Class 12th The Enemy English Summary [VISTAS]

Author - Pearl S.Buck

 It is the story of a Japanese doctor named Sadao. He lives with his wife and two children in a house built on a narrow beach near the sea. Two servants also live with them in the house. One is a maid who looks after the children and the other is an old gardener. One day, Sadao finds a man who has been flung out by the ocean. He has a bullet shot in his back. Sadao takes the man into his house. To his surprise, he finds the man is an American prisoner of war who has escaped. A war was going on between America and Japan and thus it was a grave crime to give shelter to an enemy soldier. So he thinks of putting the man back into the sea. But then he thinks of his duty as a doctor also. He has been trained not to let a man die if can help it. So he decides to operate and take the bullet out of the soldier's body. His wife gives him all the help in doing so. However, she considers the man as an enemy all the time. The two servants leave them because they don't want to take the risk of what Sadao is doing. But Sadao's wife stands by her husband in every way. Sadao keeps the man in his house for about ten days until he is quite normal. Now he wants to get rid of him somehow. If he hands him over to the police, he is sure to be killed. Sado doesn't want that the man he has worked so hard to cure should be killed. So he adopts a course that could be the best under the circumstances. He helps the man to escape in a boat. Thus he gets rid of an enemy without having him killed. We can say that Dr. Sadao rises above narrow prejudices and acts in a truly humanitarian way.