Class | Subject | Book | Chapter | Session | Questions covered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
XII | English | Vistas (NCERT) | 4 – The Enemy | 2026-27 | 8 of 8 |
Chapter at a glance
Aspect | Key point |
|---|---|
Author | Pearl S. Buck |
Setting | The Japanese coast during the Second World War |
Characters | Dr Sadao Hoki (surgeon and scientist, trained in America), his wife Hana, servants Yumi, the cook and the old gardener, an escaped American prisoner of war (Tom), the old General |
Conflict | Duty as a doctor and humanity vs loyalty to the nation |
Events | Sadao operates on the wounded American and saves him; the servants leave; the General, who needs Sadao for his own operation, promises to send private assassins, who never come; Sadao helps Tom escape in his boat to a nearby island to wait for a Korean fishing boat |
Ending | “Strange,” he thought. “I wonder why I could not kill him?” |
Reading with insight
Question R1
There are moments in life when we have to make hard choices between our roles as private individuals and as citizens with a sense of national loyalty. Discuss with reference to the story you have just read.
Answer
Dr Sadao faces exactly such a choice. As a patriotic Japanese citizen during the war, he regards the American sailor as an enemy: “He is my enemy. All Americans are my enemy.” Sheltering him could lead to arrest as a traitor and endanger his wife, children and career. As a doctor and a human being, however, he has been “trained not to let a man die if I can help it”, and he cannot throw a wounded man back into the sea.
He resolves the conflict in stages: 1. He saves the man’s life by operating, fulfilling his professional duty. 2. He reports the matter to the General, the highest authority, thus remaining loyal to his country. 3. When the assassins do not come, he helps the prisoner escape, giving him his boat, food, clothes and flashlight, rather than handing him over to certain death.
Hana too must choose between her fear of the consequences and her compassion. The story shows that such choices are painful, but humanity and professional ethics can rise above narrow nationalism without betraying one’s country.
Dr Sadao, a patriot who regards all Americans as enemies, is torn between national loyalty and his duty as a doctor. He saves the wounded prisoner, informs the General to stay loyal, and finally helps him escape — showing that humanity and professional ethics can be balanced with patriotism, though the choice is hard.
Question R2
Dr Sadao was compelled by his duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?
Answer
- Basic humanity: When Yumi refuses to wash the man, Hana is angry: “Is this anything but a man? And a wounded helpless man!” She washes him herself.
- Compassion for suffering: She notices his “piteously thin face” and twisted lips, and the deep red scars on his neck; she wonders whether prisoners are tortured, remembering General Takima who beat his wife cruelly.
- Loyalty to her husband: She supports Sadao, gives the anaesthetic despite never having done it, and serves the prisoner herself when none of the servants will enter the room.
- Experience of America: having lived there long, she speaks English and comforts the frightened young man.
She did not particularly like him, but her womanly kindness and sense of humanity made her care for him.
Her basic humanity and compassion for a wounded, helpless man (“Is this anything but a man?”), her fear that prisoners were tortured (the scars), and her loyalty to her husband made her wash, nurse and feed the prisoner herself despite the servants’ defiance — though she did not like him.
Answer
Question R3
How would you explain the reluctance of the soldier to leave the shelter of the doctor’s home even when he knew he couldn’t stay there without risk to the doctor and himself?
Answer
- He was still weak, having just recovered from a serious wound and operation; the muscles on one side still felt stiff.
- The doctor’s home was the only safe place he had found in enemy territory; there he received care, food and kindness.
- Fear of the unknown: outside he could be recaptured, tortured (the scars on his neck suggest earlier torture) or killed; the idea of rowing alone to an island and waiting for a Korean fishing boat was frightening — “Do I have to?”
- He felt gratitude and trust towards Sadao and Hana.
Yet he understood the danger to the doctor and agreed: “Okay.”
He was still weak and recovering, the doctor’s home was the only place of safety and kindness he had found in enemy land, and he feared recapture, torture or death outside — so he hesitated (“Do I have to?”), though he understood and agreed to go.
Answer
Question R4
What explains the attitude of the General in the matter of the enemy soldier? Was it human consideration, lack of national loyalty, dereliction of duty or simply self-absorption?
Answer
It was self-absorption. The General was seriously ill and needed Sadao for an operation; he trusted no other surgeon. So he did not want Sadao arrested: “Then certainly I can allow nothing to happen to you.” He offered to send his private assassins to kill the prisoner quietly, but he forgot his promise because he was thinking only of his own suffering — “The truth is, I thought of nothing but myself. In short, I forgot my promise to you.” He then worried that his lapse might be seen as lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty, and was relieved when Sadao promised to swear to his loyalty.
