Should Wizard Hit Mommy? (Vistas) — Important Questions
25 questions
With answersCBSE format
SUMMARY: "Should Wizard Hit Mommy?" by John Updike explores themes of parental authority, childhood innocence, and the complexities of storytelling through a bedtime story told by a father to his daughter. KEY TOPICS: John Updike, storytelling, parental authority, childhood innocence, moral dilemmas, character of Jack, character of Jo, Roger Skunk, family dynamics, bedtime stories
The bedtime story Jack tells his daughter Jo is about:
ARoger Skunk
BRoger Rabbit
CRoger Bear
DRoger Mouse
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Correct answer: Option 1 — Roger Skunk
Q31 Mark
Why does Roger Skunk go to the Wizard?
ATo learn magic
BBecause he smells bad and other animals avoid him
CTo find his lost mother
DTo buy a wand
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Correct answer: Option 2 — Because he smells bad and other animals avoid him
Q41 Mark
What does Jo think the Wizard should do when Roger Skunk's mother demands the smell back?
AListen to her
BHit her on the head
CRun away
DMake the smell worse
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Correct answer: Option 2 — Hit her on the head
Q51 Mark
The story is set in:
ASaturday afternoon
BSunday morning
CWednesday evening
DFriday night
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Correct answer: Option 1 — Saturday afternoon
Short Answer Questions5 questions
Q63 Marks
Why does Roger Skunk's mother insist on the wizard restoring his smell?
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Roger Skunk's mother feels the smell is part of her son's identity as a skunk. She resents the wizard's intervention which made her child no longer fully himself. She also believes her son should learn to live with what nature has given him rather than altering his essence to be liked by others. Her insistence on restoring the smell reflects parental authority traditional values and the belief that one's identity (however inconvenient) must be preserved. She visits the wizard hits him on the head and demands the original smell back.
Q73 Marks
Why is Jo dissatisfied with her father's ending of the story?
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Jo finds the ending unfair to Roger Skunk. He had become happy with his new rose smell — other animals played with him. The mother's insistence on restoring the bad smell took away his happiness. Jo wants the wizard to assert himself against the mother — to hit her on the head — because the mother is being cruel to her own son. Jo's dissatisfaction reflects her growing sense of justice and her refusal to accept that parents are always right just because they are parents.
Q83 Marks
How does Jack rationalise his version of the story to himself?
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Jack believes Roger Skunk's mother — like all mothers — knows what is best for her child. He sees the mother's insistence as an act of protection and identity preservation not cruelty. He also wants to teach Jo that parents hold authority that should be respected. Internally however Jack knows that Jo's instinct for fairness has merit. He just does not want to admit that a four-year-old has spotted a moral truth he has missed. His rationalisation reflects adult reluctance to surrender authority even when challenged by simple childlike fairness.
Q93 Marks
Describe Jack's relationship with his daughter Jo as portrayed in the story.
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Jack loves his daughter and treasures the bedtime ritual of telling stories. He is patient and inventive making up new Roger Skunk adventures whenever asked. Yet he is also tired distracted (thinking about painting woodwork and his pregnant wife) and sometimes unwilling to engage fully with Jo's questions. The relationship is loving but uneven — Jo needs full engagement; Jack offers half-attention. The argument about the ending is partly about the bedtime story and partly about the gap between what Jo wants from her father and what he is willing to give.
Q103 Marks
What does the title 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy?' suggest?
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The title is the question Jo poses about the ending of the bedtime story. On the surface it asks whether the wizard should physically attack Roger Skunk's mother for her demand. Symbolically it asks whether children can challenge parental authority — whether the rebel (wizard / child) should fight the established power (mother / parent). The title encapsulates the entire story's meditation on parental authority childhood justice and the moral discomfort of a parent who senses his child may be morally right but cannot bring himself to admit it.
Long Answer Questions5 questions
Q116 Marks
Discuss the conflict between parental authority and child's sense of justice in 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy'.
