Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

John Updike
5
Word-meanings
 Should Wizard Hit Mommy? John Updike
5

Question-1: Who is Jo? How does she respond to her father’s

story-telling?
Answer: Jo is Jack’s little daughter. Her full name is Joanne. She is
about four-year old. Jack tells his daughter stories which he creates
himself. This custom began when she was two. Jo never falls asleep till
Jack tells a new tale to her. Each new story is a slight variation of the
basic tale. She would enjoy all such stories and show her interest by
asking many questions related to them.

Question-2: What possible plot line could the story continue

with?
Answer: Each story Jack told was a slight variation of a basic tale.
There was always a small creature named Roger. In this story it was
Roger Skunk. Like other stories he went to the wise old owl. The owl
told him to go to a wizard. The wizard made Roger Skunk smell like
roses. Roger’s ‘mommy’ made the wizard smell Roger bad again.

Question-3: What do you think was Jo’s problem?

Answer: Jo was a sensitive little girl. She didn’t like Roger Skunk’s
mother. The wizard made Roger smell like roses. Roger’s mother
compelled the wizard to make him smell very bad again. She wanted
her father to make a change in the story. She wanted the wizard to hit
Roger’s mother with his magic wand.
Question-4: What had Jack been doing for nearly two years?
Answer: Jack had a little daughter named Jo. He had made it a custom
to tell her a story in the evenings and for Saturday naps. This custom had
begun when Jo was two years old and now it was nearly two years old.
Each story was out of Jack’s head and now hid head felt empty.

Question-5: Why did Jack feel his head empty?

Answer: Jack had been telling stories to his little daughter every
evening. Each story came out of his own head. He had been telling the
stories for nearly two years. He found it difficult to think of a new story
every time. That was why he felt his head empty.

Question-6: What was the basic tale of stories told by Jack?

Answer: Every story had a small creature usually named Roger. He had
some problem and went with it to the wise old owl. The owl would tell
him to go to the wizard. The wizard solved the problem with some magic
spell. However, he charged some pennies for it.

Question-7: Why was the story-telling exercise fatiguing on

Saturdays?
Answer: Jack would tell the story hoping that Jo would go to sleep after
hearing the story. But Jo had become older now. She never fell asleep in
the naps now. It made Jack feel that his story-telling rite had become
futile.

Question-8: Describe Roger Skunk. What was his main

problem?
Answer: Roger Skunk was a little animal. Unfortunately, he smelled very
badly. His offensive foul smell kept all other little animals away from him.
He was segregated. Nobody played with him. He was deeply pained at the
indifference of other animals. Two round tears rolled down from his eyes.
Question-9: What is the moral issue that the story ‘Should
Wizard Hit Mommy?”
Answer: When children grow up, they become very inquisitive. They
begin to think logically and ask many questions. Sometimes they
contradict their parents also. Should parents feel annoyed or should they
satisfy the child’s curiosity in a logical manner? Should the parents decide
the future of their children or children should have the freedom to choose
their own career? This is the moral issue that has been raised in this story.

Question-10: What ‘new phase’ had come in Jo?

Answer: Jo was no longer a passive listener of her father’s stories. She
would ask questions if something was not clear to her. For example, at the
mention of the wizard, she asked, “Are magic spells real?” Again she
asked, “Is God really in the sky and all around us?” It was really a new
phase in Jo’s life.

Question-11: How and why did all other animals tease Roger
Skunk?
Answer: Roger Skunk smelled very badly. Due to his bad smell no
animal came near him. Whenever he went out, all other tiny animals
would cry. “Uh-oh, here comes Roger Stinky Skunk.” They would run away
leaving him alone to weep over his fate.

Question-12: How did the wizard help Roger Skunk?

Answer: The wizard asked Roger Skunk what he wanted to smell like.
Roger said he wanted to smell like roses. The wizard took a magic wand
and chanted a spell. All of a sudden, the whole inside of the wizard’s
house was full of the smell of roses. Now Roger Skunk, too, had the smell
of roses.
Question-13: How did Mommy react when she found what
Roger Skunk smelled like?
Answer: She was very angry. She asked Roger Skunk who had made him
smell like that. Roger said that it was the wizard. She at once took Roger
Skunk back to the Wizard. She hit the wizard right over the head. The
wizard said, ‘O.K’ and Roger Skunk smelled very bad again.

Question-14: What do you think was Jo’s problem?

Answer: Jo thought it wicked of Roger Skunk’s mommy to have hit
the poor wizard. She wanted the wizard to hit her back but her father
defended mommy’s action. He said that a mommy is always right. It
was something which Jo couldn’t digest with reference to Roger
Skunk’s story.