It was not human consideration (he wanted the man killed) and not exactly a lack of loyalty, but selfishness and preoccupation with his own health.
Simple self-absorption: he protected Sadao only because he needed him for his own operation, offered assassins to remove the prisoner, then forgot his promise because “I thought of nothing but myself” — not human consideration or deliberate disloyalty.
Question R5
While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime, what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?
Answer
- Basic humanity and compassion — seeing a suffering person as a human being first, not as an enemy (Hana: “Is this anything but a man?”).
- Professional ethics — a doctor’s duty to save life (Sadao’s training: “Ignorance of the human body is the surgeon’s cardinal sin”; he calls his patient “my friend”).
- Education and exposure to other cultures — Sadao and Hana had lived in America.
- Conscience and moral values — the inner sense of right and wrong.
- Empathy — imagining the other’s suffering and fear.
These qualities enable people to transcend hatred and prejudice. Sadao’s final thought, “I wonder why I could not kill him?”, shows that his humanity triumphed over hatred.
Compassion, empathy, conscience, professional ethics (a doctor’s duty to save life) and broad-mindedness through education make a person see the enemy as a fellow human being, as Sadao and Hana did.
Question R6
Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?
Answer
Yes, it was the best possible solution: 1. Keeping the man any longer endangered Sadao, his family and his career; the servants had left and the secret was out. 2. Handing him over to the police meant certain death, which would undo his work of saving him. 3. The General’s assassins never came, and Sadao could not go through another night of strain. 4. Helping him escape in his boat, with food, water, quilts, Japanese clothes and a flashlight, to the nearby island to wait for a Korean fishing boat, saved the man’s life and removed him from Sadao’s home without openly betraying his country. 5. Sadao had already reported the matter to the General, so his loyalty was not in question; the General himself, having forgotten his promise, was “in the palm of his hand”.
It balanced his duty as a doctor, his humanity and his responsibility to his family and country.
Yes. Handing him over meant certain death and keeping him endangered the family; helping him escape secretly by boat to an island to await a Korean fishing boat saved the man’s life while protecting Sadao’s family and position — a balance of humanity, duty and loyalty.
Question R7
Does the story remind you of ‘Birth’ by A. J. Cronin that you read in Snapshots last year? What are the similarities?
Answer
Yes. In ‘Birth’, the young doctor Andrew Manson delivers Susan Morgan’s baby, which is born apparently dead (stillborn). While the midwife gives up, Andrew tries every method — rubbing the baby, alternately plunging it into hot and cold water — until the child breathes. He feels he has done something real at last.
Similarities: 1. Both doctors show professional dedication — the duty to save life above everything else. 2. Both use medical skill and determination in a critical situation where death seems certain. 3. Both act from humanity and compassion, beyond personal interest (for Sadao, beyond national hatred). 4. In both, a life is saved against heavy odds, showing the noble role of doctors.
Yes. In ‘Birth’, Dr Andrew Manson revives a stillborn baby by persistent effort, just as Dr Sadao saves the dying enemy soldier. Both show a doctor’s dedication to saving life, skill under pressure and humanity above other considerations.
Question R8
Is there any film you have seen or novel you have read with a similar theme?
Answer
(Sample.) 1. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Hindi film, 2015) — an Indian man risks his life to take a lost, mute Pakistani girl back home across the border, rising above enmity between the two nations. 2. Veer-Zaara (2004) — love and humanity across the India–Pakistan divide. 3. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (novel/film) — friendship between the son of a Nazi commandant and a Jewish boy in a concentration camp. 4. Schindler’s List (1993) — a German industrialist saves over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust. 5. Hacksaw Ridge (2016) — an army medic saves many wounded soldiers, including enemy soldiers, without carrying a weapon.
Like The Enemy, these show humanity triumphing over hatred and war.
E.g. Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Veer-Zaara, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Schindler’s List and Hacksaw Ridge — all show compassion and humanity rising above national or racial hatred, like The Enemy.
Topic checklist
- ☒ Private individual vs citizen (R1)
- ☒ Hana’s sympathy; the soldier’s reluctance (R2–R3)
- ☒ The General’s attitude (R4)
- ☒ Rising above prejudice; the final solution (R5–R6)
- ☒ Comparison with ‘Birth’; similar works (R7–R8)