Frog Of Calaveras County And Coen Brothers: Film Analysis

In Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and in the Coen Brothers’ Film O’ Brother Where Art Thou?, text structure is used to develop their respective characters through imagery, satire, and figurative language to ultimately develop the theme of their stories. The text structure of Twain’s short story is a frame tale in which the narrator meets Simon Wheeler and is forced to listen to the story about Jim Smiley. Essentially, Twain develops the character of Jim Smiley through a story inside of another story. In contrast, in the Coen Brothers’ film, the story is a reply of many episodic novels based on Homer’s “Odyssey.” In their film, the main characters of Everett, Delmar, and Pete go through many stages in their journey,

For example, in Twain’s short story, the narrator has to listen to a story about Jim Smiley. The narrator of the entire story does not want to hear Wheeler’s anecdote, but does it out of a favor for his friend. From this frame story, we learn that Jim Smiley is essentially an obsessive gambler as it states in the text, “He was the curiosest man always betting on any thing that turned up you ever see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn’t, he’d change side” (Twain, 1286). In the frame story, we see satire shown in which Twain makes fun of the American west and east and the stereotypes that correspond with them. This includes satirizing the educated and sophisticated east and the gullible people in the west. Not only do we, the readers, find the story to be falsified or made up, but also the narrator believes this and does not want to listen to anymore of Wheeler’s stories. The satire and the structure of the text develops the narrator’s character and the theme of the story by contrasting the western view presented by the laid back and romantically driven Wheeler with the eastern view of the

For example, throughout the film, we learn about the three major characters, Everett, Pete, and Delmar as they go through the American south and interact with others and the surrounding nature showing their characters. One of the important scenes was the description of their goals and dreams as for the most part, Pete and Delmar in contrast to their idiotic nature and absent-mindedness have the most realistic and down to Earth goals with trying to just survive. On the other hand, Everett who was the leader and always had plans did not have one. Through all the episodes in the film, there was the generalized satire of mocking intelligence, the government, spiritualism, and overall conformity to society. All of these aspects were satirizing Romanticism with the ineffectiveness of the Government, law enforcement, religious revival, and the constraints of marriage. Out of the satire, the theme develops through each episode to contrast the aspects the Coen Brothers were mocking such as the silent racism, mental and physical freedom, and the corrupt civilized society in contrast to uncivilized society. Everett with the conformity of marriage demonstrates the quest for physical and mental freedom, Pete and Delmar show that civilized society is more corrupt