SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY (Vistas)

By John Updike

1. What is the moral issue the story raises?

The story raises the question of whether parents should always be followed blindly. When Jo felt that Roger Skunk’s mommy was stupid, Jack emphatically defended her. He argued that the little skunk loved his mommy more than he loved all the other little animals and believed that his mommy knew what was right. Through his story evidently jack reiterated the fact that parents know what is best for their children and advocates the unquestioning obedience of the children. The story also raises moral issues related to the different maturity levels. It examines that there is a sharp contrast between a child’s and an adult’s perspective of life. Children never like being hated and there is no word like injustice in their dictionary. Here in in this story, Roger Skunk is a very obedient kid. But he is sad because he smells so bad that nobody likes to play with him. He feels humiliated. One day wizard changes Roger's awful smell to that of the roses due to which other small animals start playing with him happily. However, his mother compels the wizard to change his smell to the earlier foul one again. Jo, who is a four year old kid, cannot accept this version of the story and feels that the mother on her part is wrong. So, she wants the wizard to hit Roger's mother for being insensitive and cruel to her son. 

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

Jo like any other child wanted the story to have a happy ending. She did not want the skunk to be shunned by his friends for a life time. She was happy when the skunk smelt of roses and gained acceptability. So she could not bear the fact that Roger Skunk’s mommy felt that a skunk should smell like one and she hit the wizard right over the head who in turn made Roger Skunk smell very bad again. 

Jo was very sorry for the skunk who had been insulted by the other creatures for such a long time. This was the first time that he had found company and friends and they would again refuse to play with him. Therefore, in order to change the end of the story, she wanted the wizard to hit the Skunk’s mommy on the head and not change that little skunk back into a foul smelling creature. 

3. Why did Jack insist that it was the wizard that was hit not the mother?
Jo insists that the wizard would hit the mommy back, which angered jack. Jack insisted that it was the wizard that was hit and not the mother because every time jack created a story he laced it with some auto biographical details. Roger Skunk’s insult was out of his childhood- he remembered certain humiliations of his own. Jack felt he was telling her something true something she must know. Thus when Roger skunk’s mommy found the smell of roses awful, she took him back to the wizard. She hit the wizard right over the head with an umbrella and made him change his smell to the original one. When Jo insisted the wizard hit the mommy, jack retorted sharply. With rare emphasis jack defended the mommy as if he was defending his own mother to her. He was not willing to alter the end and insisted that the little skunk loved his mommy more than he loved all the other little animals and she knew what was right for him.

4. What makes jack feel caught in an ugly middle position?

While Jack was telling the story he heard some furniture being moved but he did not go down to help Clare though he knew that she should not move heavy things as she was six months pregnant. After jack finished the story, he went downstairs. He saw his wife, Clare wearing an old shirt of his on top of her maternity dress painting the chair. He visualized the woodwork as a cage and he felt caught in an ugly middle position. 

This is a representation in fiction of the way in which the male psyche is reinforced by the patriarchal culture climate of the 1950 that began to unravel during 1960’s and 1970’s. This unsetting of gender roles and perspectives is further reflected in the story. The male chauvinistic attitude was reflected even while he was telling the story to his daughter. Jo thought the story was all over. But, jack did not like woman when they took anything for granted, he liked them apprehensive hanging on his words. 

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

Jo can't, digest the ending that the mother hit the wizard right over the head and he made Roger Skunk smell very bad again. She suggested to her father to end the story in another manner—“The wizard hit her on the head and did not change that little skunk back. Jo and Jack's fundamental disagreement at the end of the story reveals that, as a child, Jo feels a duty only to herself and therefore cannot understand why Roger would compromise his happiness for his mother's. Jo says, “That was a stupid mommy” for making Roger change his scent back. On the contrary, if the story ends as Jo wanted it to be, it will stop her from being absolutely obedient to her parents. Jack believes in absolute obedience to parents and no defiance at all. Jack believes in children compromising for the sake of elder’s happiness. 

6. Why is an adult’s perspective of life different from that of a child’s?

An adult perspective is different from that of a child because: Children have a rose-tinted view of the world while adults are more realistic, even cynical. Duty, morals, individuality, etc. are terms that children get to understand later. Children understand only the reality that they have been exposed to and cannot think of ideas and feelings in abstraction. Children understand only basic emotions such as happiness, sadness. Children cannot justify an unhappy endings. 

7. In this story “should wizard hit mommy” what does the last line indicate ‘he did not want to speak with her, work with her, touch her anything’.

In the story, it is clearly indicated that both Jack and Clare had different ideologies. Jack used to follow his mother's ideas that parents were always right and loved women hanging on his words, whereas Clare was an independent and tactful woman which is indicated on several occasions in the chapter. For eg- when Clare sees that Jack took longer than usual to put Jo to bed, she doesn't ask straightaway the reason for delay. She rather inquires by saying that “That was a long story”. And when she sees that Jack is taking longer than usual, she doesn't wait for him and starts painting the furniture herself. 

So the last line indicates that both Jack and Clare although being a couple were poles apart. They are bound to each other in a cage of marriage which is metaphorically represented by the wood work and moldings. Both had different ways of bringing up Jo and inculcating values in her. So this difference of perspective makes Jack tired and he wants to flee away from the cage of marriage in which he is stuck with his wife.