Question

What do you think was Jo’s problem?

Answer 1

For Jo, the story could have ended comfortably with Roger Skunk relieved of his foul body-odour and accepted by other children as their playmate. However, Jack took the story to another level, which created a ruckus in the little and simple world of Jo.

She was unconvinced with the fact that Roger Skunk’s mother did not like the newly acquired smell of roses and wanted him to get his earlier body odour restored. For a little girl like Jo, the world was centered on friends to play with. Therefore, when she notices that other small animals avoided the poor Skunk, she empathized with him, and thought highly of the wizard who helped the poor creature gain friends and happiness. She could not understand why a mother would want to compromise her child’s happiness just to suit her own self. Being the inquisitive self she was, Jo could not understand why the skunk’s mother hit the kind wizard without being hit back.  In her perspective, the skunk’s Mommy was wrong in whatever she did. Jo was not ready to accept that ‘mothers are always correct’.