The Enemy
Pearl s.
Buck
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The Enemy |
Read and Find out
1. Who
was Dr Sadao? Where was his house?
Ans:
Dr. Sadao Hoki was an eminent Japanese surgeon and scientist. He had
spent his eight valuable years of his youth in America to learn all that could
be learned of surgery and medicine. He was perfecting a discovery which would
render wounds entirely clean. By the time he established himself as a famous
surgeon and scientist.
Dr
Sadao’s house was built on rocks well above a narrow beach that was outlined
with bent pines. The house was built on a spot of the Japanese coast.
2. Will
Dr Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?
Ans:
Dr. Sadao Hoki knew that they would be arrested if they sheltered a
Whiteman in their house. The wounded man was a prisoner of war who had escaped
with a bullet on his back. Since Japan was at war with America in the World War
II, harbouring an enemy meant being traitor to Japan. Dr. Sadao could be
arrested if anyone complained against him and accused him of harbouring an
enemy.
3. Will
Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?
Ans:
The injured American was in very poor shape and had to be cleaned before
being operated on. Hana didn’t want Dr Sadao to clean up the filthy and
unconscious prisoner. So, she asked the servant, Yumi to clean up. But the
servant refused to wash the wounded man. Hana rebuked the maid who had refused
to wash a wounded helpless man. Then Hana dipped a small clean towel into the
steaming hot water and washed the man’s face. She kept on washing him until his
upper body was quite cleaned.
4. What
will Dr Sadao and his wife do with the man?
Ans: Dr Sadao and his wife, Hana told the servant that they only wanted to bring the man to his senses so that they could turn him over as a prisoner. They knew that the best possible course under the circumstances was to put him back into the sea. However, Dr Sadao was against handing over a wounded man to the police. He decided to carry him into his house. He operated on him and extracted the bullet from his body. He kept the Whiteman in his house. Dr Sadao and his wife looked after him and fed him till he was strong enough to walk on his legs.
5. What
will Dr Sadao do to get rid of the man?
Ans:
When the wounded American’s health improving slowly, Dr Sadao and his
wife were in a bind as to what could be done with him. Their legal servants had
left them and could pose a threat to their life if they kept him in their
house. As the impatience and frustration of Hana rose, Dr Sadao revealed the
matter to the General who decided to send assassins in his sleep to kill the
young American. Dr Sadao decided to getting rid of the escaped prisoner of war.
The matter could not be resolved, however because the assassin had never
arrived.
So, Dr
Sadao plotted another way to get rid of him, overcome with remorse, and a
distant appreciation to the people he had been associated with America. Another
time he decided to save his patient. He secretly sent him to an isolated island
with food, bottled water, clothing, blanket and his own flashlight on a boat
from where he sailed for freedom and protected on a Korean ship.
Reading with
Insight
1. 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?
Ans: Dr Sadao
was a dutiful and a humanitarian doctor. He was much compelled by his duty to
help the enemy soldier. He didn’t pay and heed to the fact whether the patient
was an enemy or a friend. On the other hand, Dr Sadao’s wife was a very kind
hearted and considerate type of lady. She was obedient, faithful, loyal and
well-wisher of her husband as well. On seeing the wounded soldier in the most
precarious and pitiable condition, she developed a natural sympathy for the
dying and wounded enemy soldier. She couldn’t easily provoke and had to face
the open defiance of her domestic staff. She played a significant role and
contributed towards her duties as wife and the mistress of the house.
Additional But Important
1) Who
was Hana? Where did Dr Sadao meet her?
Or
Who was Sadao’s wife?
Where had he met her? Why did he wait to fall in love with her?
Ans:
Hana was Dr Sadao’s wife. Dr Sadao had met her by chance at an American
professor’s house. Professor Harley and his wife had been kind people. They
held a party at their home for their few foreign students. Hana was a new
student. Dr Sadao waited to fall in love with Hana until he was sure that she
was Japanese and pure in her race. It was because his father would never had
received her unless she had been pure in her race.
2) What
was the chief concern of Dr Sadao’s father?
Ans:
The influence of Sadao’s father was quite dominating on Sadao. His father
never joked or played with him. Sadao’s education was his chief concern. For
this reason he had been sent at twenty-two to America to learn all that could
be learned of surgery and medicine. By the time Dr Sadao established himself as
become famous surgeon and scientist. He was perfecting a discovery which would
render wounds entirely clean.
3) What
did Hana and Dr Sadao see coming out of the mist?
Ans:
Hana and Dr Sadao Hoki were standing outside their house. Suddenly they
saw something black come out of the mist. It turned out to be a man, as it
flung up out of the ocean. He staggered a few steps and crawling. Then he fell
on his face and lay there. Sadao thought him up some fisherman having been
washed from his boat.
4) Why
did the messenger come to Dr Sadao? What did Hana think about it?
Ans:
The General was very ill. He was in pain and required medical treatment
immediately. He had faith only in Dr Sadao’s medical capabilities. With his
order, the messenger came to Dr Sadao’s house to inform about the illness of
the General.
