Should Wizard Hit Mommy? - Story Analysis Part 1

(Wizard Sketch by Caio Monteiro)

Should Wizard Hit Mommy?

Story Analysis

By - Sudarshan Das

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Table of Contents

1. About this project
2. About the Author's message
3. Storytelling and Foreshadowing
4. Problem with Girls
5. Social Duty and Acceptance (Contd in Part2)
6. The killing of innocence (Contd. in Part 2)
7. Bibliography

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About this project 

The purpose of this blog is not to provide you with a chapter summary but it is my attempt to provide you a (perhaps detailed) thematic analysis of the story, a try from my side to make you want to discuss stories and literature in general and not just because it is in your syllabus.

Should Wizard Hit Mommy is a story with a bunch of moral dilemmas intertwined with a dash of fragile masculine ego. It is a story of father vs child, libertarian vs totalitarian world view, male vs female dominance, and a lot more. Basically, in a nutshell, a LOT is going on here. 

I believe, literature and stories are meant to be interacted with. In the words of Dead Poet Society, this can be said as "When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think." Literature is meant to be read and re-read till you get the idea of what the author wanted to tell you and what you want to feel about it. Thus I would urge you to at least read the story twice before going further with the blog. 

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About the Author's message

John Updike wrote this story when he was himself going through turmoil in his marriage and it is very possible that he modeled Jo after one of his own daughters. In fact in 1959 when he wrote this story, his wife was also pregnant with his 3rd kid. Definitely, it is one of his closely personally written set of characters that we see in the story. For the major part, John wrote with male protagonists and this story too is no exception, perhaps even Jack is an allegory for John himself.

Whatever the case may be let's now see how he pulled this complex story off.

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Story Telling and Foreshadowing 

The characteristics feature of this story, "Should Wizard Hit Mommy" is that it is a double story, it's a story within a story. Examples of this kinda other works are Panchatantra (Original), Vikram and Vetal (Original), Tarinikhuro (Bengali short story series), Inception (Movie), The Bal Ganesha (animated movie), Tom and Jerry - A Christmas Carol (Animated movie), etc. Double story is not a unique concept to literary circles but for this story it is unique. Here the author controls the story but so does the protagonist of the story, a very rare feat. Contrary to the segment in Harry Potter (Books) where Ron narrates the story of The Three Brothers, another example of a double story, he can no way change or alter the story of The Three Brother and thus cannot change its core meaning, which is the case with most of the double stories.

But the unique thing about Should Wizard Hit Mommy is that here the narrator (Jack)is making up the story as he himself is going through the story that we are reading (Should Wizard Hit Mommy). 

The specialty with this particular 'story-within-a-story' format is that because there are two layers of the author's (John Updike's) work involved, it is easy for the author to hide his message in plain sight while keeping his protagonist, his audience, and even himself in a 3rd point perspective. 

Normally double stories always have a definite ending with a definite message at the very far end. Because no matter what is happening in the second-order story, in the end, the protagonist in the main story is always there, with his own life and his own unchanged reality for the time being. Nothing changes. At the end of the 'The Three Brothers' story Ron, Harry and Hermione are still in their own problem, which remains unsolved. At the end of each Panchatantra story, the animals telling them are no wiser than they had before, they still have their own quarrels to fight. At the end of each Vikram and Vetal story, the reality of King Vikram remains unchanged, he still has to go back to the corpse to recollect it. 

But in John Updike's story, the narrator of the second-order story (Jack) is a direct outcome of what he is telling us about him in his own story to Jo. If Jack tells in his story that Roger Skunk was lonely, we conclude Jack was lonely in his childhood. If Jack tells that that Roger Skunk was overprotected by his mother, we know Jack was overprotected by his mother too. He is continually creating the story and at the same time creating his character sketch in our mind.  The closest to this exact kind of storytelling I can think of is from the movie 'Aandhadhun'. Not only Ayushman just like Jack, is within a story-within-story format but he is also making up his story on the go just like Jack. Just like till the last shot in Aandhadhun we do not know if Ayushman's story is real or not, in the same way, till the last paragraph we do not know if Jack's feelings in his story are real or not (but more on that later).

It is extremely clear that from the moment Jack started to tell the story to his daughter, he was the master controller of the story. An unscripted and on-the-spot-make-up-your-bullshit kinda story narrated by Jack. But was he exactly "over-protective" of his story?

"Joanne. It's Daddy's story. Shall Daddy not tell you any more stories?"

Yes, he was. And we don't need to dwell on that question anymore I think.

But what about the foreshadowing?

 

"-he was telling her something true, something she must know-and he had no wish to hurry on. But downstairs a chair scraped, and he realized he must get down to help Clare paint the living room woodwork." 

He knew he was not telling the truth. He knew it was only his version of the truth that he was telling to Jo. And for this reason alone, something scraped at the bottom of his heart. "...he must get down to help Clare paint the living room." At the bottom of his heart, he knows not only that he isn't telling the truth but also knows that no matter how many stories he makes up, he still has work left to be done. He still has to confront his wife and even help her even if he may like it or not.

