Chapter 4 Solutions — The Enemy

Reading with Insight

1. 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.
2. 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?
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. 5.
   While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime, what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?
6. 6.
   Do you think the doctor's final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?
7. 7.
   Does the story remind you of 'Birth' by A. J. Cronin that you read in Snapshots last year? What are the similarities?
8. 8.
   Is there any film you have seen or novel you have read with a similar theme?