Category: CBSE

NCERT Solutions For Class 12 Vistas English Evans Tries an O-level

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED

READ AND FIND OUT
Q1. What kind of a person was Evans?
Ans. James Roderick Evans was a jail bird. The prison officers called him ‘Evans the Break’ as he had escaped from prison three times. At present he was in a solitary cell in Oxford Prison. He was quite a pleasant sort of chap—an amusing person who was good at imitations. He was not at all violent. He was just a congenital kleptomaniac. It meant he suffered from the disease of involuntarily stealing things. This was disease with which he was bom.

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Q2. What were the precautions taken for the smooth conduct of the examination?
Ans. The solitary cell of Evans was tinned into examination room by placing two small tables and two chairs in it. Reverend Stuart McLeery, a parson from St. Mary Mags was to work as invigilator. The cell was to be kept locked from outside and a prison officer would observe Evans from a peep-hole after every minute or so. All potential weapons such as knife, scissors, nail-file and razor had been taken away. Even the contents of the suitcase of the invigilator were thoroughly searched, fhe paper knife was taken away by a prison officer. The Governor himself was to listen-in the conversation in the cell during the examination. The cell was in the D-Wing which had two heavy gates—outer and inner. Both were locked securely. Mr Jackson, the prison officer, was in constant contact with the Governor on the phone.

Q3. Will the exam now go as scheduled?
Ans. The two-hour examination in O-Level German was scheduled to begin at 9.15 a.m. on Tuesday, 8 June. However, it started a bit late. At 9.20 a.m. Evans objected to the presence of Stephens, a prison officer, in the examination room, as it disturbed his concentration. Under the orders of the Governor, Stephens was got out of the cell.
At 9.40 a.m. a correction slip was dictated to the candidate. At 10.50 a.m. Evans complained of bitter chill and made a request for putting a blanket round his shoulders. At 11.20 a.m. McLeery informed Evans that only five minutes remained. At 11.22 a.m. Jackson called Stephens to the phone. The Governor was on line. Stephens was given orders to escort McLeery to the main prison gates. The examination was over at 11.25 a.m. The door of the cell was locked on Evans after McLeery had left the cell. Thus, the examination went on smoothly as scheduled.

Q4. Did the Governor and his staff finally heave a sigh of relief?
Ans. The Governor heard the door of the cell clang for the last time. The examination was over. Stephens escorted McLeery to the main gates. His Scots accent seemed broader and he seemed to have grown slimmer under his long black overcoat. Stephens was happy
that the morning had gone pretty well. In short, the Governor and his staff finally heaved a sigh of relief.
Their relief was, however, shortlived. On returning to the cell of Evans, Stephens found a person sprawling back in a chair. Blood dripped from his closely cropped front part of head on to his small black beard and over the white clerical collar down into the black clerical front. Stephens shouted wildly for Jackson. It was suspected that Evans had hit McLeery and walked out impersonating him. A search began for Evans dressed as a parson.

Q5. Will the injured McLeery be able to help the prison officers track Evans?
Ans. Injured McLeery spoke slowly and in broken phrases that he knew where Evans was. He asked the prison officers to get the police and not to worry about the ambulance. He found the German question paper on the table. He told Jackson to get the Governor. He drew the attention of the Governor to the German text on photocopied sheet on the last page. The Governor slowly translated it. The words ‘From Elsfied Way drive to the Headington roundabout’ caught his attention. The Examination Board was in Elsfield Way. Meanwhile, the police arrived. Before the Governor could explain anything, McLeery told the officer to go Elsfield Way. The Governor told Detective Superintendent Carter to take injured McLeery with him. McLeery was helped inside the car. He helped the police to follow the direction indicated in the German text.

Q6. Will the clues left behind on the question paper, put Evans back in prison again?
Ans. The text on the last page of German question paper contained the plan of escape. It had important clues of the route. From Elsfield Way the person had to drive to the Headington roundabout and from there to Newbury.
After sometime, Superintendent Carter informed the Governor on phone that McLeery had spotted Evans driving off along Elsfield Way. They had got the number of the car all right and given chase at opce. But they had lost him at the Headington roundabout. Since McLeery felt quite weak when they got to the Examination offices, they rang Radcliffe for the ambulances from there. They left McLeery on Elsfield Way. Thus, the injured McLeery, who had posed to help the authorities, disappeared and Evans remained untraced.
The other clues: Index number 313; Centre number 271 and ‘Golden Lion’ also had a deep meaning. The Governor took help of an Ordnance Survey Map for Oxfordshire. The six figure reference 313/271 brought him in the middle of Chipping Norton. He found Evans in the Golden Lion in Chipping Norton.

