Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Triumph of the Common Person over the Elite

Mark Twain uses the names of two of the story’s animal protagonists, a bull pup and a frog, to allegorize the conflict between the elite and the common person, a theme of immense cultural significance in American history. The bull pup is named “Andrew Jackson,” after America’s seventh president, and the dog represents everything the man himself represented to much of the American public. Jackson was born on the American frontier and spent much of his early life in Nashville, Tennessee, then a frontier town. As a military leader and politician, Jackson would go on to champion the common folk of the frontier and be the first populist candidate to win the presidency. In the eyes of white Americans of limited privilege, Jackson was their champion who used his tenacity and determination to fight and win against the elites of Great Britain and the National Bank alike. The dog in Twain’s story bears Andrew Jackson’s name because of his scrappiness and ability to win despite the odds against him.

Daniel Webster, on the other hand, was a highly educated man, who formed the Whig Party with fellow elites specifically to oppose Andrew Jackson’s politics and candidacy. The frog bears the name Dan’l Webster because he is the most “educated,” and therefore elite, competitor that Jim Smiley has ever fielded. However, the common man wins out in the end when an unassuming stranger shows up. There is nothing fancy or complicated about filling a competitor’s animal with quail shot. Indeed, using the humble tools at one’s disposal in this way exemplifies the triumph of the common person over the elite.

The Hidden Advantages of the Underdog

If Jim Smiley has one secret to his success, it is that he uses being an underdog to his advantage. Smiley may be an experienced gambler, but his demeanor is humble and casual, and he never betrays any sense of overconfidence or particular ability. These characteristics are hallmarks of the underdog, which Jim Smiley certainly is. Because of his reputation for taking reckless bets and the apparent weakness of his animal champions, no one takes Jim Smiley seriously as a threat. These low expectations cause people to be unwittingly lured into a losing proposition, prompting them to up their ante as their misplaced confidence grows. People watch the bull pup Andrew Jackson get bullied by the other dog in the ring, so they become overconfident and place even more money on him, only to watch Andrew Jackson win the fight anyway. Thinking she doesn’t have a chance, Smiley’s competitors give his sickly mare a head start, but she goes on to win by a hair. Thus, low estimation of the underdog mare directly contributes to her victory. 

Being the underdog is Smiley’s bread and butter, but when Smiley trains Dan’l Webster to be the best jumper in Calaveras County, he loses this important advantage. This time, it is the stranger who bears the characteristics of an underdog, and it is Jim Smiley who is guilty of low expectations and overconfidence. Smiley is confident in his frog’s remarkable abilities and expects nothing wily or clever from the humble stranger. This causes Smiley to become excited and rush off to fetch the stranger a frog, leaving the stranger alone with Dan’l Webster. The stranger uses the opportunity to rig the competition and thereby beats Smiley at his own game to demonstrate once again the hidden advantage of low expectations.

The Importance of Folktales and Myth

Simon Wheeler’s stories about Jim Smiley are told in a manner consistent with the oral tradition in societies across the world and strongly suggest the importance of folktales and myth to people of every culture. Wheeler employs several features common to oral traditions. The tall tale is a classic type of folktale, such as the Paul Bunyan myths, in which a hero accomplishes herculean tasks of ridiculously exaggerated proportions. Yet here, Mark Twain humorously turns the genre on its head as Jim Smiley’s “feats” of being willing to bet on literally anything and training a frog to jump on command are comically insignificant. Wheeler’s tales are also trickster tales, like the Anansi the Spider tales of West Africa, in which an anti-hero trickster is at once seemingly all-powerful and sometimes made a fool of. Jim Smiley is the trickster of Angel’s Camp, one who is endowed with fantastic powers of hucksterism. In the end, an even more skilled trickster comes along in the form of the clever stranger who succeeds in making Smiley look like the fool.

The similarity of Wheeler’s yarns to the oral traditions of much older and more developed cultures around the world is both a source of humor and an important comment on human nature. On the one hand, Angel’s Camp and other mining towns like it were so new at the time of Twain’s writing that they can hardly be said to have any culture at all. Therefore, Wheeler’s seriousness and role of Elder Storyteller are absurd notions. Indeed, the narrator acknowledges the absurdity and humorously comments upon Wheeler’s garrulousness and the ridiculousness of his stories. Yet, Wheeler takes his storytelling seriously because his intentions are serious. By telling his stories, Wheeler seeks to promote and sustain his culture. The mining towns of the American West may have been hastily assembled, greed-driven societies full of hucksters and opportunists, but they were societies nonetheless. The act of telling stories about the heroes of this culture is a way of establishing and sustaining the culture itself. Thus, Wheeler demonstrates that folktales and myths are an indispensable part of any culture, which is why people love and crave them.