SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOTHER

JOHN UPDIKE
1. Who is Jo and how does she respond to her father’s story telling?
2. What possible plot line could the story continue?
3. What do you think was Jo’s problem?
4. What were the common features of the stories told by Jack?
5. What was Roger Skunk’s problem?
6. This was a new phase, just this last month, reality phase. How did Jo behave
in this reality phase?
7. How did Roger pay for the wizard’s help?
8. Why did Roger Skunk’s mother protest?
9. How does Jo’s perspective differ form Jack’?
10. What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle position?
11. What custom had Jack kept up with his daughter Jo?
12. What was the basic tale that Jack would narrate to Jo every night?
13. What was true and real about the story about Roger Skunk?
14. What was the anti-climax in the Roger Skunk story?
15. How had Jo expected the story to end?
16. Why was Jack flustered when Jo assumed the story had ended?
17. What was mommy Skunk’s reaction when Roger Skunk got back home?
18. Mommy took Roger Skunk back to the wizard. Why? What is being
reinforced by Jack through this?
19. What is the custom given in the beginning of the story?
20. What was the ‘basics tale’ Jack used every time while telling a new story?
21. What was the role of the wise old owl in each story?
22. What did the wizard do to solve the problem of each creature?
23. Why did the scheme for Jack see futile?
24. Who was the new animal? What was special about it?
25. Why was Roger Skunk unhappy?
26. How did Jo sympathize with Roger Skunk when she heard him in tears?
27. Where did roger Skunk find the owl?
28. Give two examples to show that Jo was very inquisitive?
29. How did the owl guide Roger skunk to go to the wizard?
30. How did the storyteller describe the wizard?
31. What do you think was Jo’s problem?
32. What was the sequence that all the stories that Jack told his daughter follow?
33. How did Jo feel about his stories?
34. How does the reader get the impression that Jo was bored with the stories?
35. What part of the story did Jack himself enjoy the most? Why?
36. How does the reader get the impression that Jack was quite insensitive to the
feelings of his daughter?

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37. Why does Jack feel that he is caught somewhere in the middle?
38. What is the logic by which, according to Jo, the wizard should hit mommy?
39. What is the justification that is given by Jack for Mommy hitting the wizard?
40. Why dos Jack think that the end of the story should not be changed?
41. How is Jack’s childhood interwoven in the story of the stinky skunk?
42. What makes the reader feel that Jack is not used to having his authority
questioned? How does he exhibit this to his daughter, Jo?
43. What discoveries does Jack make about his daughter in the course of telling
her the story of the stinky Skunk Roger? How does Jack react to this?
44. Why was the house of the wizard full of the smell of roses?
45. How did woodland creatures react with roger Skunk?
46. What are the various issues touched upon by the author by incorporating a
narrative within narrative? (Long)
47. What underlying assumption about gender roles does the story ‘Should
Wizard Hit Mommy’? touch upon? (Long)
48. What are the moral issues that the story raises? (Long)
49. How did Jo want the story to end and why? (Long)
50. Why does Jack insist on the wizard to be hit, not the mother? (Long)
51. What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle position? (Long)
52. What is your stance regarding the two endings to the Roger Skunk’s story?
(Long)
53. Why does an adult’s perspective on life differ from that of a child’s? (Long)
54. It is important that children be allowed to finish their views and offer their
opinions. How does the story contradict this tenet of good parenting? (Long)
55. Adults have the habit of imposing their views on their children and coercing
them into submission. How is this proved by the story? (Long)