EASY FOR REVISION

1. ENGLISH LITERATURE
SUPPLEMENTARY BOOK(VISTAS)
ALKA SHARMA(English Teacher)
• The Third Level
• The Tiger King
• Journey to the end of the
Earth
• The Enemy
• Should Wizard hit Mommy
• On the face of It
• Evans Tries an O-level
• Memories of Childhood

2. The Enemy
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
• Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892 – 1973) was an
American writer and novelist. She had a
Chinese name – Sai Zhenzhu as she spent her
childhood in China, being the daughter of
missionaries. She was awarded the Pulitzer
prize in 1932 and the Nobel Prize in Literature
in the year 1938.

3. CHARACTER SKETCHES
• Dr. Sadao:
• Scientist
• A kind man and generous
• A well-established doctor
• A patriot
• A loving caring and devoted family man
• A dedicated surgeon
• Committed to his professional duty
• Dr.Sadao’s Father:
• A patriot by heart
• Stern in his believes and loves his Japanese values
• Futuristic
• Traditional and conventional man
• A very quiet man and very serious ( never jokes nor
plays with his son)
• Hana:
• Dr. Sadao’s wife
• Responsible
• Dignified and graceful
• Supportive
• A balanced woman
• Tom (Prisoner of War):
• American wounded soldier
• Brave enough to survive the wounds by rocks and
the furious waves as well
• Has a rough yellow beard
• Has long yellow hair
• General Takima:
• Ruthless (beats his wife)
• Not promising
• Self-centered
• Selfish
• Unfaithful towards his nation
• Dr. Sadao’s servants:
• Consider the prisoner of war as their enemy
• Protest against his presence in the house
• Patriotic and nationalistic
• Disapprove of their master’s kindness towards him
• Very loyal to the Doctor
• Return to their services or duty after the prisoner
leaves the house.

4. Characters
• Dr. Sadao Hoki: A Japanese doctor trained by Americans.
• Sadao’s father: much concerned about his son’s education,
a true patriot.
• Hana: Wife of Dr. Sadao, met in America, became friends
and got married in Japan.
• Tom: An American prisoner of war, a soldier of U.S. Navy.
• The old General: a sick Japanese army General, needed an
operation, trusted only Dr. Sadao.
• An officer: A messenger of the General.
• Gardener: an old gardener in the house of Dr. Sadao.
• Yimi: Hana’s maid servant.
• The cook: an old cook in the house of Dr. Sadao.

5. The Theme of the story:
• The writer of the story conveys that there comes a time in a man’s life
when it is required for him to lift from petty considerations of race,
nationality and act in human consideration.
• Dr. Sadao being patriotic Japanese hates Americans as his enemies. One
day a prisoner of war appears at the shore near Dr. Sadao’s house
wounded and Dr. Sadao and his wife Hana move over their feelings of
hatred towards him and they treat him until he is capable of taking care of
himself. Not only they treat him but dr. Sadao also helps him escape. He
arranges all the things that are required for him to escape. By this humble
and kind act, the theme of the story stands clear that humanity should rise
above all.
• Through the story, the writer also shows the impact of war on the life of
normal people and she does so by presenting an American wounded
soldier who has to face the fury of the weather and the hostility of the
Japanese people.

6. STORY IN SHORT…
• Dr. Sadao Hoki's house was built on a spot of the Japanese coast.
• Sadao’s education was the main concern of his father.
• He had been sent to America at the age of 22 to learn surgery and medicine.
• He had mate Hana in America. His father would not have received her
unless she had been pure in her race.
• Their marriage had been arranged in the old Japanese way. Now they had two children.
• Both of them saw a man crawling on his hands and knees .
• They saw stains of blood on the sand. The man was wounded. He was a white man with a rough yellow
beard.
• Dr Sadao found that a gun wound had been reopened.
• Dr Sadao Packed the wounded with the sea moss. The man cried in pain but remained unconscious.
• They were in a fix. If they gave shelter to a white man in their house, they could be arrested. If he was
turned away, he would certainly die.
• The man was an American sailor and a prisoner of war.
• He was their enemy as all American were their enemies’
• Dr Sadao and Hana decided to carry the man into the house.
• The man would die if he was not operated on.
• Even the servants did’t want that the life of a wounded American soldier should be saved.
• Hana cleaned his breast and face with hot steaming water.
• She helped her husband to turn the man and he began to wash the man’s back carefully.

7. STORY IN SHORT…
• With the cleanest and most precise of incisions the bullet was taken out from the body.
• The young man woke . He was very weak terrified.
• Hana asked him not to be afraid. The man was surprise to see Hana speaking English.
• They did’t want to save an enemy but human considerations made them feed him gently.
• The man looked barely seventeen . He asked what they were going to do with him. Sadao didn’t
know himself what to do with him.
• No doubt Americans were his enemies but being a doctor, he was trained not to let a man die.
• However Saving an enemy was nothing less than act of treachery.
• Sadao examined the wound carefully every morning. At last, the last stitches has been pulled out.
• On the seventh day, the servants left altogether. Hana herself gave food to the prisoner .
• A messenger came to the door in official uniform. Sadao was to come to the palace. The old
General was in pain again.
• The General thought it best to have the man quietly killed.
• He could send to men to kill him that night.
• Sadao agreed that perhaps it was the best thing to do so .
• If all the Japanese were like him there would not have been a war.
• Sadao put his boat on the shore that night and extra clothing. He asked Tom to row to a little island
not far from the coast.
• He could live there until saw a Korean fishing boat pass by .
• If Tom’s food ran out before he caught a boat, he was asked two flashes.

