarted by another senior chap. One more thing which Twain emphasizes in his tale is the ethnicity and hint of literary superiority in the man of East. Although, he is not interested in the tale of this Western narrator of Angel’s Camp (who is neither intelligent nor witty), but continues to listen him due to his politeness and courtesy, which is the essence of East. "Hes good enough for one thing, I should judge he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county." (Twain and Gina, 14). Dan’l Webster the frog, is good at jumping really high comparatively to the other frogs of his town. That is why Jim uses him often to bet, but to his misfortune the person he has tried to trap this time for his bet is far more intelligent than his looks. Simultaneously, Paul is neither a sports man nor a Yale material, but he is given special attention and special excuse for his thick, foul, and impolite language usage (119). The revolting traits of West for the family became delight when it became a soul trait of their own younger one. Though, they were not approved for the elder ones, but became likable when Paul became like native Southern. “My brother politely maams and sirs all strangers but refers to friends and family, his father included, as either bitch or motherfucker Friends are appalled at the way he speaks to his only remaining parent”(Blauner, 119). Here is the irony of the story the family receives aggressive callings by Paul, but since they understood his nature, temperament and environment of West (Raleigh), his parents allowed such terminologies. He is neither subjugated for this street vernacular nor questioned (Schreiber, 210). Hence, Paul received the title of free spirit due to the liberty and preference of his parents to keep the younger brood closer to heart. On the other hand, Twain used formal names for his animal characters and signified them as educated pets of Jim Smiley. The mare (fifteen minutes), bull-pup (Andrew Jackson) and frog (Dan’l Webster), they are not mere animals, but pets with significant qualities. These qualities were also a hint towards some renowned national personalities and their participation in nation’s political arena. The series of paradoxes were meant to be abrupt and anticlimactic (Messent, 10). The short sequels of the pets were meant to entertain the reader and enable them to grasp the idea of intelligence verses virtue in the West. "Bitch, you need to have them ugly-ass bunions shaved down is what you need to do. But you cant do shit about it tonight, so lighten up, motherfucker." All eyes went to my father, who chuckled, saying only, "I guess you have a point." (Blauner,119). The dramatic tension with Paul’s abusive and vulgar terminologies was turned into relief due to the narrators understanding of stigma style of Western adoration. The short essay is autobiographical, comic and highly expressive. The writer possessed the skill of interpreting with wit and irony at the same time. The father in this tale is an employee in IBM a highly educated and civilized member of New York, who despised thick Southern accent and sets severe penalties if he catches one of his brood using such articulation in language. Hence, the father sets the rules and enables the readers to realize that ethnicity play vital role in the country and prejudice is still a part of Western society. Twain on the other hand describes a practical joke story, the tale he heard from the South Western satirists (LeMaster et al, 134). The narrator seems ready to start a new tale, but the author eventually fares well with a polite gesture as he seemed, unwilling to entertain yet another tale of an insignificant cow and its majestic traits. Mark Twain narrated such tell tales to emphasize on the specific human traits of different regions of the country. Their nature, temperament, their level of understanding, wit and intelligence, all are weighed and interpreted aptly by the author as not to depict them poor and illiterate, but to demonstrate their wit and intelligence through such meagre habits and life style choices. Simultaneously, David Sedaris also emphasized on ethnic differences in a comic manner, but eventually signifies that love is unbounded and accepts all the differences when seen with adoration and reception. Moreover, he also depicted that family life is crucial to have certain experiences of genuine love and care. As one is lucky enough to be brought up in a doting family, who accepts flaws (Paul’s) as unique and special traits of disapproved Southern culture. Works Cited: Top of Form Blauner, Andrew. Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print. Top of Form LeMaster, J R, James D. Wilson, and Christie G. Hamric. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. Bottom of Form Top of Form Messent, Peter. The Short Works of Mark Twain: A Critical Study. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Print. Top of Form Schreiber, Brad. What Are You Laughing At?: How to Write Funny Screenplays, Stories & More. , 2003. Print. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Twain, Mark, and Gina D. B. Clemen. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: Curing a Cold [u.a.]. München: Langenscheidt ELT, 2007. Print. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More