لخّصلي

In this highly significant humorous experiment, the author incorporates the traditional form of
the tall tale into a story of his own creation.His literary greatness,
in part, emanates from a perpetual malicious shrewdness that he frequently chooses to cloak
under an assumed simplicity.From the beginning it is made clear that there is no Leonidas W Smiley, especially no Reverend
Leonidas W Smiley, and that his existence is mere pretense in order to hear Simon Wheeler
elucidate on the past experiences of Jim Smiley.First and foremost, he
embellishes the anecdote with a frame, in which he presents the narrator, Mark Twain, who in
turn explains his encounter with Simon Wheeler in the mining settlement at Angel's Camp.Simon Wheeler's calculated ramblings
admirably provide a platform for Twain's subtle and not-so-subtle humor.In fact, however, his intention was to
mock politicians and lawmakers as a species-an activity in which he gleefully engaged
throughout his literary career.

In this highly significant humorous experiment, the author incorporates the traditional form of
the tall tale into a story of his own creation. He produces a sort of literary tug-of-war between
town and country, provincialism and urbanity. In appropriating this apocryphal frog story for his
own purposes, Twain makes numerous changes in its composition. First and foremost, he
embellishes the anecdote with a frame, in which he presents the narrator, Mark Twain, who in
turn explains his encounter with Simon Wheeler in the mining settlement at Angel's Camp.
The names of the bulldog, Andrew Jackson, and the frog, Daniel Webster, may suggest that
Twain was merely indulging in topical political satire. In fact, however, his intention was to
mock politicians and lawmakers as a species-an activity in which he gleefully engaged
throughout his literary career. Simon Wheeler's tall tale does not attempt to size up recent
history. Its content is purely Western in feeling and, as such, is generous in its ready acceptance
of the exaggerated and the absurd. In this story, it is the vernacular, not the traditional style of
polite speech that emerges triumphant. The city slicker narrator receives, not teaches, the lesson.
This is not merely the repetition of an oft-told tall tale, redesigned and decked out in a new guise.
From the beginning it is made clear that there is no Leonidas W Smiley, especially no Reverend
Leonidas W Smiley, and that his existence is mere pretense in order to hear Simon Wheeler
elucidate on the past experiences of Jim Smiley. Simon Wheeler's calculated ramblings
admirably provide a platform for Twain's subtle and not-so-subtle humor. His literary greatness,
in part, emanates from a perpetual malicious shrewdness that he frequently chooses to cloak
under an assumed simplicity. His innocence is always pure sham, and the fact that he openly
shares this secret with the reader is part of the fun.