Important Questions: Should Wizard hit Mommy | English Class 12 PDF Download

Q1: How did Jo want the story of Roger Skunk to end?
Ans: In the original story Roger’s mommy hits the wizard on the head with an umbrella. So the wizard makes Roger smell bad again. Jo wants the story to end the other way round. She wants the wizard to hit on the head of ‘stupid’ mommy. She holds Roger’s ‘stupid’ mother responsible for making Roger smell bad again and so she wants her to be punished.

Q2: Why was Roger Skunk’s mummy angry with him? What did she finally tell him?
Ans: Roger Skunk’s mummy was angry with him because she did not like her son smelling of roses. Roger was a skunk and so he must smell like one. She did not care for the fact that all the other animals kept away from him because he smelled badly. She decided to take him back to that ‘awful’ wizard so that he could get back his old smell.

Q3: Why did Roger Skunk visit the owl? What did the owl advise him?
Ans: Roger Skunk visited the owl who was a wise creature to tell him about his pathetic problem and seek his advise on how he could solve it. The wise owl ruminates and advises the Skunk to consult the wizard who was sure to help him overcome his problem.

Q4: What part of the story did Jack himself enjoy the most and why?
Ans: Jack enjoyed narrating the part of the story where Roger goes to the Wizard’s house. He imitated the Wizard’s voice by scrunching up his face and somehow whining through his eyes. He felt being an old man suited him. He enjoyed the part where he mixed his own childhood humiliations and experiences with the narration of the story.

Q5: How did the Wizard help Roger Skunk?
Ans: The wizard asked Roger Skunk what he wanted to smell like. Roger said he wanted to smell like roses. The wizard took his magic wand and chanted a spell and his whole house was full of the smell of roses. Now, Roger smelt of roses and in this way the wizard helped him by making him get rid of his bad smell.

Q6: Why does Jo insist that her father should tell her the story with a different ending?
Ans: A child’s perspective is different from an adult’s perspective. For Jo, Roger Skunk’s mother is wicked and stupid and she feels rather annoyed with her for making Roger smell bad again. She wanted a happy ending to the story and so she insists that her father should tell her the story where the wizard i should hit mommy in the end.

Q7: Why did Roger Skunk want to change?
Ans: Roger Skunk smelled so bad that none of the other creatures in woodland would play with him. Whenever he went out to play all the other tiny animals would cry and run away and Roger would stand there all alone and cry. So he wanted to change.

Q8: How does Jo want the story to end?
Ans: A child’s perspective is different from an adult’s perspective. For Jo, Roger Skunk’s mother is wicked and stupid and she feels rather annoyed with her for making Roger smell bad again. She wanted a happy ending to the story and so she insists that her father should tell her the story where the wizard should hit mommy in the end.

Q9: Why did Roger Skunk go to visit the owl?
Ans: Roger Skunk visited the owl who was a wise creature to tell him about his pathetic problem and seek his advice on how he could solve it. The wise owl ruminates and advises Skunk to consult with the wizard who was sure to help him overcome his problem.

Q10: Which do you think is a better ending of Roger Skunk’s story, Jo’s or her father’s? Why?
Ans: Jo’s father did not want the Wizard to hit the mother and wanted the skunk to have its original smell. Her father’s ending of the story is better as it is more practical and realistic. Jo is a child and her perspective about the ending of the story is childish and immature. But her father views things on a philosophical level and thus makes his judgment from an adult’s perspective.

Long Answer Type Questions

Q11: What impression do you form of Jack as a father?
Ans: Jack was four year old Jo’s father. He was a caring and affectionate father who made sincere efforts to satisfy his daughter’s creative intellect. He used to narrate a story to her each day. He had been doing this as a ritual for the past two years. He himself had a very creative mind and nearly all the stories he told were a product of his own mind, each new story being a slight variation of a basic tale. Jack had mastered the art of story-telling and could create new stories to suit the mood and occasion. He could create the desired effect to keep his daughter, Jo’s interest intact as he understood her very pulse. Jack is always full of creative enthusiasm, so many times he even imitates the voices of the characters in his stories.

Q12: How did Jo want the Roger Skunk story to end? Why?
Ans: Jo was Jack’s four year old daughter who loved to listen to the stories which Jack himself created. Each story that Jack narrated to her was a slight variation of a basic tale. One day’s story was about Roger Skunk, a new animal who smelt so bad that the other little creatures never played with him due to this. When Roger Skunk told his tale to the wise owl, he advised him to go to the wizard. The wizard made Roger smell like roses but when Roger returned home his mother was so annoyed that she went to the wizard and hit him on the head. The wizard made Roger Skunk smell bad again. Jo did not like the end of the story.
For Jo, Roger’s mother is wicked and she is very annoyed with her for making Roger smell bad again. Jo is a child who lives in an idealised world which is reigned by beauty and love. So she wants her father to change the story’s ending wherein the wizard should hit mommy with her magic wand and punish her for being stupid.

Q13: Different generations can have different views. Such differences should be respected. What is the difference between Jo’s and Jack’s views on Roger Skunk story?
Ans: Difference in view and opinion is due to age, environment and situations and one cannot be blamed for having a particular opinion. Jo wanted Roger Skunk to retain his sweet smell of roses in place of his original foul smell. Jo is a small child for whom everything in life is beautiful and happy. Also for a child, his friends are an integral part of his life and Roger Skunk not having any friends could not be tolerated by Jo. Jack, the father, on the other hand was an experienced and mature adult who wished to teach life’s harsh realities to his daughter. So he insisted that Roger Skunk gets his foul smell back. Both were right in their own point of view and both were reacting according to their age.

Q14: A child’s standpoint invariably is different from that of an adult. Justify the statement with reference to the story, Should Wizard Hit Mommy?
Ans: Adults are mature, experienced and have a practical approach. Their responses are tutored and their actions reflect their thoughts. But children are spontaneous with natural, untutored responses. Jo, a four-year old child, prefers to live in her world of dreams and fantasies. She would like to wreak vengeance on Skunk’s mother and is annoyed because her father refuses to accept her suggestion. The father has a mature perspective and so he views things beyond the ‘face-value’ and delves into the philosophical and moralistic aspect of the entire situation. The wizard, according to him, had interfered with nature and so deserved to be punished. Jo completely disagrees with her father. For her the baby Skunk was right and it made perfect sense if the wizard hit the ‘stupid’ mommy.

Q15: How did Jack end the Roger Skunk story? How and why did Jo want to change it?
Ans: In the original story Roger’s mommy hits the wizard on the head with an umbrella. So the wizard makes Roger smell bad again. Jo wants the story to end the other way round. She wants the wizard to hit on the head of ‘stupid’ mommy. She holds Roger’s ‘stupid’ mother responsible for making Roger smell bad again and so she wants her to be punished. Jo is a child and so her perspective is different from that of an adult. She does not understand the practicabilities and complexities of the adult world. She was happy to learn that Roger Skunk had got a new pleasant smell and had found so many friends and feels that the story should have happily ended at that point.