Q7. Where did Evans go?
Ans. Evans left the prison disguised as parson McLeery who had been injured by the examinee Evans. He pretended to guide the authorities to help them track Evans. When the police car reached the Examination offices on Elsfield Way, McLeery (Evans in disguise) grogged. An ambulance was called in from the Radcliffe and he was left there.
Evans got into a car as arranged beforehand. It had soap, water, clothes and a map. He removed blood stains from hair, peeled the false beard, changed clothes, put on a smart new hat. Then he drove to the Golden Lion in the middle of Clipping Norton.
He was traced in this hotel by the Governor of Oxford Prison following the clues in the German text on the German question paper.

READING WITH INSIGHT
Q1. Reflecting on the story, what did you feel about Evans’ having the last laugh?
Ans. It is Evans who has the last laugh. The play makes a fun of the routine procedure followed by prison authorities and police. It depicts how the criminals are one step ahead of the jail authorities.
All precautions have been made by the Governor of Oxford Prison to see that the O-Level German examination, held in prison for the prisoner Evans, does not provide him means to escape. The examination passes off peacefully. Mr Stephens, a prison officer, sees off McLeery, the invigilator and on returning to the cell finds injured “McLeery” sprawling in Evans’s chair.
It is easy for Evans impersonating as McLeery to leave the prison along with police officer. He claims to have spotted Evans driving off along Elsfield Way but loses track at the Headington roundabout. He grogs off near the Examination offices. Then he disappears. He is located in the Golden Lion in Chipping Norton by the Governor of Oxford Prison. Instead of bringing Evans securely back to prison, the Governor lets him come in a prison van guarded by a prison officer. It is just what Evans had planned. The driver and the ‘prison officer’ are his friends and Evans escapes from prison once again.
In fact, Evans has made elaborate arrangements. He joins the night classes in September. The German teacher is one of his friends. He has his friends in the Examination Board as well. He waits patiently till June. Two of his friends bind and gag Reverend Stuart McLeery in his Broad Street flat. One of them personates him. He is dressed up as a minister. He has two collars and two black fronts on his person. Evans fiddles about under the blanket with the black front and the stud at the back of the collar. His friends also arrange a car where he can change his make up as well as clothes. He successfully deceives the police as well as the prison authorities.

Q2. When Stephens comes back to the cell he jumps to a conclusion and the whole machinery blindly goes by his assumption without even checking the identity of the injured ‘McLeery’. Qoes this show how hasty conjectures can prevent one from seeing the obvious? How is the criminal able to predict such negligence?
Ans. On his return to the cell of Evans, Stephens saw a man sprawling back in Evans’ chair. For a semi-second Stephens thought it must be Evans. But the small black beard, white clerical collar and black clerical front and red blood dripping from the front of his head, made Stephens jump to a conclusion—Evans impersonating McLeery, had walked out.
Almost immediately the whole machinery jumped into action. No one bothered to check the identity of the injured “McLeery.’ The assumption of Stephens prevailed. It was reinforced by the broader Scots accent and slimmer body of the parson he had seen off and the blood coming out of wound and dress of the “parson” in the cell.
The hasty conjecture prevents one from seeing the obvious. The jail breaker might have played a trick again. Even the Governor is deceived. He believes what his staff says. The man who doubted everything and cross checked it, does not even examine the victim. Due to their long sojourn in prison the criminals become familiar with the temperaments of prison officers as well as the routine they follow. A criminal is always disbelieved. On the other hand, an officer’s word is always accepted. The criminals are sure that negligence of the prison authorities is their only passport to freedom. They doubt the remotest possibility and doubt genuine telephone calls as fake ones, yet an assumption is accepted as truth and the obvious is ignored. Hence, the criminal is able to predict such negligence on the part of prison authorities.

Q3. What could the Governor have done to securely bring back Evans to prison when he caught him at the Golden Lion? Does that final act of foolishness really prove that “he was just another good-for-a-giggle, gullible governor, that was all”.
Ans. The Governor should have escorted Evans himself to the Oxford Prison. He had only two persons with him, and later it turned out that these two persons were associates of Evans. One of them, who posed to be the silent prison officer instructed the driver to move on faster. The driver, who spoke in a broad Scots accent, was the person who acted as the Reverend S. McLeery. The Governor should have at least checked the identity of the staff to whom he was entrusting the prisoner.
Secondly, he should have contacted Mr Jackson and Mr Stephens, the two prison officers, Detective Superintendent Carter and Detective Chief Inspector Bell, who were all searching Evans.
It was perhaps his over excitement and childish enthusiasm at his arm-chair reasoning in locating the hide-out of Evans and catching him at the Golden Lion, that he threw all cautions to wind and acted foolishly by reposing confidence in wrong persons. Evans and his associates had befooled him earlier as well. The German teacher and the invigilator were friends of Evans. The correction slip sent from Examination Branch was a clever device to convey the route of escape and the hide-out. The Governor’s last act of foolishness really proved that he was only worth being laughed at as he was too credulous and trustful.

