Gujarat Board GSEB Class 12 English Textbook Solutions Vistas Chapter 5 Should Wizard hit Mommy Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.

Gujarat Board Textbook Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 5 Should Wizard hit Mommy

GSEB Class 12 English Should Wizard hit Mommy Text Book Questions and Answers

Read and Find Out (Textbook Page No. 48)

Question 1.
Who is Jo? How does she respond to her father’s story-telling?
Answer:
Jo is the shortened form of Joanne. She is the four-year-old daughter of Jack and Clare. For the last two years, her father, Jack has been telling her bedtime stories. Since these stories are woven around the same basic tale and have the same characters and turn of events. She was an intelligent and inquisitive child. Her mind was bubbling with queries regarding whatever she heard or saw.

Her responses to the stories were a curious mixture of emotions caught in recognition of the known and eagerness to explore the unknown aspects woven in the basic tale by her father. An impatient Jo wanted the story to move with a fast pace and yet cannot proceed with conflicting ideas or unresolved queries in her mind. She was also a very observant listener and corrected her father wherever she felt he faltered.

The intensity of her engagement with the story was* apparent from her body language and facial expressions. She empathized with the protagonist and rejected whatever did not fit in her own narrow world. The eagerness to understand and the restlessness to assert her point of view kept her awake. She was even willing to fight with her father and to coax him to end the story according to her standpoint. Her responses indicate that she had started developing a personality of her own.

Read and Find Out (Textbook Page No. 53)

Question 1.
What possible plotline could the story continue with?
Answer:
From the perspective of Jo, the story should have ended with a happy note of Roger Skunk getting rid of the foul smell forever and being able to play with all other children. However, from the perspective of Jack, the story may not have such an innocent fairy-tale ending. In the process of story-telling, it was evident that Jack, got nostalgic about his own childhood and his mother.

Thus, he brought in his own perspective. His sense of belongingness to his mother and his experience of dealing with reality resulted in a mature and compromising end where the reality limited the scope of fiction. As he associated himself with Roger Skunk of his story, he avoided getting into the problematic situation of identity crisis and of blaming his mother.

Read and Find Out (Textbook Page No. 54)

Question 1.
What do you think was Jo’s problem?
Answer:
Little Jo had been accustomed to the happy ending of the stories of Roger, where the wizard was helpful to him in fulfilling his wish. At the request of Roger Skunk, the wizard had changed his awful smell to that of the roses. Other small animals liked it and played with Roger Skunk happily.

She could not digest the ending of the extended story where Roger Skunk’s mother hit the wizard on the head and forced him to change Skunk’s smell to the earlier foul one. Jo could not accept that mother’s stubbornness-hitting the well-wisher of her son, Roger Skunk.

Jo insisted that her father should tell her the same story again the next day with changed ending. The wizard should hit that unreasonable mummy on the head and leave Roger Skunk emitting the pleasant smell of roses. In the beautiful world of a child’s imagination, fairies and wizard’s are more real than reality itself. She could not digest the harsh realities of life. She did not like the unfeeling mother who hit the benefactor of her son.

Reading with Insight
Answer the following questions in about six to seven sentences each:

Question 1.
What is the moral issue that the story raises?
Answer:
The story examines moral issues dependent on different levels of maturity. There is a sharp contrast between an adult’s perspective of life and the worldview of a little child. Children represent innocence. Hatred and injustice have no place in their world. In the story, the baby Skunk was able to make friends only after he smelled of roses. In Jo’s perspective, the happiness of being able to make friends surpassed any other thing.

As a result, she is unable to assess the reason why the mother Skunk pressurized her child to get his original foul body odour restored. On the contrary, Jack tried to justify the Skunk’s mother and wanted Roger to listen to his mother even if it means smelling bad again. Jack, a typical father, wanted his daughter to believe that parents are always correct and they know what is b st for their children. Thus, the story raises the question of whether parents should always be followed blindly.

Question 2.
How does Jo want the story to end and why?
Answer:
Jo was not convinced with the ending of the story and coaxed her father to retell the story the next day giving the story a predetermined path that she had set. According to her, neither Roger Skunk nor the wizard was wrong in the story. Jo refused to accept the end where Roger Skunk’s mother hits the wizard and that too without being hit back. She wanted the story to end with the wizard hitting back the mother Skunk with his magic wand and chopping off her arms forcefully.