Question-15: What did Roger Skunk say to the wizard?

Answer: Roger Skunk told his problem to the wizard. He complained
that all little animals ran away from him because he smelled very
badly. Nobody liked to come near or play with him. He also told the
wizard that the wise old owl had sent him there for his help.

Question-16: How did Roger Skunk find three more pennies

and how did he start smelling like roses?
Answer: The wizard demanded seven pennies. Roger had only four
pennies with him. The wizard asked him to go to the end of the lane
and turn around three times. He would find three pennies in the
magic well. Roger obeyed. He gave those three pennies to the wizard.
The wizard became very happy and made Roger Skunk smell like
roses.
Question-17: How does Jo want the story to end and why?
Or
Why wasn’t Jo happy with the ending of the story? How did Jo
want the story to end up?
Answer: Jo was unhappy that the hero of the story Roger Skunk was
made to smell very bad again. Roger Skunk’s mommy hits the wizard
for no reason. The wizard had done nothing wrong. Jo wanted that the
stupid mommy should have been punished. So Jo felt that the wizard
should have hit that mommy back with his magic wand. This,
according to her, would have been a logical conclusion of the story.

Question-18: Why does Jack insist that it was the wizard that
was hit and not the mother?
Answer: Jack wanted to give the child the impression that mothers
are always right. It is the duty of children to love them and respect
them. Good children never call into question whatever their parents
say. That is what Jack wanted to insist.

Question-19: What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle

position?
Answer: Jack finds himself hanging in an ugly middle position. His
one leg is in the fanciful world of Roger Skunk, the wise old owl and
the wizard. But he has to face the harsh realities of life as well. It is the
world of day-to –day things that lack romance and beauty. Hence, he
feels himself caught in an ugly middle position.

Question-20: What is Jo’s perspective and how does it differ

with Jack’s?
Answer: The world of adults is the world of harsh realities. Their way
of looking at things and people is also different. The world of adults
lacks romance and beauty. Jo’s world is a dreamy world of romance
and beauty. She can’t afford to see her hero Roger smelling very bad
again. He must smell of roses.
Question-21: What is your stance regarding the two endings
to the Roger Skunk story?
Answer: In my opinion, the ending suggested by Jo sounds logical.
Roger Skunk’s mommy hits the wizard for no reason. It is but natural
that the wizard should hit back. Why should he be afraid of Mommy?
He is a wizard after all. But Jack wanted to give the child the
impression that mothers are always right. He does not want to tell
such a story in which a mommy is hit or insulted.

Question-22: How is Jack’s childhood interwoven in the

story of the stinky skunk?
Answer: When the other animals ran away and Roger Skunk stood
there all alone, and two little tears fell from his eyes, Jack had to
remember certain humiliations of his own childhood.

Question-23: Why does Jack think the end of the story

should not be changed?
Answer: Jack thinks that if the end of the story is changed, the
purpose of the story fails. The point is that the little Skunk loved his
mommy more than he loved all the other little animals and she knew
what was right. Mothers are always right.
Question-1: What is the moral issue that the story raises?
Answer:
Introduction: Joanne (Jo) is Jack’s daughter. When she was two
years old, her father started the custom of telling her a story in the
evenings and for Saturday naps. The little girl would fall asleep while
listening to the story. But now Jo was four years old. She had started
going to a nursery. She had become inquisitive. She would not sleep
while listening to the story. She would listen carefully and ask many
questions to make the thing clear to her. For example, she would ask,
“Are magic spells real?” or “Is God really in the sky?”
The story, “Should Wizard Hit Mommy?” examines the moral issue
based on the different level of maturity.

Description: The story examines moral issues dependent on different

levels of maturity. There is a sharp contrast between an adult’s
perspective of life and the worldview of a little child. Children represent
innocence. Hatred and injustice have no place in the their world

In the Story: The story raises a moral issue—should parents always

decide what the children should do or let the children do what they like
to do. There is an evident contrast between an adult’s perspective on life
and the world view of a little child.
Jack, the father, defends the behaviour of Roger Skunk’s mother
who forced the old wizard to restore the natural but offensive smell to
Roger Skunk. He sums up the issue in one sentence: ‘She knew what was
right’. As to why the little skunk agreed to her mother’s proposal, Jack
says that the little skunk loved his mommy more than he loved all the
other little animals. Jack cites an instance. When Roger Skunk was in
bed, Mommy Skunk came up, hugged him and said he smelled like her
little baby Skunk again and she loved him very much.
Jo’s Perspective : Little Jo, the spokesperson of children, does
not agree with her father’s view. She feels that the Skunk’s mother
should not have robbed the pleasure of her little son and deprived
him of the pleasant smell of the roses. She insisted that the wizard hit
that mommy on the head and did not change that little skunk back.
She calls the little skunk’s mother “a stupid mommy”. She realised
that her father was defending his own mother to her, or something
odd. Jo stuck to her view point. She insisted that her father should tell
her the story the next day in a different manner. It was the wizard that
took the magic wand and hit that mommy