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The story is built on a quiet but profound conflict between the parental world view and the child's emerging moral sense. (1) PARENTAL WORLD VIEW — Jack's version of the story has Roger Skunk's mother insist on restoring the bad smell. The wizard complies. The implicit message: mothers know best; parents have authority; nature should be preserved; children should accept what they have been given. (2) CHILD'S WORLD VIEW — Jo finds this unfair. Roger Skunk had become happy with his new rose smell; the mother took his happiness away. Jo wants the wizard to hit the mother on the head — to defy parental authority in the name of justice. Her sense of fairness operates without deference to age or hierarchy. (3) JACK'S DISCOMFORT — Jack senses Jo is morally right yet refuses to change the ending. He insists on his version. His insistence reveals not so much certainty in his moral position as discomfort at being challenged by a four-year-old. (4) UNRESOLVED CONFLICT — Updike does not resolve the conflict. Jack tells the story his way; Jo continues to disagree; both go to bed unsatisfied. The ending leaves the reader with the unsettling sense that Jo may grow up to win the argument as adolescents always eventually do. (5) BROADER MEANING — The conflict extends beyond father-daughter to all generational moral disputes — between conservative parents and progressive children between traditional authority and emerging conscience. Updike captures this universal tension in a single bedtime story.
Q126 Marks
Analyse the character of Jack as a father in 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy'.
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Jack is a complex realistically drawn father whose strengths and weaknesses define the story. (1) LOVING — He treasures the bedtime ritual with Jo. Telling stories is something he does with care and invention. The father-daughter bond is genuine and warm. (2) IMAGINATIVE — He has created an entire Roger Skunk universe — repeating characters consistent rules a recognisable storyworld. The creativity reflects love. (3) DISTRACTED — Even as he tells the story he is thinking about painting the woodwork and his pregnant wife downstairs. His attention is divided. Modern fatherhood often is. (4) AUTHORITATIVE — He insists on his ending of the story refusing to take Jo's suggestion seriously. He uses his adult position to overrule a child's moral instinct. (5) UNCERTAIN — Beneath the authority is Jack's quiet sense that Jo may be morally right. He cannot fully convince himself of his own ending. The uncertainty makes him irritable rather than reflective. (6) PATRIARCHAL — Jack defaults to the position that the mother (in the story) and by extension parents in general are right because they are parents. This feels increasingly hollow to him but he cannot escape it. (7) UNRESOLVED — He goes downstairs leaving Jo with neither agreement nor a satisfactory resolution. His fatherhood — like his story — is incomplete. Updike's portrait avoids both sentimentality and cynicism. Jack is neither hero nor villain just an ordinary father caught in the gap between the moral world he learned and the moral world his daughter is creating.
Q136 Marks
Discuss the significance of Roger Skunk's transformation in the bedtime story.
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Roger Skunk's transformation — from smelly outcast to rose-scented playmate to smelly child again — is the structural heart of the bedtime story and carries multiple layers of meaning. (1) SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE — Initially Roger Skunk is shunned by other woodland animals because he smells. The transformation by the wizard's magic makes him smell of roses and he is suddenly welcomed into play. The episode dramatises how much of childhood social experience depends on conformity to acceptable norms. (2) IDENTITY VS HAPPINESS — The mother's restoration of the original smell raises a deep question: is identity (being a real skunk) more important than happiness (being accepted by others)? Updike does not answer; he just poses the question through the story. (3) PARENTAL CONTROL — The mother's intervention shows how parents shape their children's lives — sometimes in ways the children would not choose. The transformation is undone not by any failure of magic but by maternal will. (4) NATURE VS CULTURE — The bad smell is nature; the rose smell is culture (artificial intervention). The story plays with the perennial question of how much we should accept biological reality versus how much we should improve upon it. (5) CHILD'S READING — Jo reads the transformation as a tragedy: Roger lost his happiness because his mother was cruel. (6) ADULT'S READING — Jack reads it as moral education: Roger learned that he must be himself even at the cost of acceptance. The transformation therefore becomes a Rorschach test — what readers find in it depends on their own age experience and worldview. The bedtime story is layered enough to mean different things to father and daughter at the same moment.
Q146 Marks
How does Updike use a simple bedtime story to explore complex adult themes?
