Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir s11
INDIAN SCHOOL AL WADI AL KABIR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
QUESTION BANK – CLASS XII
SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY- John Updike
Summary:
This story deals with a child's view of the world and the difficult moral questions she raises during the story telling session with her father.
Jack (Jo’s father) had become accustomed to or putting it more precisely obligated to telling stories out of his head to his daughter Jo during the evenings and Saturday afternoons. This tradition itself was now two years old and it had started when Jo was two. 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 to 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 very 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 Jo's nap. So Jack had to tell her a story. So he began his story and asked Jo what the creature should be named. It seemed they had studied about a new animal at school 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 to the magician. Roger skunk found his way to the magician’s house and sought his help. The magician with his magic wand turned the awful smell that Roger had into the smell 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 Jo about moral values, but his daughter Jo, who was just a child, reacted differently to the story's ending. She wanted 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 or touch her.
Short Answer Questions with answers:
1. Jack feels 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 out 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. 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.
4. This was a new phase, just this last month. 'What new phase is referred to here in the story "Should Wizard HitMommy"?
Ans. Children's physical and mental growth is very speedy. Earlier Jo used to accept her father's word about magic etc, but now she has started having apprehensions about such spells. She has become more inquisitive and less credulous.
5. Why does the wizard instruct the Skunk to "Hurry up"?
Ans. The wizard asks Skunk to hurry up because he is used to living alone and does not like company for a long time and secondly he was keen to have his full payment for the task performed. Another reason can be that he could not stand Skunk's smell for long.
6. 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.
7. Why in your opinion is the smell of roses obnoxious for the Skunk mother?/ 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.
8. The Skunk accepts Mom's order like a tame lamb and follows her to the wizard .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.
9. 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.
10. What is the underlying 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.
11. How does Jo want the story to end and why?
Jo feels thrilled to hear stories from her father - themes were the extension of childhood memories - Jo does not like the end of the story of Roger Skunk, where the Skunk’s mother hit wizard to restore the natural smell instead of the rose fragrance. She cannot understand the harm that one encounters for opposing nature – she is happy to see Roger Skunks has found many friends - she does not want Roger Skunk to lose his playmates. She also cannot bear the injustice done to the wizard and wants him to hit the mother.
12. Why does Jack insist that it was the wizard that was hit and not the mother?
Ans. Jack firmly believes that mothers can’t err and deserve unchallenged and unconditioned obedience for they know what is right for their children. Wizards can be hit but never the mothers; hence; his insistence that the wizard was hit . Moreover, mother was justified in her belief that what is natural is not disgraceful and one should never give up one’s individuality. The other reason was that Jack, while narrating the story, unknowingly got emotionally connected with the character of the protagonist and his mother. He pictured his own mother in place of Roger Skunk’s mother and thus could not imagine his own mother being hit by anyone. Jo also understood that his father was defending his own mother.
Additional Questions:
1. How did Jo feel about her father’s stories?
2. How does the reader get the impression that Jo was bored with the stories?
3. Which part of the story did Jack enjoy the most? Why?
4. How does the reader get the impression that Jack was quite insensitive to the feelings of his daughter?
5. What is the justification given by Jack for Mommy hitting the wizard?
6. How is Jack’s childhood interwoven in the story of the stinky skunk?
7. What was Roger Skunk’s problem? How did he get rid of it?
8. Why does Jo insist that her father should tell her the story with a different ending the next day?
9. How did the woodland creatures react to the Skunk’s new smell? What made Roger Skunk happy?
10. Jack appears to be an immature father. Discuss.
Long Answer Questions:
1. What is the moral issue that the story raises?
2. How does Jo want the story to end and why?
3. What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle position?
4. A minute study of the story reveals that it can be convincingly ended at, at least three different levels. Justify.
Value Based Questions: [ To be written in 100 words- 5 marks ]
1. It is important that children be allowed to furnish their views and offer their opinions. How does the story contradict this tenet of good parenting?
2. Parents should teach their children to accept people as they. Comment.
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