"Jo made the crying face again, but this time without a trace of sincerity. This annoyed Jack. Downstairs some more furniture rumbled"

The basement downstairs surely represents his disturbed mind, whenever something unpleasant occurs, a reference to the basement pops up. 

"That was a long story," Clare said.

Clare in the form of the voice that stays in his heart knows it was a long story and it was made long unnecessarily. There was no need for Jack to annoy Jo with that absurd ending but he did it still.

"The woodwork, a cage...he did not want to speak with her, work with her, touch her, anything." (last paragraph of the story)

The basement is a metaphor for his mind and he is trapped there with not only his wife there but also with the two conflicting ideas that surround him. One, his mother's traditional ideology, and another his wife's and daughter's radical ideologies. As opposed to his mother's way of life where she decided everything for him, these new girls don't follow that and they are not afraid to ask questions about it. (More on this paragraph in the next theme.)

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Problem with Girls and Women

Jack is a relinquishing storyteller. He savors the reaction that he gets from his audience.

"He was pleased with this moment-he was telling her something true, something she must know- and had no wish to hurry on."

But the problem is that he has a daughter of four, Jo, who is listening to stories of the same format for the last 2 years so it is no surprise that she is uninterested. But Jack doesn't like uninterested listeners.

"...an expression in which Jack was startled to recognize his wife feigning pleasure at cocktail parties" 

That's it. Jack is invested in his story but his audience (Jo) is uninterested. He clearly recognizes Jo faking emotions. Up to now, Jack is not necessarily angry at Jo because she is his daughter but because she is not an interested listener. 

"She thought the story was all over. Jack didn't like women when they took anything for granted; he liked them apprehensive, hanging on his words. 'Now Jo, are you listening?' "

 

This is the tipping point of Jack when he focuses his anger at Jo for not being a listener to his anger at Jo for being a girl. He clearly has issues with women.

"The woodwork, a cage of molding and rails and baseboards all around them, was half old tan and half new ivory and he felt caught in an ugly middle position, and though he as well felt his wife's presence in the cage with him, he did not want to speak with her, work with her, touch her, anything." 

Like every fantasy, Jack's story ended too. And back to reality he eventually had to go to the basement, the metaphorical depth of his mind. He sees Clare already having started to paint. At the sight he is confronted with two conflicting ideas, in the form of half old tan he sees his mother's ideas, overprotective, controlling, and dominating, and in the form of half new ivory, he sees the radical ideas of his wife and daughter, questioning, unorthodox and revolting. He neither wants to embrace his wife's active ideas and work with her nor he wants to fully accept his mother's passive ideas because they were recently challenged by his daughter. 

With all these examples I surely agree Jack is a misogynist, but I disagree with the ways recent 'educational' websites are portraying it. For example, let's have a look at a portion of LitChart's analysis. (Remember stories are subjective and this is just my take on it.)

"Throughout the story, Jack is preoccupied with outlining the ways in which he fulfills his roles as “man of the house”: completing his duties to his family even when it is difficult and unpleasant for him to do so. For example, Jack makes it clear immediately that he has grown to find Saturday storytime tiresome, even though it is a duty he must continue to perform. He says that telling the same story “was especially fatiguing on Saturday because Jo never fell asleep in naps anymore.” He continues however because he views it as a commitment and one of his duties as her father." (https://www.litcharts.com/lit/should-wizard-hit-mommy/themes/marriage-family-and-misogyny) 

For starters Jack is not at all preoccupied with outlining his role as "man of the house", instead he looks like the kinda person who is always up to avoid any responsibilities given. Secondly, if he finds the routine of telling stories to his daughter to be boring, is it because of gender bias or because of just plain boredom. And if he is doing his duty even when he does not want to, does that not make him a good father? Duty isn't to be enjoyed, it is to be done. Not all people enjoy the duty given to them and neither should we expect them to be. 

Again from another part of LitChart, we get this abomination.

“She shouldn’t be moving heavy things,” he explains “she was six-months pregnant.” Here, Jack again calls attention to the tedious drudgery of his duties as a husband and father."

No, smartass, he is just stating the facts and setting up the plot of the story. He is not complaining at all. Stop writing the wrong aspects for his misogynistic behavior in your exams. 

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Bibliography

1. Art Station URL (for cover image) - https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k4Qw9z

2.  https://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu-We/Updike-John.html#:~:text=John%20Hoyer%20Updike%20was%20born%20on%20March%2018%2C,large%20part%20of%20the%20%20boy%27s%20early%20life.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Updike#Short_stories

4.           Markowitz, Anya. "Should Wizard Hit Mommy?." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 13 Apr 2018. Web. 20 Oct 2020. (https://www.litcharts.com/lit/should-wizard-hit-mommy)

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 Thank You for Reading