8. Phrases used in the story:
• Outlined- stood in rows
• Wreathing- winding round
• Flung up out- thrown out
• Staggered- walked unsteadily
• Leaned over- bent over
• Washed from- flowed out from
• Strewed- lay over
• Turned him over- handed over back
• Spelled it out- spoke out
• Bring to senses- regain consciousness
• Went on – continued
• No reason under heaven- no reason at all
• Dragged on- continued somehow
• Hand over- deliver in the
• deal with- face hands
• stout- strongly built
• haggered- lean and thin
• slatternly- untidy woman

9. IRONY OF THE STORY
• The title of this story is extraordinarily ironic, although it may not be
immediately apparent. On its surface, “The Enemy” appears to be a fairly
standard example of wartime literature. That it is written by a woman
quickly explains why it is not a war story about combat or the camaraderie
of soldiers. Pearl S. Buck wrote the kind of war story that only until about
half a century after World War II women would and could be expected to
write: war as domestic drama. And yet, most of the characters—and all of
the vital ones—are men. One is a soldier; another is a General and a
doctor is the protagonist. While “The Enemy” may have been especially
difficult to find among lists of the greatest fiction produced by World War
II precisely because of what it lacks, the future may hold a greater honor
for this seemingly simple tale.
• “The Enemy” is, quite simply, one of “the essential” stories of war because
of the irony it demonstrates as well as the irony of it not being a story
about warriors. The protagonist is an intensely nationalist citizen of Japan
who believes with every fiber of his being that the people of his country—
those with pure Japanese bloodlines, at any rate—are superior to
everyone else on the planet. And this goes double for those with white
skin. No indication is given of Dr. Sadao Hoki’s opinion of those with black
skin, but then how many would he have met, much less have gotten to
know as well as the white people he met while studying medicine in
America.
•

10. IRONY OF THE STORY(Cont.)
• Sadao’s wife as every bit as racist as he is and as for their house servant staff, this prejudicial
perspective is doubled. The servants finally have enough of watching their employers
furtively giving aid and comfort to the enemy in the form of a wounded white soldier who
washed ashore one night. Their lower economic and cultural status affords them the ability
to commit full to the national cause. The natural compassion one expects to find in any
physician limits that ability for the doctor. Because she is dependent upon him—though
hardly a stereotypical portrait of a “submissive” Japanese woman—and because she is
revealed to have been educated in America as well, Sadao’s wife Hana shares some of her
husband’s compassion. She is so repulsed by the white man that she cannot bear to touch
him or be in his company for very long—but she sides with her husband in the decision to
treat the severely wounded soldier rather than him over for certain torture and likely death.
• The story opens with a flashback to the doctor as a young boy in a scene that divulges the
origin of his nationalist pride even if it doesn’t entirely explain his irrational racism. While
casting his gaze upon the small South Seas islands off in the distance, Sadao’s father recites
what has apparently become something of a recurring litany:
• “Those islands yonder, they are the stepping stones to the future for Japan.”
• On this particular recollection, however, Sadao remembers a question he posed to his father:
“Where shall we step from them?”
• His father’s reply explains much about the grown doctor:
• “Who knows? Who can limit our future? It depends on what we make of it.”

11. IRONY OF THE STORY(Cont.)
• From this humble beginning grows a passionate love and attachment to his
country and its people that blossoms into nationalistic pride, but also succumbs to
the worst aspects of patriotism: irrational hatred of those who are different. This
bias is the conduit which leads to a conclusion that may be inexorable, but is not
inevitable. Much later—almost at the very end of the story—Sadao’s thoughts are
expressed as contemplation of his time spent studying in the United States:
• “Americans were full of prejudice and it had been bitter to live in it, knowing
himself their superior.”
• The irony of this story—bitter, cruel and utterly invisible for some readers—is that
the title does not refer to any of the characters. The Japanese are not the
enemy. The American soldier is not the enemy. The enemy of this story—published
just slightly less than a year after the United States finally entered the conflict—is
ideology. The corrosive irony of Buck’s story is that it is so very easy well into the
21st century to read it as simply an indictment of Japanese nationalism and
racism. The true horror of the story comes with the recognition that the very same
story could have been written with the nationalities and setting flipped with the
only changes in wording being the references to those countries. Buck’s meaning is
clear and it is shocking that it ever got published: we have met this enemy before
(and will again) and one need not cross the borders of one’s own country to find
him.