Jack’s Perspective : On the contrary, Jack tried to justify the

skunk’s mother and wanted Roger to listen to his mother even if it
means smelling bad again. Jack, a typical father, wanted his daughter
to believe that parents are always correct and they know what is best
for their children. Thus, the story raises the question of whether
parents should always be followed blindly

Conclusion: John Updike’s short story ‘Should Wizard Hit

Mommy?’ raises certain basic moral issues. The basic moral issue is of
racial segregation. Roger Skunk smells very bad. It is none of his fault.
Nature has made him so. He has to undergo intense sufferings due to
his segregation. All little creatures run away when he comes near
them. They refuse to play with him. Sometimes the pain becomes
unbearable and he weeps. In the story, the baby skunk was able to
make friends only after he smelled of roses. In Jo’s perspective, the
happiness of being able to make friends surpassed any other thing. As
a result, she is unable to assess the reason why the mother skunk
pressurized her child to get his original foul body odour restored.
Question-2: How does Jo want the story to end and why?
Answer:
Introduction: Jo is a four-year-old inquisitive child. She is now
very different from what she was two years ago. The
perspective of children on life is quite different from ours. They
roam in a dreamy and magical world. It is an idealised world
where beauty and love rule supreme. There is no place for
ugliness and stink in their world. Naturally, Jo wants her father
to make a change in the story. The wizard must take his magic
wand and hit Roger’s mommy hard. Little Jo wants “that stupid
mommy” punished. Her crime is that she made the wizard
smell Roger bad again. Jo insists on making that change in the
story.

Jack ended the story: When Roger Skunk went home, his
mother said, “What’s that awful smell? Who made you smell
like that?” He replied Wizard. Skunk’s mother along with him
went to the wizard. She hit the wizard with her umbrella right
over the head and demanded to change the smell of her son to
the original smell. The wizard changed the smell of roses to
that bad smell and Roger Skunk smelled very bad again.

How Jo wants to story to end: Roger Skunk is the hero of

the story. Jo can never imagine her hero to be so ugly and
stinky. It offends her sense of fairness and justice. From the
very beginning she has sympathy for Roger Skunk. Roger’s
mother becomes evil for Jo. Hence, the “stupid mommy” must
be punished and hit by the wand of the magician. For this the
ending of the story must be changed.
Conclusion: Jo was not convinced with the ending of the
story and coaxed her father to retell the story the next day
giving the story a predetermined path that she had set.
According to her, neither Roger Skunk nor the wizard was
wrong in the story. Jo refused to accept the end where Roger
Skunk's mother hit the wizard and that too without being hit
back. She wanted the story to end with the wizard hitting back
the mother skunk with his magic wand on her head. These
reactions of Jo state the mind-set of the new generation which
cannot accept their true self and always wants to be acceptable
in the society.

Question-3: Who is Jo? How does she respond to her father’s

story-telling?
Answer:

Introduction: Jo is the four year old daughter of Jack and Clare.

Her full name is Joanne. When she was two years old, her father
started the custom of telling her a story in the evenings and for
Saturday naps. The little girl would fall asleep while listening to the
story. But now Jo was four year old. She had started going to a
nursery. She had become inquisitive. She would not sleep while
listening to the story.

Jo, Intelligent and Inquisitive child: She was a smart,

inquisitive child. Her mind was bubbling with questions about
something she had learned or seen. Her reactions to the stories were
a fascinating combination of emotions trapped in her father's
knowledge of the known and eagerness to discover the mysterious
features woven into the simple story. An anxious Jo needed the tale to
progress quickly and yet could not continue in her mind with
contradictory ideas or unanswered questions. She was always a rather
observant listener, and her father was corrected whenever she
thought he was faltering. Through her body language and facial
expressions, the depth of her involvement with the story was evident.
She empathized with the protagonist and ignored something that
didn't fit into her own narrow universe. She was kept awake by the
eagerness to learn and the restlessness to demonstrate her viewpoint.
She was even willing to fight with her father, and coax him to end the
story from her point of view. Her responses indicate that she had
started developing a personality of her own.

Conclusion: Little Jo, the spokesperson of children, does not agree

with her father’s view. She feels that the Skunk’s mother should not
have robbed the pleasure of her little son and deprived him of the
pleasant smell of the roses. She insisted that the wizard hit that
mommy on the head and did not change that little skunk back. She
calls the little skunk’s mother “a stupid mommy”. She would listens
the story carefully and ask many questions to make the thing clear to
her. For example, she would ask, “Are magic spells real?” or “Is God
really in the sky?” Now she refused to accept whatever appeared to
her to be false unjust or imaginary.

