Its main point is a humorous anecdote about an encounter between the narrator and a talkative man who tells him a seemingly pointless story. However, the social undercurrent can't be ignored. First of all, the narrator is an educated Easterner who came to the West to inquire about his friend's friend. He stumbles upon a Westerner, an uneducated guy who is a common worker. A clash of cultures happens, embodied in language differences between two interlocutors: Simon Wheeler talks in dialect, whereas the narrator has an elaborate and flamboyant style.
Eventually, Wheeler tricks the narrator into listening to his trivial story about the gambler Jim Smiley. The story is pointless - just like the narrator's visit itself. The two men, who epitomize two social classes, just can't get along. The winner of the conversation is Wheeler, who got to tell his story and kill some time. His simplicity, wit and common sense are something that the refined narrator doesn't have.
