This 1865 short story by Mark Twain is indeed a social satire. His target in this story were people who subscribed to regional stereotypes in 19th century America.
Easterners were stereotyped as snobby intellectuals with formal education and cultural sophistication. By contrast, Westerners were stereotyped as uneducated, uncivilized, and none too bright.
Twain casts his first-person narrator as an Easterner who is played for a fool by a "friend" who sets him up to become a captive audience for Westerner Simon Wheeler, a long-winded raconteur. Within the tall tale Wheeler spins there is another deception going on between a local and a stranger--thereby humorously deepening the satire.
The sophisticated Easterner proves to be gullible and falls victim to both his friend and the clever and entertaining Simon Wheeler.
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