Summary of The Enemy
The Enemy is a war-fiction story by American writer Pearl S. Buck. It is set in the times of World War II. A young American soldier has managed to escape from the clutches of Japanese soldiers and has swum across the ocean to find himself washed ashore near Dr Sadao Hoki’s house. He is wounded by a bullet and lies unconscious while Sadao and his wife Hana contemplate helping him since he is a white American soldier. Given the war, he is an enemy of the state. The couple decides to help the young soldier at last. Read The Enemy Class 12 summary below to find out how the story unravels. You can find more summaries related to Class 12 CBSE English at BYJU’S CBSE Summary. Students can also log in to CBSE Notes for notes and learning materials based on Class 12th CBSE English syllabus.
CBSE Class 12 English The Enemy Summary
Dr Sadao Hoki is portrayed in the story as a very virtuous physician. He had lived life according to the dire necessities and demands of traditional Japanese society. Because his father wanted Sadao to have excellent formal education, he went to America as a student of surgery and medicine at the age of twenty-two. He met his wife Hana there at a professor’s house. Although he liked her, he waited to confirm her pure Japanese roots before he fell in love with her. He knew his father would not have blessed their union otherwise. He did not marry Hana right away in America. Instead, he introduced Hana to his father first after his return to Japan, and their marriage was arranged in the traditional Japanese way.
Due to Sadao’s skills and extraordinary talent as a doctor, he was not sent to fight in the World War. Also, the General was being treated for some condition that might need an expert surgeon like Sadao.
One evening, as Sadao and his wife, Hana, were standing on the veranda of their house, looking at the ocean, they saw a worn-out man wash up against the shore. As he lay there, the couple went to examine him. They saw that he was wounded, and to their astonishment, they discovered that he was a white man – a U.S. soldier who looked like a tortured prisoner who had escaped somehow. He was an enemy to them. Given the political climate of their country, they knew it was illegal to harbour a white man from America.
They pondered the situation for a long time, assessing every single outcome of their actions. They knew they could be punished for saving an enemy prisoner, but their conscience did not allow them to leave a wounded man unattended. They also worried about how the servants might react to this situation. They decided to take this man to their house and inform the servants that they would hand the prisoner back to the police when he was healed.
Dr Sadao and his wife laid the young, white, American prisoner in Dr Sadao’s father’s room which had not been used after his death. An urgent operation seemed vital to save the white man’s life. Dr Sadao and his wife informed their servants about the situation. They seemed to be in a state of shock and denial. When Hana asked their servant Yumi to wash the prisoner, the latter refused to obey her orders, saying that she had never washed a white man in her life and she never intended to do so. Hana let out a furious response but replaced it with a dignified attitude that showed maturity. She cleaned the prisoner herself.
Dr Sadao started his operation and seemed wholly absorbed in his work. He asked Hana to help him with certain things, but Hana had never seen an operation and felt distressed when she saw the brutal wounds of the man being operated on by her husband. Sadao felt irritated at his inability to console his wife and became more ruthless in his task. When the prisoner woke up after the surgery, Hana served him herself.
The prisoner, who had earlier looked like he would be in his early twenties, now looked like he was seventeen years old after the surgery. When he asked Dr Sadao about his intentions with him, the doctor told him that he had not decided what he would do with him and asked the prisoner to keep introductions and informal conversations at bay. As the prisoner was in his recovery stages, Sadao and Hana found it difficult to manage the servants – as they did not want to be part of this unpatriotic act. After Dr Sadao pulled out the last stitches of the prisoner, he calculated that the invalid would require a fortnight to recover fully. He drafted a letter to the Chief of police to report the incident but did not send it.
On the seventh day after this event, the servants left the couple. Dr Sadao continued the treatment of his enemy as usual, and Hana accepted the resignation of the servants gracefully without creating any fuss. In the afternoon, Dr Sadao was taken to the palace to treat the General, who was dealing with unbearable pain. The General valued Dr Sadao a lot. So, when Sadao told him about the wounded prisoner, he offered to help Sadao by killing the prisoner with the help of his trusted assassins. He asked Sadao to keep the prisoner’s door ajar at night and promised him that the task would be carried out swiftly.
Sadao did not sleep properly for three nights in a row as he kept anticipating the prisoner’s assassination. But, each morning, he found the prisoner sound asleep and recovering well. On the third day, when he went to see the prisoner, he informed him that he was strong enough to escape on a boat to an island near the coast. He could escape with the help of Korean fishermen who frequented the waters beyond it. Sadao explained that it was no longer a secret that the prisoner was being treated at his house. The young man seemed to understand the circumstances and agreed to the plan. Dr Sadao explained how the prisoner was supposed to survive and escape the coastal regions without getting caught. He instructed the prisoner to use his flash to signal if he was out of food and water or to inform that he was alright. The prisoner thanked Dr Sadao and set off on the boat at night.
Dr Sadao operated on the General, and a week later, when the latter looked well enough to discuss serious affairs, Sadao informed him that the prisoner had escaped. The General apologised to Dr Sadao for not following his promise – he was preoccupied with his condition and had forgotten entirely about the assassination. Dr Sadao understood that he did not have to worry about the General. He played along with the conversation between them and pledged his loyalty to the General in case of any official enquiry into this matter.
Later that night, when Sadao looked at the sea, he could not see any flashes. He concluded that the prisoner had left that place safely. As he stood there, he remembered all those white faces he had known in America. When his teachers were kind to him, other people, like his landlady, were ruthless to him. He stood there wondering why he was not able to kill that white prisoner.
Conclusion of The Enemy
The Enemy Class 12 Summary shows us how Dr Sadao is stuck between duty and humanitarian obligations. Although he knows well that treating his enemy may lead to unpleasant consequences for him and his family, his conscience is bound to save the prisoner’s life, as he finds it unreasonable to abandon a wounded man to his fate in dire circumstances. He knows that it is his duty as a responsible citizen to report the arrival of an American prisoner at the Japanese shores to the lawful authorities. But, the urge to save a human is stronger than his feelings of patriotism. This feeling intensifies towards the end of the chapter when he helps the prisoner escape.
Understanding the deeper meanings involved in a piece of writing is very important to have a good grasp of literature. Students can find other articles and materials related to CBSE English for better command over the syllabus. They can also find other related topics like grammar and writing on BYJU’S website.
