How did the wizard hit mommy

2.  Here is a story about the worldview of a little child, and the
difficult moral question she raises during the story session with
her father.
 The story revolves around Jack who is a father to two kids —
Joanne (Jo) and Bobby.
 His wife Clare is carrying their third child.

3.  Jack had a habit of telling his daughter, Jo a story every
evening and on Saturday afternoon naps.
 This time when he was telling her a story, she interrupts him
and asks him questions whenever she feels that things that are
being told are not right.
 So jack now finds himself in a fix and doesn’t know how to
resolve Jo’s questions.

4.  Parents feel that children should do or think exactly
what they are told.
 They should believe whatever they are told by their
parents.
 But is this the right attitude.
 This moral question is raised by the story and left for
the reader to decide what should be done.

5. About the Author
 John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American
novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic.
 One of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.
 Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story
collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children’s books during
his career.

6.  Every evening and on Saturday afternoon naps, Jack used to tell his daughter a
bedtime story.
 This habit started when Jo was 2 years old and now that Jo was 4 years old, Jack did
not have any creative ideas for stories.
 Most of the stories that he used to tell Jo revolved around the same plot concerning
an animal named Roger.
 In every story Roger used to be a different animal with some kind of a problem.

7.  Then Roger would go to this wise owl to take help who would in turn tell him to go
to the wizard.
 Then Roger would take his problem to the wizard who would help him in exchange
for some pennies (money) mostly a bit more than what Roger had with him.
 After helping him, the wizard would ask him to go to a certain place to fetch some
more pennies and Roger would do exactly like that.
 Then after paying the wizard, Roger would go back and all the other animals would
start playing with him.

8.  He would be very happy and later, he would return home just in time to wait for his
father who would be returning from Boston by train.
 Jack had now started getting tired of this daily routine because he had run out of
ideas for the stories. Also, Jo didn’t sleep listening to the story anymore.
 He had started feeling that the practice was just a waste of time and there was no
point doing it.
 He also noticed that Jo had started growing big and that her legs now stretched
halfway down the bed when she snuggled in for her story.

9.  With all the light coming in from the window over her face that was deep in the
pillow, Jack knew that she won’t be sleeping soon.
 Bobby, her baby brother who was two years old was already sleeping with his bottle
in his mouth.
 When Jack asked Jo that who should the story be about that day, she thought for a
while and replied that she wanted it to be of a skunk.
 Jack then thought that she must have heard about this animal in nursery school and
also got enthusiastic as he had a new hero for his story.

10.  Then Jack started the story.
 The story started with the Roger skunk living in the forest.
 Jack said that Roger smelled bad.
 None of the other animals in the forest liked to play with him.
 All the other animals would start running away whenever he would go out to play.

11.  At this moment Jack was recollecting about certain humiliations that he had faced
during his childhood, for being foul smelling.
 Then Jo asked whether Roger would see the wise owl.
 Jack was sitting beside her and noticed that Jo was getting anxious with the story
and felt pleased with it.
 He did not want to hurry and wanted to make the story more intense as he wanted to
convey a message through it.

12.  Suddenly Jack heard a voice downstairs – of a chair being pulled and realized that
he must go down to help his wife paint the living room but had to continue with the
story as Jo had not slept yet.
 So Jack continued that Roger Skunk was sad and as he walked, he came across a
tree where he saw the wise owl.
 The skunk then shared his problem with the wise owl and the owl started thinking of
how he could help the little skunk.

13.  Then Jo shouted enthusiastically that the wise owl would ask him to go to the
wizard as she had known about the basic plot of the stories her dad used to tell her.
 Jack got a bit irritated and scolded her and asked her if she wanted to tell the story
by herself.
 Jo denied and Jack asked her to lie down peacefully and continue listening to the
story.
 Jo told Jack to tell the story out of his head.
 Then Jack continued with the story that the owl told Roger to go see the wizard for
his problem.

14.  Then Jo interrupted him and asked if the magic spells that the wizards used were
real.
 When Jo asked this question, Jack realized that Jo was coming into the reality phase
and had started asking questions about the things her parents used to tell her.
 He noticed that she no longer believed her parents blindly and was curious about
everything that was told to her.
 Jo repeated her question to which Jack replied that the spells were real in stories.
 He continued with his story that the skunk went through the way the wise owl had
asked him to go and reached a white house and knocked on the door.

15.  To make the sound effect of how the skunk knocked the door, Jack knocked on the
window sill and Jo was thrilled.
 Jack continued that the old man with a long white beard and a blue pointed hat came
out.
 Then Jack made his favourite sound effect and continued that the wizard asked Roger
what he wanted and that he had a very bad body odour.
 Then to this Roger replied that he knew that he smelled bad and told him that all the
other animals ran away from him.
 He also told the wizard that the wise owl had told him that he could help him.

16.  Then the old man replied that maybe he could and asked Roger skunk to follow him
inside and not to get too close.
 Then Jack describes how the house of the wizard was really dirty from inside
because he did not have a cleaning lady to which Jo asked why it was so.
 He then replied that because he was a very old man and also a wizard, he did not
require any cleaning lady.
 Then Jo again interrupted and asked if the wizard would die to which again Jack
replied that wizards never die.

