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