Should Wizard Hit Mommy by John Updike

Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

This story deals with a child's view of the world and the difficult moral questions she raises during the story session with her father.
Jack (Joanne's father) had become accustomed to or putting it more precisely obligated to telling stories out of his head to his daughter Joanne during the evenings and Saturday afternoons. This tradition itself was now two years old and Joanne had been two when it started. These stories were almost the same except for some slight variations. It started with a creature usually named Roger (Roger fish, Roger squirrel, Roger chipmunk), who had some problem and went with it to the wise owl. The owl directed him to go the the magician, who would solve his problem in exchange for a few pennies more than the creature had and in the same breath would direct the creature to go to a place where he could find it. Then, the roger creature would be so happy and would return home just in time to hear the train whistle that brought his daddy home from Boston.
On this particular day, a Saturday, it was time for Joanne's nap. So Jack had to tell her a story. So he began his story and asked Joanne what the creature should be named. It seemed they had studied about a new animal at school today for she enthusiastically said "skunk, Roger skunk". The character was set and so began the story. Jack was now ready to start the story and was filled with creative enthusiasm. The story started with the creature being unable to play and make friends with other creatures because he smelled awful. The creature having no other option went to seek the advice of the wise old owl who directed him to go the magician. Roger skunk found his way to the magicians house and sought his help. The magician with his magic wand turned the awful smell that roger had into a smell that was of roses. The roger creature then as directed gave the magician the pennies he had and as per the instruction of the magician went to the well to get the extra pennies.
Then roger skunk went back home. As he reached home his mother was disappointed with roger skunk as she thought that it was not right to change one's identity to please their friends. She said real friends are the ones who accept you for who you are and not for who you want to become. She then took roger back to the magician and hit the magician with the umbrella she had been carrying. The magician then performed his magic and roger no longer smelled of roses. After that they returned home just in time to hear the whistle of the train blow that brought Roger skunk's father home and from that day on, Roger skunk was content in being himself.
Throughout this story Jack wanted to teach his daughter Joanne about moral values, but his daughter Joanne (Jo), who was just a child, reacted differently to the story's ending. She want the wizard to hit Roger's mother and let Roger smell of roses and not change him. This was a child's perspective of things. To a child, friends mean everything and they do not understand moral values and the importance of parents.
Jack had faced similar problems like roger had faced so he was trying to tell Jo that whatever parents say or do for them are in their best interest. But Jo was adamant and wanted another ending for the story.
After the story ended jack went down to help his wife Clare paint the furniture. When he reached downstairs he saw that the woodwork, a cage of moldings and rails and baseboards all around them ,was half old tan and half new ivory and he felt caught in an ugly middle position, and though he as well felt his wife's presence in the cage with him, he did not want to speak with her, work with her, touch her, anything
NOTE: Jack had a son named Bobby two years old, Clare was three months pregnant.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1.     What is the clash in the story?

 Jack ended his story with Roger skunk’s mother hitting the wizard for giving a new smell to her son. In fact Joe had loved the previous ending of the story where Roger became a happy creature with the smell of roses that the wizard gave him. She was displeased by this new ending and wanted her father to make the wizard hit Roger’s mommy. But Jack was not ready to make any change as he thought Joe should accept him without questioning. As Jack had created Roger after himself and Roger’s mother after his own mother, he wanted the story remain a reminder to his daughter to understand the importance of yielding to her parents.

2.Why did Jack bring in an addition to the story that had in fact ended?

 Jack was a very peculiar father and man. He wanted women clinging to him rather than he yielding to them. When his story really ended as usual, Joe, his daughter began to show signs of it and looked distracted. He didn’t like this behavior of his daughter. According to him it was he who had to declare that the story was over. To establish his authority over the story, over his daughter and over all women, Jack took the story to a much unexpected twist and declared that the story was over.

3. How does Jack justify Roger’s mother? Why does he do so?

Interestingly, in all stories of Roger, Jack had infused his own childhood and placed himself as Roger and his mother as Roger’s mother. Jack did it because he was very much attached to his mother and had idealized the mother above all. He had certain limitations in his childhood but his mother didn’t blame him for his good or bad. She didn’t want her son change like the other boys of his age. What she wanted was a son who always remained her pet, obedient, unquestioning his parents. Jack wanted his children to be like he was to his mother.

 4. Jack appears to be an immature father. Discuss.

 Jack is the father of two children yet he exhibits traits of an immature man andfather. His mind is not as grown up as it is expected from a man of his age. He clungto rigid opinions like a small child. He felt angry with Joe when she took liberty tofeel that the story had ended. In order to establish his authority over the story and the child, Jack added an unwanted tail to the story. When the daughter commentedthat the story ended badly, he fights with her over such a trifle, still behaving like achild.

