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Simon Wheeler is an old man and a storyteller who communicates cultural values and passes on wisdom to the younger generation through tall tales and myths. The narrator is prompted to call upon Wheeler for information about a man who used to live in the area, showing that Wheeler is well respected as an elder for his knowledge and cultural memory. Indeed, Wheeler leans into the role of the elder storyteller by being genial, slow, garrulous, and a little annoying because he takes seriously his responsibility in communicating cultural values through his reminiscences. Though his tales are ridiculous and often hilarious, he does not laugh or play the stories for jokes. Instead, he tells them as though they are important historical anecdotes about real heroes. This is why he corners the narrator and “blockades” him from leaving: he wants the narrator, a younger man, to learn something of value. However, Wheeler’s self-seriousness is also a source for much of the story’s humor. After all, Angel’s Camp is no “ancient” place, the narrator’s description to that effect notwithstanding. The town was established in 1849 and is already run down and dilapidated in the 1860s. Wheeler’s stories are therefore plainly inconsequential and laughable. That Wheeler tells them so earnestly creates an absurd and hilarious juxtaposition, but also suggests something fundamental about human nature: there is a basic human need to make sense of life through storytelling and myth, no matter how futile and absurd life may seem.

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