NCERT SOLUTION FOR CLASS 12 VISTAS THE ENEMY

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1) Who was Dr. Sadao? Where was his house?

Ans: Dr. Sadao was a Japanese doctor. His house was built on a spot of the Japanese coast. It was set upon rocks above a narrow beach that was outlined with bent pines.

2) Will Dr. Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?

Ans: After operating the wounded enemy soldier. Dr. Sadao wrote all the incident and told it to the General. General assured him that he would not be arrested on the change of harbouring an enemy and said that he (General) will get the man killed by his own private assassins secretly.

3) Will Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?

Ans: At first, Hana did not want to help the wounded man because he was an enemy soldier. But when she saw that her husband was willing to help him, she also got ready to help him. When the maid-servant refused to wash the wounded man, she herself washed him.

4) What will Dr. Sadao and his wife do with the man?

Ans: Dr. Sadao and his wife took the man inside the house. Dr. Sadao operated him and saved his life. He carefully examine and served him. Doctor’s Wife Hana also helped her husband in operating the wounded man. After operation, she nursed the man very kindly and sympathetically.

5) What did Dr. Sadao do with the wouded man?

Ans: Dr. Sadao found a man, wonded in the front of his door steps. The wounded man infact, was an American soldier, Dr. Sadao hesistated first but then the took the man in his house and saved him by operating him.

6) What will Dr. Sadao do to get rid of the man?

Ans: Dr. Sadao waited for the General’s assassins for some days. When they did not come, he thought to get rid of that man. Dr. Sadao dragged his boat down to the shore and put some food, bottled water and two quilts in it. After this, he went into the guest room, checked carefully the enemy’s temperature, the state of the wound, and his heart and pulse. Then gave the man his own flashlight and helped him to get escape in his boat.

READING WITH INSIGHT

1) 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.

Ans: The story ‘The Enemy’ is an example of the hard choice which a person has to make between his two roles. As a private individual doctor Sadao thinks that it his duty to saw the life of an injured person. Not only because he is a human being but also because he is a doctor who has been trained to save and protect life. So he does his duty and saves his life even though his servants go against him and leave his house in a sort of rebellion. As a citizen with a sense of national loyalty, his duty was to hand over the ' injured man to the authorities. In that case, the injured prisoner must have , died. His conscience could not approve of that. But when the man is restored to health, he decides to get rid of him because he is an enemy of his country.He goes to the General and accepts his offer to kill the prisoner. He would not have regretted if the General had kept his promise. But the General failed and he would not, somehow, kill the man himself. So he only helped him to escape. The prisoner thought that he was protecting his life but he was in fact only getting rid of him.

2. 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: It was her humanity, her training as a doctor and her living in America that made Hana sympathetic to him. Like Sadao she had been trained for her medical profession in America. So she could do nothing but help an injured man. Initially both she and her husband wanted to put the man back into the sea. Yet both of them were reluctant to do so. Ultimately they agreed that neither of them had the heart to put an injured person to death.
Once they knew that they did not want him to die and be the helpless watchers themselves, the only course open for them was to treat him. They did so in spite of the open rebellion of their servants who left the house in protest. In fact the open defiance of the servants only made her firmer in her resolve to serve the injured. She was the mistress of the house, she felt and was not to be dictated by the servants.

3. 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?

Ans: The soldier had nowhere to go. If he went out of the doctor’s house, he was sure to be caught by the Japanese and be taken prisoner. He had already been tortured and now as an escaped prisoner he was likely to be tortured more.
On the other hand, the experience had taught her that Sadao and his wife could not possibly betray him. Moreover, he didn’t know a thing about the island until Sadao told him about it. In such circumstances, it was natural for him to want to stay with Sadao even though here too there was some risk involved.

4. 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?

Ans: The carelessness on the part of the ruthless General was on account of a mixture of human consideration and self absorption. While talking to Sadao, he had revealed the fact that he had one of his degrees from America. As he said he could not be as ruthless as the others who had all their training in Germany.

5) While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime, what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?

Ans: It is only a man’s broad mind and rational thinking which can help a man rise above narrow prejudices. The interaction with the common people of other nations and communities can also help to a great extent. In fact, more ignorant a man is, more prejudiced he is towards others. As the General in the story ‘Enemy' remarks. people who have lived in America and studied thou cannot be as of cruel who have never been there.
A false kind of nationalism also gives rise to national prejudices. What is a nation after all? It is a group of people living in fixed geographical boundaries. Such people have no right to think that the people in other groups are in any way inferior to them or that they have any lesser right to independence than they do.

6. Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?

Ans: There is no doubt that the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the given circumstances. For it saved everyone in question. Sadao and Hana were no more sheltering a white man. Their servants could return and the American’s life was also saved. In any other solution, all these things could not be possible.