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Updike's craftsmanship turns a four-page bedtime story into a meditation on adult themes that no four-year-old could articulate but every reader recognises. (1) STORY WITHIN A STORY — The bedtime story of Roger Skunk is the inner narrative; the outer narrative is Jack telling it to Jo. The two layers comment on each other constantly. Roger Skunk's mother in the inner story mirrors Jack's authority over Jo in the outer one. (2) PARENTAL AUTHORITY — At one level the story asks whether parents always know best — through Roger Skunk's mother and through Jack himself. (3) CHILD'S MORAL SENSE — Jo's instinct for fairness is shown to be morally serious not just childish. Updike refuses to dismiss children's moral perceptions. (4) GENERATIONAL CONFLICT — The argument between father and daughter foreshadows the eternal conflict between conservative parents and progressive children. (5) IDENTITY VS ACCEPTANCE — Roger's transformation raises questions about being oneself versus fitting in — questions that adolescents and adults face throughout life. (6) COMPROMISE AND DISCOMFORT — Jack's discomfort with telling the story his way and Jo's dissatisfaction with the ending create a larger sense that moral truth often eludes both authority and rebellion. (7) UNRESOLVED ENDING — Updike refuses to wrap things up. Jack leaves the room; Jo lies thinking; neither has changed the other. This refusal mirrors how moral disputes in real life often end — without resolution but with both sides changed by the encounter. By packing such depth into a domestic bedtime scene Updike shows that domestic settings can hold the largest human concerns. The simplicity of the story is its strength.
Q156 Marks
Discuss the role of Clare (the mother) in the story.
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Although Clare appears only briefly her presence and the role of mothers generally pervade 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy'. (1) PRESENCE — Clare is downstairs pregnant with their second child painting woodwork while Jack tells Jo the bedtime story. She is the absent-but-present figure whose quiet labour defines the household. (2) WEIGHT — Jack thinks about Clare during the storytelling — about her pregnancy her tiredness and his guilt at not helping more. The thought of Clare colours his patience with Jo. (3) ROGER SKUNK'S MOTHER — Within the bedtime story Roger Skunk's mother — the figure who insists on restoring the bad smell — represents motherhood at its most authoritative and traditional. Her insistence shapes the conflict. (4) SYMBOLIC TWIN — Clare and Roger Skunk's mother are symbolic twins. Both are mothers with strong views about what is best for their children. Both expect their wills to prevail. The bedtime story mother is what Clare may become or already is. (5) JO'S RESISTANCE — Jo's resistance to the bedtime story mother is also a resistance to maternal authority generally — perhaps an early sign of independent moral thinking. (6) INVISIBLE INFLUENCE — Clare never appears on stage but her influence shapes everything: Jack's distraction Jo's family context the bedtime story's themes. Updike's quiet inclusion of Clare reminds the reader that fathers and daughters do not exist in isolation; the mother's reality shapes both even when she is not in the room. The role of motherhood in shaping family moral debate is therefore central to the story even though no mother speaks aloud.
Assertion–Reason Questions5 questions
Q161 Mark
Assertion (A): Roger Skunk's transformation by the wizard makes him popular with other animals.
Reason (R): The new rose smell removed the social barrier that had kept other woodland creatures from playing with him.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q171 Mark
Assertion (A): Roger Skunk's mother insists the wizard restore the original smell.
Reason (R): She believes her son's identity as a skunk should be preserved over his social acceptance.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q181 Mark
Assertion (A): Jo wants the wizard to hit Roger Skunk's mother on the head.
Reason (R): Her sense of fairness rejects the mother's cruelty in robbing Roger of his happiness.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q191 Mark
Assertion (A): Jack insists on his version of the story over Jo's preferred ending.
Reason (R): He uses parental authority to overrule his daughter even though he senses she may be morally right.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q201 Mark
Assertion (A): The title 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy?' captures the story's central question.
Reason (R): It asks whether children may legitimately challenge parental authority in the name of justice.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Statement-Based Questions5 questions
Q211 Mark
Statement 1: John Updike was an American novelist and short story writer.
Statement 2: 'Should Wizard Hit Mommy' is from his collection 'The Same Door'.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q221 Mark
Statement 1: Jack tells his daughter Jo a bedtime story every Saturday.
Statement 2: The story is always about Roger Skunk who lives in an enchanted wood.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q231 Mark
Statement 1: Jo wants the story ending changed.
Statement 2: Jack refuses insisting on his original version.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q241 Mark
Statement 1: Jack thinks of his pregnant wife and other chores during storytelling.
Statement 2: His attention is divided between the story and adult concerns.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q251 Mark
Statement 1: The story explores the tension between parental authority and a child's emerging moral sense.
Statement 2: It also questions whether identity should be preserved at the cost of social acceptance.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
