Class 12 English Vistas

Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

John Updike

Summary

This is a story about a father (named Jack) telling stories to his daughter Jo. Every night, Jack has to tell a story but Saturday nights become difficult because Jo does not like to sleep on time, and hence it becomes tiring for Jack. Each story has the same character named Roger, but the type of animal changes to change the character. So, it can be Roger Fish one day, Roger Dog another day and so on. In each story, Roger Fish or Roger Skunk or Roger Monkey faces some problem. Then he goes to the wise owl to get his problem solved. The Wise Owl sends him to a Wizard who casts some magic charm to solve the problem. After that, the Wizard asks for a certain number of pennies and the number is always more than what lies with Roger. Finding Roger incapable of paying the required number of pennies, Wizard directs him to go to certain place to get extra pennies.

The latest story is about Roger Skunk, who smells awful. All other baby animals keep Roger Skunk at bay because of the awful smell. So, Roger Skunk has nobody to play with. Feeling sad, Roger Skunk goes to the Wise Owl, who in turn directs him to the Wizard. The Wizard casts his magic spell and Roger Skunk starts to smell like roses. After that, all other baby animals start to play with Roger Skunk.

When Roger Skunk goes back to his mom, his mom finds the smell of roses as awful. She says that all skunks should smell the way a skunk smells. She takes Roger to the Wizard and asks the Wizard to take back his magic smell.

Jo does not like this idea and wants the smell of roses to stay with Roger Skunk. But Jack tells her that every person is unique, and he/she should maintain his/her unique character. Joe wants the Wizard to hit Roger’s mom. But Jack tells that everyone loves his/her mommy, so the Wizard should never hit mom.

Reading with Insight

Question 1: What is the moral issue that the story raises?

Answer: This story raises the issue of prejudice, which is rampant among us. Most of the people harbour certain prejudices against others on the basis of skin colour, race, language, country of birth, etc. Most of the peole like to bond with people like them only, and try to keep away from people who appear different. Sometimes, prejudices may result in discrimination on the basis of race, class, skin colour, etc.

Question 2: How does Jo want the story to end and why?

Answer: Jo is too young to understand the meaning of prejudice and idtentity. She thinkgs that a rose smells better than a skunk, so the Skunk should continue to smell like roses. She also thinks that by smelling as roses, Skunk would find more friends than what could be possible with his skunk-like smell. Hence, Jo wants the story to end in a way the Roger Skunk gets to retain the smell of roses.

Question 3: Why does Jack insist that it was the wizard that was hit and not the mother?

Answer: Jack wants to emphasise the importance of love between a mother and her child. He udnerstands that for a child, it is the mother who knows the best. He also wants his daughter to develop proper respect for her mother. So, Jack insists that it was the wizard that was hit and not the mother.

Question 4: What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle position?

Answer: Jack is caught between the two worlds. One world is upstairs where he was with his two children Jo and Bobby. Another world is downstairs, where his pregnant wife is busy painting some furnitures. As a father, his responsibility is to spend quality time with his children. As a husband, his responsibility is to help his wife in household chores. He was unable to satiate his daughter’s curiosity while narrating the story. After that he is too tired to help her wife. So, he feels caught in an ugly middle position.

Question 5: What is your stance regarding the two endings to the Roger Skunk story?

Answer: For a small child, like Jo, a skunk smelling like roses can be a wonderful idea because a child is way off the reality. For Roger, it is important to tell his child about how the real world works. The two different endings of the story are about two different worlds imagined by the daughter and her father. While a skunk smelling like roses can be any child’s fantasy but this is not the way the real world works. So, I think the ending as narrated by Jack is the correct one.

Question 6: Why is an adult’s prespective on life different from that of a child’s?

Answer: Children often live in fariy tale world, far way from reality. This explains why most of the bedtime stories have happy endings. But an adult understands how the real world functions. There are times when adults may not be able to properly correlate with a child’s fantasy. That is why an adult’s perspective on life is different from that of a child’s.