Question 3.
Why does Jack insist that it was the wizard that was hit and not the mother?
Answer:
Jack has the typical parental attitude. He is of the opinion that the parents know what is best for their children. He asserts the parental authority time and again to quieten Jo and stifle her objections and amendments to the story of the foul-smelling Skunk related by him. He defends the attitude of Roger Skunk’s mother. She does not. approve of the unnatural, unskunk like smell that Roger has.

She calls the sweet smell of the roses an awful smell. Earlier the little Skunk smelled the way a little Skunk should. She wants the natural characteristic-the foul smell-restored. He says that she knew what was right. Secondly, the little Skunk loved his mommy more than he loved all the other animals. That is why he took his mommy to the wizard. She hit the wizard and forced him to change the smell of roses to his earlier bad odour. He insisted on this ending to emphasise the concern of the parents for children and their role in bringing them up on proper lines.

Question 4.
What makes Jack feel caught in an ugly middle position?
Answer:
Jack feels that he has been caught in an ugly middle position physically, emotionally as well as mentally. The woodwork, a cage of mouldings and rails and skirting boards all around them was half old tan and half new ivory. He was conscious of his duties as a father and as a husband. Little Bobby was already asleep.

His efforts to make Jo fall asleep proved quite fatiguing. She kept on interrupting him, asking for clarifications, pointing errors and suggesting alternatives. Jack did not like that women should take anything for granted. He liked them to be apprehensive. So he extended the story, though he was in a haste to go downstairs and help his pregnant wife in her hard work of painting the woodwork.

The result of the extension to the story proved unfruitful and unpleasant for Jo, Jack and Clare. Jo wanted him to change the ending of the story. Clare complained that he had told a long story. Jack felt utter weariness and did not want to speak with his wife or work with her or touch her. He was really caught in an ugly middle position.

Question 5.
What is your stance regarding the two endings to the Roger Skunk story?
Answer:
Considering the tender age of Jo, both the endings seem a little irrational. It is certain that she will be learning from whatever she hears and visualizes at this age. If the story ends according to Jack, Jo will never be able to question anything she considers wrong in life since this ending stresses that elders are always right in whatever they do. In addition, the story shows the Skunk’s mommy hitting the wizard for no fault of his. The wizard had only done what he was asked to. This may scare the four-year-old Jo.

as it teaches that mothers, being elders, have the right to hit anyone, even if they are not at fault. On the contrary, if the story ends as Jo wanted it to. it will stop her from believing in and respecting her riders. She may even start believing that there Is nothing wrong In hitting elders. A balanced view may be given in an apt ending. where (lie mommy either does not hit the wizard at all or realizes her mistake soon.

Question 6.
Why is the adult’s perspective on life different from that of a child?
Answer:
A child’s speech and line of thought. his actions and reactions are natural and not guided by any outward influence. He speaks from his heart in accordance with what Is ethically right In his perspective. On the other hand, an adult has many things to consider before speaking or reacting. Thus, the influence of society governs and dominates his thoughts. In this chapter.
Jo speaks what she considers correct. Dut Jack, an adult caught in a dilemma, kept thinking on the consequences of accepting his daughter’s ending to the story and what the society has made him learn over time.

Should Wizard hit Mommy Summary in English

Should Wizard hit Mommy Summary:
Jack was the father of two little kids-Jo and Bobby. His wife Clare was carrying their third child. Jack would tell a story to his daughter Jo out of his head in the evenings and for Saturday naps. This custom of story-telling began when Jo was two years old and it was continuing for the last two years. Each new story only differed a bit from the basic tale. There always was a small creature, usually named Roger, for example, Roger Fish, Roger Squirrel, Roger Chipmunk, etc. He always had some problem and he would go to the wise old owl. The owl would tell him to go to the wizard, who would perform a magic spell that solved the problem.

The wizard in turn would demand in payment a number of pennies greater than the number Roger creature had. ‘But at the same time he would direct the animal to a place where the extra pennies could be found. Then Roger would become so happy that he played many games with other creatures. Roger then would go home to his mother just in time to hear the train whistle that brought his daddy home from Boston. Jack then would describe their supper, and the story was over.

