The Themes of “How Sharp Snaffles got his Capital and Wife”
Romance, ‘The Big Lie’, humor, and Moral, “How Sharp Snaffles got his Capital and Wife” contains all of these in a wonderfully written story by William Gilmore Simms. Sit back and enjoy a “potation”(423) from a “corpulent barrel of Western uisquebaugh ”(422) while I argue my truths or is that ‘Lie’.
This romantic story is about the trails and tribulations Sam Snaffles endured to capture the affections of Mary Ann Hopson. Sam describes Mary Ann as “, and so all over beautiful! O Lawd! When I thinks of it and them times, I don’t see how ‘twas possible to think of buck-hunting when thar was sich a doe, with sich eyes shining me on!” (426) After Sam is denied Mary Ann’s hand in marriage, because he has no capital, they meet in the forest outside of Mary Ann’s home she tells Sam “I’ll be true to you, Sam. I loves nobody in all the world so much as I loves you”(434) Sam gets the capital needed to satisfy her father and marry his true love in the end.
The Webster’s definition of ‘Big Lie’ is “a deliberate gross distortion of the truth used especially as a propaganda tactic” and this is well illustrated in the story. The story opens at the end of a week of hunting and the group is sitting around the fire awaiting “The Lying Camp!” The main character Sam Snaffles is requested to tell the story of how he found ‘Capital ‘ so he could marry his true love, Mary Ann Hopson. As Sam begins his story he is called down by the ‘Big Lie’ saying, “All you’ve been a-saying is jest nothing but the naked truth as I know it.”(426) Sam’s reply is “And how’s a man to lie decently onless you lets him hev a bit of truth to go upon? The truth’s nothing but a peg in the wall that I hangs the lie upon.”(426) Sam’s story of how he got the ‘capital’ is amazing and just to show how big it grew, here’s a description of the total capital Sam got, “From the b’ar . . . First, thar waur the hide, $20; then 450 pounds of meat, at 10 cents, was $45; then the grease, 14 pounds, $14; and the tallow, some $6 more; and the biled marrow, $11.” The geese “2700 wild-geese, at 50 cents, you sees, must be more than $1350.” The honey “got something over two thousand gallons of the purest, sweetest, yellowest honey you ever did see.”
Humor is located throughout this story. One of my favorite parts is when Mary Ann’s father asked Sam’s horse if Sa...
... middle of paper ...
... look in the mirror and asked him what he saw:
that won’t edzactly do. I tell you now, look good, and ax yourself ef you’re the sawt of looking man that hes any right to be feyther-in-law to a fine, young, handsome-looking fellow like me, what’s got the “capital?”
Then he laughed out at the humor of the situation; and he says, ‘Well, Sam Snaffles, you’ve got me dead this time. You’re a different man from what I thought you. But, Sam, you’ll confess, I reckon, that ef I hedn’t sent you off with a flea in your ear when I hed you up afore the looking-glass, you’d never ha’ gone to work to git the “capital.”(461)
This is a humorous story that tells of romance and gives us a lesson in life and full of honesty (lies). This merging of all these themes has created a wonderful story that will make me read more of William Gilmore Simms stories. I wonder what Bald Head Billy Baldly did during the Flurriday War?
Work Cited
Simms, William Gilmore. “How Sharp Snaffles got his Capital and Wife”. The Writings of William Gilmore Simms Vol V Stories and Tales. Columbia, SC: Guilds, John C. 1st ed. University South Carolina Press, 1974.
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causing his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
The Mother is among a family of four who lives on a small farm and takes immense pride in what interests her, however her passion does not particularly lie in her two children; James and David; nor in her husband and their interests; but instead lies within her chickens. Though chickens bring the most joy to the Mother, they are not the sole animals that live on the farm. The animal that draws the most interest from the father, James and David is their horse, Scott. At a young age, Scott was used as a working mule for the family and grew up alongside the Father and two Sons. To the father, Scott was like one of his own sons, and to James and David, Scott was like their brother; but according to the Mother, “He’s been worthless these last few years”(Macleod, 267). Ever since Scott was young, he was a burden on the Mother’s lifestyle; she never took a liking to the horse even when he served as a source of profit for the family. The Mother had never appreciated the sentimental value that Scott possessed because he had never been a particular interest to her. Once Scott had aged and was no longer able...
She then moves on to describe each of the characters, and in doing so, their surroundings and how they fit in: "He was cold and wet, and the best part of the day had been used up anyway. He wiped his hands on the grass and let the pinto horse take him toward home. There was little enough comfort there. The house crouched dumb and blind on the high bench in the rain. Jack's horse stood droop-necked and dismal inside the strand of rope fence, but there wasn't any smoke coming from the damned stove (28)."
The story by Somerville Ross, “Philippa’s Fox Hunt” was set in Ireland. A recently married couple Mr. and Mrs. Yeates were featured adapting to a new environment. The new place was characterized by new social activities that were not common in their previous residence. They had to learn new skills such as riding horses and hunting. Mr. Yeates who narrated the story described his life after marriage and how events had shaped his marriage. At the very beginning I was able to pick an element of symbolism; a newly married couple will naturally start a new life and similarly in the story the couple ventured into a new society where almost everything was new just in the same way when two people get married to each other.
Southern family preparing to go on what seems to be a typical vacation. The story is humorous at first because the reader is unaware of how the story will end. The tone changes dramatically from amusing to frightening and plays an important part in making the story effective.
Clements, Victoria. Introduction. A New-England Tale. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Rochette-Crawley, S. (2004) James T. Farrell. The Literary Encyclopedia. April 2, 2004. Retrieved on May 13, 2009 from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1487
If your husband had just been murdered, would your first concern be of your jar of preserves bursting? The short story “ A Jury of Her Peers” and play “Trifles” share an abudance of similarities. The setting in both takes place during winter in Dickson County, Nebraska. This is a rutal town located in the farm belt of the United States in the early part of the 1900’s. Glaspell craftfully uses the discussions between the characters and symbolism in both stories to bring focus to and reject how males viewed and treated females in rural America in the 1900’s.
Callahan, John. "Review of Love and Trouble." Short Story Criticism Vol. 5. (Essay date 1974).
At the beginning of the story, in plot “A”, John and Mary are introduced as a stereotypical happy couple with stereotypically happy lives of middle class folks. Words like “stimulating” and “challenging” are used repetitiously to describe events in thei...
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
Other inhabitants of the village were in the woods that night. Suddenly Young Goodman Brown hears his wife's voice in the trees so decides to fly through the forest by the old man’s staff. At the ceremony he and Faith approach the altar, he shouts at Faith to look to heaven and resist...
rich and noble and Prejudice were the issues of the time. This is a classical love story from the eighteenth
Then, she moves into the history of dating starting in about the 1900s with the calling era. During the calling era, the woman was in charge. The girl and her mother would talk about a boy and if the mother saw him as fit, she would call him to come over and he would meet the family. If he was approved by the woman’s family, then the end result was marriage. This would only happen in wealthier households at this time because t...
...of this short story is to give the reader a feeling of love and mystery. Irving accomplished this by throwing in the perfect combination of silly crushes at the beginning and headless horseman that might or might not be a joke in the end. I enjoyed this story and it was one of my favorite stories out of the three that I read.