SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY( CLASS XII VISTAS)

Should Wizard Hit Mommy

By John Updike

Glossary

·         Nap – short sleep	·         Fatiguing - tiring
·         Rite – an act	·         Futile – useless; pointless
·         Stirred – inspired	·         Tug – to pull hard or suddenly
·         Scraped – moved a sharp and hard object across a surface	·         Relapsed – slid back
·         Sly – cunning	·         Curtly – abruptly
·         Swamp – an area of land that is full of water	·         Rapped – hit hard several times
·         Scrunching – (here) crumpling	·         Whining – making a prolonged sound resembling a high-pitched cry
·         Rheumy – a water discharge from eyes, nose etc.	·         Rummage – turn over things and make them untidy while searching for something
·         Smugly – feeling excessively pleased or satisfied	·         Trance – daze
·         Gingerly – in a careful way	·         Smock – loose comfortable garment
·         Spank – hit (especially a child) several times as punishment	·         Feigning – pretending
·         Startled – surprised suddenly	·         Rumbled – made deep rolling sound
·         Apprehensive – worried or frightened that something unpleasant may happen	·         Dabbling – moving
·         Skittered off – moved very quickly

Justification of Title

The title “Should Wizard Hit Mommy?” is apt and justified, in spite of the fact that the father – the mouthpiece of the author – is firm in his opinion that mothers all the world over are supreme and cannot err. However, the author has chosen very gingerly and the reader is face to face with two contrasting view-points. The spirit of equality, stamped in her mind urges Jo to condemn the mother and demand that the wizard should hit the mother in retaliation. The child’s thinking is simple and innocent. She fails to understand that her father wants to tell her that mothers are above all blame. That is why, the child vehemently demands that, “Tomorrow I want you to tell me the story that wizard took the magic wand and hit the mommy,” is met by father’s cryptic answer, “No, that’s not the story.” Yet the author deliberately keeps the story open-ended and does not categorically state his opinion and the title has a question mark leaving the readers to decide whether the mother needs to be hit or spared, because he wants the gingerliness to correspond with the ending of the story that leaves the narrator caught in the “ugly middle position” of uncertainties.

Should Wizard Hit Mommy

John Updike

Should wizard hit mommy is a story within a story where the father usually tells her daughter the same story of a creature named Roger. When the creature faces some problem, he visits wise owl who sends him to wizard and the wizard solves the problem of creature charging some money. The daughter listens the story with great curiosity and raises a difficult moral question for which the father does not have any convincing answer.

Notes

v Storytelling

·        In the evening and for Saturday nap father Narrates stories to daughter Jo.

·        Story telling started when Jo was two year now she has turned four.

·        Each story a variation of same basic tale

·        Roger creature goes to wise owl with his problem

·        The owl advises him to go to wizard

·        The wizard solves the problems with magic and asks for fee.

·        Roger has insufficient money- but wizard shows where and how money can be found

·        Roger returns home from Boston and the family has their dinner

v New story of Roger Skunk

·        Roger Skunk wants to play with wood mates

·        His obnoxious smell is hated by creature

·        Roger Skunk feels hurt and humiliated

·        Skunk meets wise owl then the wizard (Tiny old man with long while beard and a pointed blue hat)

·        Wizard advises him not to get too close

·        Skunk wants to smell like rose

·        Wizard reads some spell and Skunk smells like roses

v The wizard fee

·        Wizard demands seven pennies as fee

·        Skunk has only four

·        Roger Skunk follows the instruction of wizard

·        To gets three more pennies

·        Skunk pays fee and happily runs out in the wood

v Skunk and wood land creatures

·        Wood land creature feel glee full in company of skunk

·        Skunk's mother dislikes rose smell and scolds him

·        Skunk's mother visits wizard and hits him on the head

·        On mother's order wizard gets foul smell again

·        Mother and skunk come back home and have a nice meal with his father

·        Mother hugs and kisses Roger

v New life of Roger skunk

·        Skunk now plays with wood land animals

·        They got used to his foul smell

v Joe's problem

·        Joe does not like the defeat of the wizard

·        Wants the story : wizard hits Mommy

·        Father advises that Mother are always loving and right

v Father's predicament

·        Clare, his wife busy painting furniture

·        Clare complains of delay in his coming soon

·        Finds herself and his huge trapped in a cage

·        Feels he is caught in an ugly middle position

Share :

Tweet

✚

Related Post