FROM THE NET Lesson 5:SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY?
-John Updike
-John Updike
In 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy?" John Updike presents the worldview of a little child. Jo warmly responds to her father's story-telling. But she can't excuse Roger Skunk's mother for making poor little Roger smell bad again. Her hero must smell like roses and must not stink at any cost. So she wants her father to make a little change in the story. She wants him to tell a different story in which the wizard takes a magic wand and hits Roger Skunk's mommy.
SHORT ANSWERS
1. Father felt empty after two years of storytelling to Jo. What idea do you form about his skill in the art of storytelling?
Ans. It would be wrong to say that Jo's father is a bad story teller. In fact, with all his histrionics, sound effects and gestures, he is quite effective in the art. His only problem is that his stories lack variety and he ends up telling the same old story again and again with slight variation. He feels empty because he has been telling stories for over two years now and has quite naturally run short of ideas.
2. Do you think the father in the story is, more or less, an alter ego of the author, as far as the childhood is concerned?
Ans. John Updike's childhood was tortured by 'psoriasis' and stammering and he had to suffer humiliation and ridicule at the hands of his classmates on account of this. Like him, Jo's father too recalls certain moments of 'humiliation of his own childhood. Thus the father more or less, was an alter ego of the author.
3. What was Roger Skunk's problem? How did he get rid of it?
Ans. Little Roger Skunk’s problem was that he smelled awful. As a result nobody liked to befriend him and play with him. He got rid of his bad smell with the help of the wizard who cast a magic spell to change the smell into that of roses.
4. Why did the woodland creatures avoid Roger Skunk ? How did their behaviour affect Roger?
Ans. The woodland creatures avoided Roger Skunk because of his awful smell. As soon as they saw him coming they would cry "Uh-oh, here comes Roger Stinky Skunk and they would run away. Roger Skunk would stand there all alone and weep silently- rejected and lonely.
5. How was Jo affected by Jack's story-telling?
Ans. Jo would be immensely engrossed in the story. She liked the way her father used to tell story, particularly his dramatization of it, through gestures and changing voices. She also liked the predictable way the story would unfold for it allowed her to make guesses, draw conclusions and ask questions. The whole world of the story would come alive before her and she would twitch and turn in excitement as the story progressed.
6. ‘This was a new phase, just this last month’. What new phase is referred to here in the story "Should Wizard Hit Mommy"?
Ans. Children's physical and mental growth is very speedy. Earlier Jo used to accept father's word about magic etc, but now she has started having apprehensions about such spells. She has become more inquisitive and less credulous.
7. Why does the wizard instruct the Skunk to "Hurry up"?
Ans. The wizard asks Skunk to hurry up because he was keen to have his full payment for the task performed. The instruction lends pace to the story –almost as if the spell would break if there was a delay.
8. How did the woodland creatures react to the Skunk's new smell? What did Skunk feel about the new change?
Ans. The woodland creatures found Roger Skunk's new smell to be ''so good''. They gladly took him in their fold as a friend and played many games with him. Naturally, Roger was happy to have been accepted by others as their friend. Moreover, his inferiority complex disappeared.
09. After the Skunk started smelling of roses Jo "thought the story was all over." Why did she think so?
Ans. Viewed from a child's angle, Skunk's smelling of roses and finally finding happiness is a befitting ending for the story, because first, Skunk's long standing desire has been fulfilled and secondly he is able to do what is dearest to his heart-play with other woodland creatures.
10. How did Skunk's mother react to his new smell?
Ans. The mother was livid. She liked her baby to smell like a skunk and did not approve of his changing his natural smell just to please others. She was angry with the wizard for making her child smell like roses and asked him to return his original smell. The Skunk's smell is obnoxious for other creatures, but certainly not for other Skunks. Skunks are born with this particular smell and any deviation is violation of Nature.
11. The Skunk accepts Mom's order and follows her to the wizard without demur, but Jo chooses to differ from her father with regard to changing the rose smell. How would you account for this difference in attitude between the two?
Ans. Roger Skunk as a character symbolizes Jack's own personality as a child. He loved and obeyed his mother very much as she had taught him courage and self-regard in dealing with his humiliations. Thus, Skunk is as unquestioningly obedient as Jack himself was. Jo on the other hand is a happy-go-lucky child of four who has had no upsetting experiences. She like every child likes a rosy world where there is no place for rejection and there’s a solution for every problem. She insists that mommy was stupid to bring so much pain to her child and so her father to change the ending. The wizard must hit mommy on her head and return give Roger skunk the small of roses again. The attitudes of both Skunk and Jo are shaped by their life experience.
12. Why did Jo not approve of Skunk's mother scolding him for his new smell?
Ans. Jo was very happy to hear that Skunk had got rid of his awful smell and had been accepted by the woodland creatures. She did not like Skunk's mother scolding him for his new smell because Jo was happy that it had won Roger Skunk so many friends. Roger’s mother, she thought, was stupid for wanting to take away his happiness and make him sad and lonely. As a child this was unacceptable to her.
13. What is the under lying idea behind the wizard's taking the beating and tamely changing the rose smell?
By making the wizard take a beating by Skunk's mother quietly, Jack wishes to bring home the idea that mothers are always right and that we should accept what is natural. The wizard also sees the point and tamely changes Skunk's new smell of roses into his original Skunk smell.
14. Why does mother Skunk hug and pat her son as he prepares to sleep?
Ans. The obedience shown by Roger Skunk pleases the mother and she pats and hugs him as he prepares himself to sleep. The idea behind her action is that obedient children will always be loved and patted by mothers. The mother's gesture is also an expression of her satisfaction at her little one getting back his Skunk smell.
15. What inference do you draw from the narrator's statement, "eventually they (woodland creatures) got used to the way he (the Skunk) was and did not mind it at all”?
Ans. The woodland creatures eventually accepted Roger Skunk with his stink for they too realized that what is natural is not disgraceful and should be accepted as an integral part of one's being. One should not hate or avoid others because of something they cannot help. The woodland creatures got used to the way Skunk smelled.
16. What is the moral issue that the story raises ?
Ans. The author through this story raises a moral question of how much authority parents should exercise in teaching their children what is wrong, what is right, what they should do and what not. Jo, a child does not accept pain Roger Skunk must suffer because of his Mommy. It also raises the issue of changing one’s natural self only to please others. The mother firmly believed that eventually one would be accepted for what one is and Roger’s artificial smell of roses was most unacceptable.