Hana
thought that the messenger came to arrest Dr Sadao for giving shelter to an
American enemy soldier and treatment to the prisoner of war.
5) Why
Dr Sadao never sent with the troops?
Or
Why Dr Sadao not sent
to the battle field?
Or
Why was Dr Sadao
being kept in Japan and not sent abroad with the troops?
Ans:
Dr. Sadao Hoki was an eminent Japanese surgeon and scientist. He was
perfecting a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean. Secondly, the
old General of Japan had full faith in Sadao’s abilities as a surgeon. He
didn’t believe any other doctor. The old General was being treated medically
for a condition for which he might need an operation. Due to these two reasons
Dr Sadao was being kept in Japan and not sent abroad with the troops.
6) Why
did Yumi defy the orders of Hana?
Or
How did Yumi react
when Hana asked her to wash the soldier?
Ans:
Hana asked the maid Yumi to wash the wounded dirty man with warm water.
Finding a whiteman she became stubborn as she had never washed a whiteman. So,
she was determined not to wash him. Hana cried at her out her sternly but Yumi
had a fierce look of resistance on her round face. Then Hana decided to do it
herself and asked her to return back.
7) How
did Sadao and Hana come to know that the man was an American prisoner of war
and an enemy?
Ans:
Sadao and his wife, Hana came nearer to the wounded man and found some
stain of blood on sand. Then they saw that the man was wounded. Sadao turned
the man’s head and saw his face. It was a white man. They read the faint writing
on the cap: “U.S. Navy”. Then finally they came to know that the man was an
American prisoner of war and an enemy as that time Japan was at war with
America in the World War II.
8) What
was the initial reaction of Dr Sadao and Hana on seeing the wounded man?
Or
What did Dr Sadao and
his wife think of doing with the wounded soldier at first?
Ans:
Dr Sadao and his wife found that the wounded white man was a prisoner of
war, they were shocked. They thought if they would shelter a whiteman in their
house, they would be arrested and if they would hand him over to the police, he
would die. So, they thought that it would be the kindness thing to throw him
back in the sea. But the blood of kindness and humanity was flowing in their
vein. So, they brought him to their house. The feeling of humanity and
generosity was overtaken by the feeling of nationality.
9) How
did Hana help Dr Sadao while he operated upon the enemy soldier?
Ans:
Hana was very much helpful while the operation was on. She dipped a small
clean towel into the steaming hot water and washed the man’s face. She was requested
to give the anaesthetic 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.
Ans: Dr Sadao informed the
General about the presence of the American prisoner of war at his house. The
General decided that his private assassins would take care of him and even take
his body away. Sadao agreed to the proposal. However, the General’s assassins didn’t
arrive for the next three days. Consequently, the General’s plan wasn’t executed.
Dr Sadao spent three restless nights in waiting for the assassins, ultimately,
he helped the prisoner to escape.
When Dr Sadao informed the General about
the escape of the prisoner, the General replied that he was sick and thus
forgot about the whole affair. He further wanted Sadao must not inform anybody
about this.
The old General didn’t take the
matter of prisoner seriously. Being an experienced General, he should have
acted promptly in this matter. The American soldier should have been arrested
at once as America was at war with Japan. Certainly it was also a case of
dereliction of duty on General’s part.
11)
What made Dr Sadao sure that the wounded soldier had escaped safely in darkness?
Ans: Dr Sadao had made elaborate arrangements
for the safe escape of the wounded soldier, Tom. He was made to row to a nearby
island. All necessary things were provided to him. He was to signal two flashes
if he ran shortage of food. When no
signal came, Dr Sadao was convinced that Tom had escaped safely.
12)
Write a character-sketch of Dr Sadao Hoki as depicted in “The Enemy”.
Ans: “The Enemy” by Pearl S. Buck,
it is the story of a kind, considerate and Japanese doctor, Dr Sadao who loved
his profession more than anything else. He is perfect role model for all the
doctors of the world who really upholds the values of his profession. His traditional
father had taken a great care of his upbringing and instilled in his mind that
he had to be a great doctor and surgeon. He sent his son to America at the age
of twenty-two to learn all that could be learned of surgery and medicine. He stayed
there for eight valuable years of his youth and observed strict self-discipline.
He met Hana, another Japanese beautiful girl there and fell in love with her. However,
he waited until his father’s approval and married her only after the approval. By
the time he established himself as an eminent surgeon and scientist.
The best traits of his personality
came to light when risking his own life and the entire family he dares to save an
American enemy soldier. Japan was at war with America in the World War II.
During this one American POW, Tom is washed ashore near his house. Sadao saved
him. He faced opposition from his domestic servants but he knew his responsibility
as a doctor.
Not only he was a good human being, he was perfect and skilled doctor also. He was perfecting a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean. General Takima had a great faith in him that is why he offers to help him come out of the trouble of the enemy soldier.
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