5. How did Roger’s mother react to his son’s change of smell?

Roger had a very bad smell. He was very sad and disappointed about it. But his life changed after getting the smell of roses from a wizard. Though his friends loved Roger with the new smell, his mother expressed her vehement protest to it. She didn’t like the change. She loved her son with the hereditary smell, however bad it was.

 6. Why was Roger’s mother unhappy about the end of the story?

Roger and his friends were greatly happy with the smell of roses Roger got from the wizard, but his mother wasn’t. The mother loved her son with the bad smell because the bad smell was her son’s identity. She wanted him to be an obedient child, loving his tradition, proud of the family smell, however stinking it was.

7. Why does Joe consider Roger’s mother stupid?

Joe considered Roger’s mother stupid because she was so senseless that she could not appreciate her son’s acquiring a new smell replacing a very unpleasant smell. She was moreover ignorant about what was good and what was bad. For her, traditions are more important than a pleasing appearance and therefore she was ever willing to carry her ugly smell as a mark of her identity.

 8. Why was Joe against the end of the story?

 Joe was a little girl of four years. She had a good appreciation to her father’s stories, however monotonous they were. She used to fall asleep at the end of each story her father told her. But the unusual ending of Roger skunk’s story didn’t please her. She disliked the idea of the good wizard hit for helping Roger. She saw no reason why goodness be punished. She was angry with Roger’s mother who didn’t accept a change that happened for good.

 9. What was the ugly middle position that Jack found himself in?

 Jack was a husband and father. He had considered himself to be very obedient tohis mother and was proud of that submission. He wanted his children follow his example and therefore hated being contradicted or questioned by his children. It was with this in mind that he chose to tell bedtime stories to his children rather than leaving it to Clare, his wife. But Jack was a failure as a story teller, a husband and a father and this placed him in a middle position, somewhere nowhere. 

 10. What hadn’t  Joe foreseen in the story of Roger Skunk?

 Joe was glad with the usual ending of the story of Roger skunk, however repeatedthe story was. She had heard this same line of story a hundred times before andwas satisfied with each ending. But Joe was not happy with the additional ending of Roger’s story. She had never foreseen that there was something wrong with gettingpleasant smell and that the wizard would be punished for helping Roger to possessthe smell of roses.

11. Was Jack a success as a story teller?  Explain.

Answer 1: No, Jack was very poor at telling bedtime stories. First of all, he never told stories out of his head as was demanded by Joe. He modified a base story everyday and therefore his stories lacked curiosity. He doesn’t quite know the psychology of a child and hence his stories couldn’t bring the child to sleep. Instead of ending the story as loved and expected by the child, he ended his story in a highly complicated  manner. If he had ended the story where Roger Skunk got the smell of roses or with the wizard hitting the skunk’s mother, Joe would have been satisfied and slept peacefully.

 Answer 2: Jack was not a good story teller. The purpose of his telling Joe a story was to put her to rest. He was a lazy story teller as he used to tell the same story with slight variations. Even though Jack applied expressions, sound effects and curious details such as the finding of pennies, he could not make the story a great success because he had forgotten the basic purpose of telling the story. For him his stories were meant to teach his children morality that he inherited from his mother. Jack had to remember that children want curiosity, not philosophy; a peaceful mind, not a turbulent one.

 Answer 3: Yes, Jack was a good story teller. Even though he failed to put Joe to sleep with the story of Roger skunk, he was always successful with his stories. He had good imagination, a very effective way of narration with sound effects and expressions. Besides, he was able to measure the depth of Joe’s concentration and involvement in the story.

  Q12. Why do you think Roger’s decision to get the smell of roses was right? Or, Shouldwizard hit mommy?

There is no good reason why Roger’s mommy hit the good wizard. What the wizard did was an act of goodness. Even though he charged Roger a few pennies for the magic, he gave him a lovely identity that followed friendship and happiness. The mommy was a bad one because she could not appreciate her son’s good choice. She was more concerned about traditions, identity and her son’s safety with the help of the bad smell. She overlooked the happiness that her son got and friendship he gained. After all, Roger chose good for good while the mother chose the bad for good. She should have appreciated Roger for this.

 Q. 13. Why was Jack enthusiastic about telling the stories of Roger? OR Why did Jackconsider that his stories were what his children should listen to?

 A Jack had held certain values close to his heart. First of all, he believed that he was a well formed man and father. He had suffered certain humiliations in his childhood and therefore he had sympathy for the weak and the deserted. He never liked women being superior. This male chauvinist, Jack, considered his four year old daughter Joe as a woman and taught her that children should not question their parents even if they are wrong. 

