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Mark Twain's Short Story 'What Stumped The Blue Jays'

1062 Words5 Pages

Jacquelyn Rivera

Mrs. Stanley

English III

5 May 2017

"What Stumped the Blue Jays"

Mark Twain short story "What Stumped the Blue Jays" shows how the blue jays could not solve a problem like a human will have a problem in their daily life. "According to Jim Baker," (Twain 1) the blue jays were not able to put an acorn in the hole causing a problem to the blue jays until another blue jay came and help them. "What Stumped the Blue Jays" uses animal symbolism to represent human ignorance.

Mark Twain symbolize that when a blue jay communicate it represents how humans verbally communicate. He states "whatever a blue jay feels, he can put into language"(Twain 1). He demonstrates how the blue jays are "showing off" of how they contribute with …show more content…

Mark Twain short story "What Stumped the Blue Jays" presents how the Twain believes "animals talk to each other" (Twain 1). Believing that the blue jays were the "best talkers," found them arguing over a problem they couldn't solve. Some people will try to see what is happening while others are trying different problems to solve it. To solve a problem, you can work together and figure it out. "Every jay in the whole lot put his eye to the hole and delivered a more chuckle-headed opinion about the mystery than the jay that went there before him"(Twain 3). This quote shows how the problem was worked through different ways by many blue jays working …show more content…

He represents his metaphoric meaning of the story showing that blue jays are like actual humans. "Animals talk to each other... I suppose there are very few people who can understand them" (Twain 1) This quote demonstrates how the personification between the blue jays acts like a human. "In “What Stumped the Blue jays” the birds speak and express different feelings" (Ketchum 1). This shows how the blue jays speak and express about a human. " “What Stumped the Blue Jays,” by Mark Twain, is about animals’ ability to speak, converse, and act like human" (Glaser 1). He tell us how they both resemble between the blue jays and the

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