Chapter 5 - Should Wizard Hit Mommy

Written by John Updiek, Should Wizard Hit Mommy, is a story about how a child’s mind works. It asks the question of whether a child should do what his or her parents ask him to do, or if they should make their own decisions.

Summary 

The story starts with Jo, who is the father of two children named Jo and Bobby, and with his wife Claire, who is carrying his third child. The prose revolves around how he tells his made-up stories to his daughter Jo for her evening and Saturday naps. This started ever since Jo was two years old. However, each of his stories would be similar to a basic story, and only the characters would differ. The main character would sometimes be called Roger chipmunk, while at other times Roger rabbit.

The stories usually started with the main character facing some problems in life, going to the wise owl who would send him to the wizard. Then the wizard would solve his problem. Upon answering the question, the wizard would then ask the character to pay him money, which was always more than the amount the character had. This would make the character sad, and then the wizard would tell him where he would get the money. Upon fetching the cash and paying the wizard, the character would become happy, and the story ended with him playing with his friends happily and joyfully.

This process of story-telling had become more tiring, especially on Saturdays as Jo hardly took small naps anymore. On one such Saturday, Jo wanted to listen to a story, which had Roger Skunk as the main character. The story started in a similar tone, where Roger Skunk was sad because he smelled bad that caused his friends to never play with him. This made him go to the wise owl, which then sent him to the wizard. Upon asking what Roger Skunk wanted to smell like, he answered roses. After casting his spell, Roger Skunk started smelling like roses. The wizard asked him to pay seven pennies while he had only four. Then the wizard told him that he would find the rest of the three pennies in a well nearby. Having paid off the wizard, Roger Skunk was extremely happy, and all his friends accepted him.

However, upon reaching home, Roger Skunk’s mother became extremely angry once she got to smell Roger Skunk. After listening to his story, she decided to go to the wizard. Once she went to his house, she hit him using her umbrella and told him the reason. Then the wizard decided to make Roger Skunk smell like before.

Jo did not accept this ending. She wanted the wizard to hit back Roger Skunk’s mom. In Spite of Jo’s protests, Jack would not change the conclusion of his story.

She wanted her ending to the extent that she asked Jack to change the ending of the story the next day after asking her to sleep.

As Jack started coming down, he heard footsteps. He then told her to go to sleep, or he would beat her up. This caused the foot-steps to die down.

Characters

• Jo
• Jack
• Clare
• Skunk
• Mother Skunk
• Owl
• Wizard

Theme

The theme of the story is a child’s inquisitive nature and naivety. The story revolves around the fact that children are incredibly pure at heart, as shown in this story.

For a better understanding, you can refer to Should Wizard Hit Mommy NCERT Solutions. You can also download Should Wizard Hit Mommy Questions and Answers PDF.