17.  Then the wizard started looking out for something and took out an old stick
called the magic wand.
 He asked Roger what he wanted to smell like and he replied that he wished
to smell like roses.
 Jo was happy about the fact that he wanted to smell like a rose.
 Then Jack said the magical words in the voice of a wizard.

18.  Then he relates the face that his daughter made to that of his wife.
 She made such a face when she pretended to be enjoying a cocktail party.
 Then he continues that the whole house of the wizard was filled with the fragrance of
roses.
 By mistake, he changed the animal to fish. Jo corrected him and he said that it was
really silly on his part to call him a fish in place of skunk.
 Just then Jack got a bit annoyed with Jo’s expression and suddenly he heard some
furniture rumbling downstairs.

19.  He realized that Clare shouldn’t be moving heavy things as she was 6 months’
pregnant and they were going to have their third baby.
 Then the wizard tells Roger to go to end of the lane and turn around 3 times and
when he would look in the magic well, he would find 3 more pennies.
 Then Roger did exactly how he was told and got the extra pennies.
 He then gave the pennies to the wizard and ran back to the woods where everybody
gathered around him because he smelt so good.

20.  Then they all played a lot of games and enjoyed themselves. As it was getting dark,
all the animals ran back to their mommies.
 Jo had started getting bored with the story and was more interested in looking out of
the window.
 She thought that the story was over.
 On the other hand, Jack did not like women who would take things for granted.
 He liked women who remained engrossed in his talks.
 Then he again continued the story asking Jo to be a little attentive to what he said.

21.  The mommie skunk asked from where that was awful smell coming from to which
Roger replied that it was him.
 He added that he smelt like roses.
 Mommie skunk asked Roger that who had made him smell like that to which he
replied that the wizard had done so.
 The mommie skunk got angry and ordered Roger to accompany her to the wizard.

22.  Roger told his mom that all his friends ran away from him if he smelled bad to which
his mom replied that she didn’t care and that he smelled just the way a baby skunk
should smell.
 His mom took out her umbrella and they went to the wizard’s house where when the
wizard opened the door and the mommie skunk hit him on his head.
 Then Jo started imagining her own story about how the wizard would have hit the
mommie skunk back and never changed Roger Skunk back.

23.  Her father told her that nothing of that sort happened and the wizard changed Roger
Skunk back to normal and he did not smell of roses anymore.
 Another question was about to pop up in little Jo’s mind but Jack stopped her and
told her that it was his story and if she wanted him to tell her anymore stories, then
she should keep quiet.
 Jo kept on looking at her father with great surprise as she waited for the story to be
continued.

24.  After some time when Roger skunk and his mum were going back home, they heard
a Woo-ooo, Woo-oo sound as his father arrived back from Boston.
 Then all of them had lima beans, celery, liver and mashed potatoes for dinner and
Pie-Oh-My for desert.
 Later that night when Roger Skunk was sleeping, Mom skunk came back. She
hugged him and told him that he smelled again like her baby skunk and that she
loved him a lot.
 With this Jack ended the story to which Jo again asked that did the other animals run
away from Roger skunk again and Jack replied ‘no’ because they slowly got
accustomed to the smell so they did not feel like running away anymore.

25.  When Jack said that eventually everybody started liking Roger skunk, Jo did not
understand the word eventually as she had heard it for the first time.
 So she asked what’s ‘Evenshiladee’ to which Jack told her the meaning.
 But Jo thought that what Mommie skunk did was not right and said that what the
mother skunk did was stupid but Jack took it personally and said ‘no’ because
somewhere he was relating it to himself and defending his own mother

26.  Then Jack told Jo that he wanted her to take a long day nap and adjusted the shades
so that no light came in.
 He then went very softly to the door and acted as if Jo had slept but when he turned
and looked, she was staring at him and sitting on top of the covers.
 Then he told her to go to sleep as she was also disturbing her brother who was
sleeping.
 Then she stood up and started bouncing softly on the springs.

27.  While Jumping on the springs of the bed she asked her father to tell her a story the
next day – that the wizard took her magic stick and hit the mommy and chopped her
plump arms.
 Then Jack explained to her that this was not what the story said.
 He told her that the story gave us a message that the skunk loved his mother more
than any of the other animals in the woods and that his mother knew what was right
for him and what was not.
 Then as he was explaining Jo about the story, she started insisting that the next day
he would have to tell her a story like the one she wanted.

28.  Then she did as she had done many times earlier but this time she was not laughing
or joking.
 She was being a bit stubborn.
 Then Jack told her to be patient and sleep and that he would see to it the next day.
 He then asked her to stay on the bed and closed the door.
 He then went downstairs and saw his wife painting the walls.
 She had opened the paint can, spread the newspapers and was wearing an old shirt of
his over her maternity dress.

29.  She was painting the chair rail.
 Suddenly, he again heard footsteps above and shouted that did Joanne want a
beating.
 The sound of the footsteps started vanishing.
 Then Jack’s wife told him that it was a long story that he was telling Jo and to that he
replied “The poor kid” and as he was feeling very tired, he just sat and watched his
wife do all the work.

30.  Then he started looking at the woodwork around him and started relating it to his
life.
 He was looking at it and thinking that although both of them (Jack and Clare) were
caught in a cage like situation in their marriage, there was no solution to it.
 Neither did he want to talk to her nor speak or touch her