12. Short Answer Questions
1. Why did the General overlook the matter of the enemy soldier?
Ans. The General had an attack and according to Dr. Sadao he could not survive the
second attack. So if Dr. Sadao was arrested, no other doctor was capable of
performing the operation. So for furthering his selfish needs he overlooked the matter
and promised to send his assassins. But he was so self-absorbed, he forgot about it.
2. Why was Dr. Sadao not sent with the troops?
Ans. The General thought that Dr. Sadao is indispensable to his life and can save
anyone as he is very skilled. He also does not trust anyone except Dr. Sadao. So he was
not sent with troops.
3. How was the plan of the patient's escape executed in the story?
Ans. The prisoner was successful in his escape only because of the right guidance and
help from Dr. Sadao. He provided him his boat, gave his food, made him wear
Japanese clothes and also helped him in comfortable sail to a nearby island.
4. Why did the servants leave Dr. Sadao's house?
Ans. They were not in favour of keeping the American prisoner hidden in the house.
They also did not want Dr. Sadao to save his life as he was the enemy. Also, if the
police came to know of it, all their lives would be in danger. So they left the house.

13. Short Answer Questions
5. How did Hana help Dr. Sadao?
Ans. Hana was very helpful while the operation was on. She dipped a small clean
towel into the steaming hot water washed the face of the soldier herself. She was
requested to give the anesthetic if needed. With the help of instruments from his
emergency bag, Sadao made a clean and precise incision. The bullet was out and the
doctor declared that the man would live.
6. Why did Dr. Sadao's father send him to America though he hated Americans?
Ans. The sole motive behind his decision may be the lure of technological advanced
medical studies available in America. As he may have wanted his son to be trained
according to the latest medical development.
7. Which difficulties did Dr. Sadao face for the sake of the enemy?
Ans. First of all, Dr. Sadao faced reluctance of his wife, who was initially apprehensive
to keep an American at their home. Side by side, rebelled and quiet Dr. Sadao was
himself in dilemma because of the inner conflict between patriotism and humanity.
8. What is the theme of the story?
Ans. ‘The Enemy’ gives the message that humanism transcends all man made
prejudices and barriers. Dr. Sadao upholds the ethics of medical profession in treating
an enemy. The story is a great lesson of peace, love, sympathy, fellow feeling and
humanism.

14. Short Answer Questions for Practice
• Who was Dr. Sadao? Why was he near the coast?
• Why did Dr. Sadao treat the American soldier
even though it was an unpatriotic act on his part?
• Why didn't Dr. Sadao put the wounded man back
in the sea even though he was his enemy?
• How did the servants express their displeasure?
• How did Hana show her human side to the
wounded man after the operation?

15. Long Answer Question
1. How did Dr. Sadao Hoki get rid of the American Soldier?
Ans. Since Dr. Sadao was keeping an enemy at his house and he was
becoming the cause of great stress, tension, trouble and fear for him.
Even the General failed to send his assassins, so Dr. Sadao worked out
a plan and apprised the soldier about his return and safety. It was
pointed out by Dr. Sadao that he would put his boat with extra
clothing, medicines and other essentials on the shore that night. He
would row it to the little island which was not far off from the coast.
The island is inhabited. He would have a Korean fishing boat. The
American soldier agreed and pulled that boat down to shore. Dr. Sadao
arranged everything to the prisoner. He gave him some instructions. In
case he ran short of food he would flash two signals when the sun sets.
If he was alright and was on the island he would flash one. The man
escaped in the night and Dr. Sadao got no flash of light in the twilight.
So the soldier had safely boarded the Korean fishing boat. Thus, Dr.
Sadao was able to get rid of the soldier.

16. Long Answer Question for Practice
1. Give the Character sketch of Dr. Sadao highlighting his
qualities as a doctor?
2. Do you think the doctor's final solution to the problem
was the best possible one in the circumstances?
3. There are moments in life when we have to make hard
choice between our role as individuals and as citizens
with a sense of national loyalty. Discuss with reference to
the Enemy.
4. Hana plays an important role in saving the life of the
injured person. Give a detailed account of her role.

17. Value based Questions
1. Do you think being human is the greatest virtue and treating an
enemy is not a sin? Explain taking reference of 'The Enemy'.
Ans. I agree with the statement, reason being, whatever is our
nationality, gender, colour, caste or creed- we are humans first. Being
embroiled in conflicts and controversies is the side product of our
egoism and ideology. These exist because of difference in perception
about any idea of issue. But our basic conscience is sensitive for
other's suffering as reflected very beautifully through the character of
Dr. Sadao in the intriguing story 'The Enemy'. It is rather a core of our
spirit, even mythology of every religion support this idea of
compassion. One can not deny its existence, in spite of all the worldly
elements, humanity provides its glimpse all around us- in our words,
through our acts. One feels for the sufferer. So, whether the injured
one is our enemy or friend, it should never matter while treating or
extending a helping hand.
Humanity is a common thread which binds us despite our differences.
Since time unknown and till up to eternity, humanity will prevail.

18. Value Based Questions
1. How did Dr. Sadao rise above narrow prejudices
of race and country to help a human being in need.
OR
• Describe how Pearl Buck's story "The Enemy"
shows the basic human goodness overpower all
other factors.
2. There are some moments in life when we have to
make hard choices between our role as individual
and as citizens, with reference to the lesson "The
enemy" explain in100 words "How challenges make
us better prepared for life".