Paragraph 1 contributes to the development of the story's theme because it introduces the concept of trickery through the character of Simon Wheeler and the dubious nature of Leonidas W. Smiley. The narrator suspects that his friend has set him up to hear about Jim Smiley, implying that people often play tricks on one another for amusement. This foreshadows the narrative that follows, where Jim Smiley's hustling antics highlight how individuals can be easily taken advantage of if they are naive or unsuspecting. Ultimately, the paragraph sets the tone for a tale in which humor masks deeper lessons about gullibility and the cleverness of tricksters.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
by Mark Twain
Story theme: If people are not careful, tricksters and hustlers will take advantage of them.
Paragraph 1: In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend’s friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result. I have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; that my friend never knew such a personage; and that he only conjectured that, if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly succeeded.
How does paragraph 1 contribute to the development of the story's theme?
Write 4 sentences. Start with paragraph 1 contribute to the development of the story's theme? because
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