 Q.14. How should Jack have ended the story in order to make Joe sleep?

If Jack was primarily interested in making Joe sleep, he should have ended the story hitting the mommy. He had to admit the unusual ending of the story a fault. If he didn’t want to do so, Jack should have promised his daughter that he would tell her the story as loved by her.

15.      Father has felt empty after two years of story telling to Jo. What idea    do you form about his skill in the art of story telling ?

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 here and there. He feels empty because he has been telling stories for over two years now and has quite naturally run short of ideas.
16.   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.''
17.  What was Roger Skunk's problem? How did he get rid of it?      
Ans.    Roger Skunk was a delightful child. His only 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 wizard who cast a magic spell to change the smell into that of roses.
18.   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.
19.  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.
20.     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.
21.       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 with him many games. Naturally, Roger was happy to have been accepted by others as their friend Moreover, his inferiority complex had disappeared.
22.   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 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.
23.   Why in you opinion is the smell of roses obnoxious for the Skunk mother "or How did Skunk's mother react to his new smell ? 
Ans.  Nature keeps its own balance and has its own way. 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. So the mother Skunk does not like the rose smell of Roger Skunk.. She believes that what is natural is not disgraceful.
24.         The Skunk accepts Mom's order like a tame lamb 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. She in turn taught him courage and self-regard in dealing with his hurt and humiliation on account of his psoriasis and stammering. 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 no upset and humiliation to deal with. She is naturally inquisitive and is curious to know more and more. It is not surprising that she is full of questions. The attitudes of both Skunk and Jo are shaped by their life experience.
25.        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 thought it was a pleasant smell and the one that had won Skunk so many friends. Skunk's mother, she thought, was wrong in scolding him for his new smell.

26.     What is the under lying idea behind the wizard's taking the beating and tamely changing the rose smell?
Ans.   By making the wizard take his beating by Skunk's mother quietly, Jack and through him the author 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 rose smell into his original Skunk smell.
27. Why does mother Skunk hug and pat her son as he prepares to sleep ?
Ans. The obedience shown by Roger Skunk impresses the mother and she pats and hugs him as he prepares himself for 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.
28. 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 learnt the lesson 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. One should instead be courageous and tolerant enough to accept is. This is how the woodland creatures got used to the way Skunk smelled.
  Long answer type questions
1.  What is the moral issue that the story raises ?
Ans. Although "Should Wizard Hit Mommy?" reads like a typical bed time story elders tell little children, it does raise a moral question - Should parents always decide what is best for their children and should children always obey their parents unquestioningly ?
           Roger Skunk is a very obedient child but he feels very sad and upset because he smells so awful that nobody wants to befriend him and play with him. One day he gets a change to get his bad smell replaced with the smell of roses. He feels excited about the change for everyone likes his new smell and readily agrees to play with him. However Roger's mother does not like the change. For her, Roger was better off with his original smell. So, she makes the wizard restore Skunk's original smell. Roger meekly accepts his mother's decision and other children get used to Roger's awful smell and don’t complain about in any more.
              But the narrow world view of the little girl, Jo likes to spell out the slogan of equality for all. She believes in the axiom "Tit for Tat". She feels that mothers is wrong in getting her son's original smell back and wants her to be spanked by the wizard for her mistake. Her father, who has modeled Skunk's story on his own story, strongly defends the mother Skunk's decision.
              Thus, 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. Since, there is no single correct answer to the question, he leaves it for the readers to answer it on the basis of their beliefs, cultures and values.

2.     Why is an adult's perspective on life different from that of a child's ? 

Ans.   As the child grows into maturity his perspective and vision of life  change gradually. A child views things at superficial and sensory level but a grown up's vision is realistic, reflective, philosophical and even psychological. Viewed from the study of the story "Should Wizard Hit Mommy?" Jo, a child of four, like most children of her age, prefers to live in dreams and fantasies. She is hostile by nature and would like to wreak vengeance on Skunk's mother and wants the wizard to retaliate. 
              She is annoyed because the father refuses to accept her suggestion. The father has a mature perspective and sees beyond the surface and explores the philosophical and moralistic aspect of the entire situation. The wizard had unwittingly interfered with nature and had thus done a great deal of harm and deserved to be punished. According to him the punishment meted out to the wizard is well merited and retaliation is out of the question.
           Thus the story makes it clear that the perspective of a child and that of an adult is totally different. 

(You can also add relevant value points of your own, esp for long answer.)

Share this

Empowerment Rules the World