Question-4: Why does Jack insist that it was the wizard that
was hit and not mother?
Answer:
Introduction: Skunks have a distinctive feature of their own.
They give a very bad smell. Naturally Roger Skunk’s mommy
would not like her son to lose this distinctive feature. She
would be very angry to find the way Roger Skunks smelled
now. His rose-like smell could alienate him from his own
species. So his mommy would take him back to the wizard and
ask him to make Roger Skunk smell the way he did earlier. The
other animals of the forest would begin to accept him by and
by.

Reasons why Jack Insist that it was wizard that was hit and
not mommy:

Jack has the typical parental attitude. He is of the opinion that

the parents know what is best for their children. He asserts the
parental authority time and again to quieten Jo and stifle her
objections and amendments to the story of the foul smelling
Skunk related by him.
He defends the attitude of Roger Skunk's mother. She does
not approve of the unnatural, unskunk- like smell that Roger
has. She calls the sweet smell of the roses an awful smell.
Earlier the little skunk smelled the way a little skunk should.
She wants the natural characteristic, the foul smell, restored.
He says that she knew what was right. Secondly, the little skunk
loved his mommy more than he loved all the other animals.
That is why; he took his mommy to the wizard. She hit the
wizard and forced him to change the smell of roses to his
earlier bad odour. He insisted on this ending to emphasise the
concern of the parents for children and their role in bringing
them up on proper lines.

Conclusion: Roger Skunk’s mommy was not ‘stupid’ as Jo

would think her to be. For a mother, her child is always an
object of love and affection. A mother doesn’t care whether
her child smells of roses or smells so badly. Naturally, Roger
Skunk’s mother was upset when she found him smelling like
roses. She didn’t like that ‘awful’ smell and compelled the
wizard to make Roger smell very bad again. Roger smelled like
her own son now.

Home-assignment

Question-5: What is your stance regarding the two endings

to the Roger Skunk story?

Question-6: What makes Jack feel caught in a ugly

middle position?
Answer: Introduction: Jack feels that he has been caught in an
ugly middle position physically, emotionally as well as mentally as a
father and as a husband. He has to perform both the duties. Life offers
striking contrasts. Jack enjoys the art of story-telling. Every story
comes out of his head. The world of romance his stories create,
doesn’t match with the harsh realities of his life. The day-to-day life is
dull and tiring. Jack feels caught in an ugly middle position. He has to
manage a little family. He has two children, a daughter Jo and her
brother Bobby.

Jack Caught between the two worlds: The first world belongs
to Roger Fish, Roger Squirrel or Roger Chipmunk. It is the world of the
wise old owl and the wizard with a magic wand. The world upstairs is
different from the world that goes on downstairs. He realises that he
should help his wife Clare paint the living-room woodwork. Jack feels
himself caught in an ugly middle position. He is caught between the
romantic world of tales and the prosaic world downstairs.

As a father: His daughter Jo is not satisfied with the end of the story
he has finished. She wants that the story be ended in another way. She
wants him to tell her the story that wizard took his magic wand and hit
that mommy. He says to her, “Tomorrow you say that wizard hit that
mommy.” But she insists that he should say it now. Jack was conscious of
his duties as a father and as a husband. Little Bobby was already asleep.
His efforts to make Jo fall asleep proved quite fatiguing. She kept on
interrupting him, asking for clarifications, pointing errors and suggesting
alternatives.

As a husband: His pregnant wife Clare was painting the wood work
and other articles downstairs. He wanted to help her in the work of
painting. Jack closed the door and went downstairs. Meanwhile JO
was coming downstairs. Then he called, “Joanne! Shall I come up
there and slap you?” Jack did not like that women should take
anything for granted. He liked them to be apprehensive. So, he
extended the story, though he was in a haste to go down stairs and
help his pregnant wife in her hard work of painting the woodwork.
The result of the extension to the story proved unfruitful and
unpleasant for Jo, Jack and Clare. Jo wanted him to change the ending
of the story. Clare complained that he had told a long story. Jack felt
utter weariness and did not want to speak with his wife or work with
her or touch her. He was really caught in an ugly middle position.

Conclusion: The ugly middle position of jack was that he had got a
situation when he had to choose one out of two duties i.e. as a
husband or as a father. As a father he wanted to tell her daughter a
bed time story and has a husband he wanted to help her wife in her
work i.e. to help in adjusting the furniture. He could not wipe out the
gap between the old and the young generation.