CBSE Class 12 English Should Wizard Hit Mommy Notes Set B

About The Author

John Hoyer Updike (1932-2009) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic and literary critic. He was widely known for his careful craftsmanship and realistic but subtle depiction of American protestant, small town middle class life. He graduated from Harvard University. Updike wrote fiction series and poetry with light verse. He won Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Summary

The chapter captures a very sensitive reaction of a small girl to an important aspect of the story that her father narrates to her. Jo, a four year old girl is accustomed to hearing stories from her father, Jack, every evening and for Saturday naps. Although, the initial purpose of the story telling session was to make the young girl sleep, it got diluted as she developed a keen interest with every passing day. Jo felt herself involved with the characters and happenings. Jack had customised the basic structure of the story. He used to thread various characters with their unique problems into the story structure.

The hero was Roger who went to owl and then the owl redirected the hero to the wizard. The wizard always asked for money. All the stories had a happy ending that his father came back home from Boston. On Saturday afternoon as per the custom, Jack starts his story. Jo wanted skunk to be the main character of the story. The story was about Roger skunk who was left lonely because other small animals did not like his foul body odour. To solve this problem he goes to the wise owl who asks him to meet the wizard. Jo was growing fast so after listening to each story she started generating her opinions. She started questioning and asking for logical explanations for magic spell, death, God, etc. Her curiosity and involvement in the story made her interrupt every now and then. All this demonstrated her extent of involvement with the story. Roger skunk gets the smell of roses when he meets the wizard.

The wizard charged him seven pennies. However, Roger skunk had only four pennies so, wizard tells him about a place where he could easily find the remaining three pennies. Roger skunk easily managed to find three pennies and gave it to the wizard. Now, Roger skunk was extremely happy as other children welcomed him and played lots of games together. Skunk goes home in the evening happy and satisfied. Skunk’s mother did not find the rose smell pleasant and thus, scolds him.

Skunk’s mom gets very angry at the wizard and hits him on his head. Wizard agrees and gets skunk’s odour back. Thus, Skunk gets his foul smell back. Jo did not approve of skunk’s mom hitting the wizard and wanted him to hit her back. Father disagreed and said it was his story and defends Skunk’s mommy. He said mommies should not be hit. However, Jo was not convinced. Father did not like being interrupted. Roger skunk and his mother came back home and they wait for father skunk to come back from Boston in the evening. The three have a hearty meal. Mother skunk hugs and kisses Roger to sleep lovingly. She liked the smell of skunk once again. Skunk now played with other animals as they get used to his smell and did not run away. However, Jo remained unconvinced that wizard should not have been defeated and wanted him to hit back mommy. But father tried convincing her that mothers are always right and they are extremely loving. He asked Jo to go to sleep. But Jo is still not convinced. The force with which Jo asked him to change the ending of the story leaves him perplexed.