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LESSON NOTES

SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY

JOHN UPDIKE
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.

Introduction to the lesson

The story revolves around Jack who is a father to two kids -- Joanne (Jo) and Bobby. His wife
Clare is carrying their third child. 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.
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.
Theme of Jack’s Story

The story starts with the daily routine that Jack had been following for two years with his
daughter, Jo. His daughter was two years old when the tradition started and today she was 4
years old. The tradition was that Jack would tell Jo a story out of his mind everyday in the
evening before going to bed and also on every Saturday afternoon during her nap time.
Now the issue was that it had been so long that he had been telling her stories that he did
not have any good ideas for stories left with him. Even Jo didn’t sleep during the story sessions
anymore.

So, everyday when he used to tell her a story, the basic plot of the story used to be same -
revolving around Roger, an animal who used to change everyday.
Roger used to have a problem and he would approach the wise owl for help, who would send
him to the wizard. The wizard would solve Roger’s problem but ask for more pennies than
Roger had and would also give him a solution to go fetch the pennies from a specific place.

Then Roger would go to that place, fetch the pennies and would happily go back and play
with his friends. After playing happily with his friends, Roger would go back home before it
got dark, to wait for his father who would be on his way back from Boston. Then Jack would
describe what all Roger and his family had for dinner and then end the story.

THE ROGER SKUNK STORY