Jack found this story-telling session especially tiring on Saturday because Jo never fell asleep in naps anymore. One Saturday Jack asked Jo about whom the story should be today. Roger Skunk, she said firmly. A new animal; they must talk about Skunk at nursery school. Jack started the story of the tiny creature Skunk, who lived in the dark deep woods. His name was Roger Skunk and he smelled very bad. He smelled so bad that other animals of the jungle would not play with him. They would run away and Roger Skunk would stand there all alone.

Roger Skunk went to the wise old owl and told his problem. The owl asked the Skunk why he did not see the wizard. Then he went to the wizard and told that he smelled very bad and all the little animals used to run away from him. The wise owl had told wizard that he could help in that matter.

The wizard took his magic wand and asked Roger Skunk what he wanted to smell like. Roger Skunk told him that he would like to smell like roses. The wizard chanted and Roger Skunk started smelling like roses. The wizard asked Roger Skunk to pay seven pennies.

Roger Skunk said that he had four pennies only and he began to cry. The wizard directed Roger to go to the nearby magic well and he would find three pennies there. Roger Skunk took out three pennies from the well and gave them to the wizard. Now all the other animals gathered around him because he smelled so good.

They played various games and laughed. It began to get dark so they all ran home to their mummies. Jo thought that the story was all over. When Roger Skunk went home his mummy said that the smell was awful. She asked who made him smell like that. Roger Skunk said that the wizard did so. She said that they were going right back to that wizard. He said that all the other animals would run away with his bad smell.

But his mummy said she did not care. He should smell the way a little Skunk should have smelled. So she took Roger with her and went to the wizard. When the wizard opened door, she hit him with her umbrella and explained how the wizard’s magic infuriated her.

The wizard spelled another magic and Roger smelled as foul as he did earlier. But she was displeased with this new ending and wanted her father to make the wizard hit Roger’s mommy. But Jack was not ready to make any change as he thought Jo should accept him without question. Jo protested but Jack said that it was daddy’s story. He said then Roger Skunk and her mummy went home.

wizard and told that he smelled very bad and all the little animals used to run away from him. The wise owl had told wizard that he could help in that matter. The wizard took his magic wand and asked Roger Skunk what he wanted to smell like.

Roger Skunk told him that he would like to smell like roses. The wizard chanted and Roger Skunk started smelling like roses. The wizard asked Roger Skunk to pay seven pennies. Roger Skunk said that he had four perniles only and he began to cry The wizard directed Roger to go to the nearby magic well and 1w would find three pennies there. Roger Skunk took out three pennies from the well and gave them to the wizard.

Now all the other animals gathered around him because he smelled so good. They played various games and laughed. It began to get dark so they all ran home to their mummies. Jo thought that the story was all over.

When Roger Skunk went home his mummy said that the smell was awful. She asked who made him smell like that. Roger Skunk said that the wizard did so. She said that they were going right back to that wizard. He said that all the other animals would run away with his bad smell.

But his mummy said she did not care. He should smell the way a little Skunk should have smelled. So she took Roger with her and went to the wizard. When the wizard opened door, she hit him with her umbrella and explained how the wizard’s magic Infuriated her.

The wizard spelled another magic and Roger smelled as foul as he did earlier. But she was displeased with this new ending and wanted her father to make the wizard hit Roger’s mommy. But Jack was not ready to make any change as he thought Jo should accept him without question. Jo protested but Jack said that it was daddy’s story He said then Roger Skunk and her mummy went home.

They had supper and when Roger Skunk was in bed, Mommy Skunk came up and hugged him and said she loved him very much. He told her that the story ends there. Jo asked her daddy if the other animals ran away from Roger Skunk. Jack said no, they finally got used to the way Roger Skunk was and did not mind it at all. Jo commented that she was a stupid mummy.

He asked her to have a long nap as her brother Bobby was also sleeping. Jo told him that she wanted him to tell her the story the next day that wizard took that magic wand and hit that mummy, right over the head. Jack said that it was not the story. The point is that the little Skunk loved his mummy more than he loved all the other little animals. Moreover, she knew what was right. But Jo insisted that tomorrow he should say that the wizard hit that mummy. Jack said that he would sec and asked her to sleep.

He closed the door and went downstairs. Clare was striking the chair rail with a dipped brush. Above him, footsteps vibrated. These were Jo’s footsteps. He threatened to beat her and then the footsteps slowed down. Clare observed that it was a long story. He simply said the poor kid. He watched his wife working hard on the woodwork. She was doing painting work. Thus the writer displays adult authority on one hand and the child’s Inquisitiveness on the other.