Q4. While we condemn the crime, we are sympathetic to the criminal. Is this the reason why prison staff often develop a soft comer for those in custody?
Ans. People condemn the crime as it is an evil act against law and society. In the past, punishment was the only way to treat the criminals. The greater the crime, the harsher and harder the punishment, which could go to the extent of life-imprisonment or death sentence.
In the modem age, efforts are on to reform the criminals, even the hard core, and bring them back to the mainstream. Hence police, prison officers, judges and other law-enforcing agencies develop a soft comer for the people in custody. While the sufferer should get justice, the innocent must not be punished. This idea too helps the prison staff often develop a soft comer for jthe prisoners.
The behaviour of prison officer Jackson amply illustrates the above point. He is very strict in enforcing the rules and regulations of prison as well as the Governor’s orders. Yet somewhere in him we find a tiny core of compassion. Even Evans knew it. Mr Jackson has asked Evans to remove that filthy bobble hat. Evans requested him to allow it to wear it during exam as it brought luck to him. It was kind o’ lucky charm for him. Jackson agreed.

Q5. Do you agree that between crime and punishment it is mainly a battle of wits?
Ans. Crime and punishment are like two sides of the coin. Punishment follows crime. It is only after a crime has been committed that the law-enforcing agencies become active and try to nab the offenders and bring them to book. If efforts of the police are successful, suitable punishment is awarded to the criminals.
Since the location, time and victim of a crime cannot be predicted in advance, preventive action to check the crime is not possible. Even tight security fails when hardened criminals or suicide-minded human bombs come into play.
Criminals are always one step ahead of the police. It is always a battle of wits between the two. The police tries to trace the clues left by the criminals and apprehend them on the basis of these. On the other hand, the criminals devise a foolproof plan and try to leave no clues which might help in identification later on. Since the legal system is based on evidence—both human and material—police as well as criminals and their lawyers, use their wits to turn the case in their favour and win it.

MORE QUESTIONS SOLVED

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1.What request did the Secretary of the Examination Board receive from the Governor of Oxford Prison?
Ans. The request was to create an examination centre in the prison for one candidate named James Roderick Evans. He had started night classes in O-Level German last September. He was the only one in the class and said that he was keen to get some sort of academic qualification. The Secretary agreed to give him a chance and promised to send all the forms and stuff.

Q2. What enquiry did the Secretary of the Examination Board make about Evans? What did the Governor tell him about Evans?
Ans. The Secretary wanted to know if Evans was a violent sort of person. The Governor told him that there was no record of violence. He was informed that Evans was quite a pleasant fellow—an amusing person. He was good at imitation and hence h star at the Christmas concert. He suffered from the desire to steal. He had this disease from birth.

Q3. What facts about Evans did the Governor of Oxford Prison not reveal to the Secretary of the Examination Board?
Ans. Evans was called ‘Evans the Break’ by the prison officers. He had escaped from prison three times already. He would have done so from Oxford Prison as well if there had pot been unrest in the maximum security establishments up north.

Q4. What issue regarding conducting the examination did the Secretary of Examination Board raise? What was he told?
Ans. The Secretary wanted to know whether a room could be arranged for holding examination. The Governor told him that Evans had a cell on his own. He could sit the exam in there. Secondly, they could easily get one of the parsons from St. Mary Mags to invigilate. The Secretary hoped that they would not have much trouble in keeping Evans without communicating with others.

Q5. Who met Evans on the eve of the examination? What does this brief interview reveal?
Ans. It was Evans’ German teacher who shook him by the hand at 8.30 p.m. on Monday, 7 June. They met in the heavily guarded Recreational Block, just across from D Wing. The teacher wished him good luck in German, which Evans failed to understand. The teacher observed that he had a remote chance of getting through. Evans remarked that he might surprise everybody. These remarks prove quite meaningful and prophetic.

Q6. Who visited Evans on the morning of the Examination? What did they visit him for?
Ans. Mr Jackson and Mr Stephens visited Evans. Jackson was the senior prison officer on D Wing and Stephens was a burly, surly-looking, new recruit. They visited him to ensure that he did not retain any potential weapon with him. Mr Stephens was asked to take away the razor after Evans had shaved himself.

Q7. What evidence do you get from the text to show that Mr Jackson and Evans “had already become warm enemies” ?
Ans. Jackson nodded curtly. He addressed Evans as “little Einstein” and mockingly enquired about him. He felt annoyed as Evans pointed out his ignorance about Einstein. Jackson genuinely loathed about the long, wavy hair of Evans. He had taken away the nail-scissors and nail-file of Evans. He used the word ‘bloody’ too often while addressing Evans.

Q8. How was the Reverend Stuart McLeery dressed and why ?
Ans. He had put on a long black overcoat and a shallow-crowned clerical hat. His spectacles had thick lenses. It was a chilly day for early June and the steady drizzle, which had set in half an hour earlier still continued. In his right hand he was carrying a small brown suitcase.

Q9. What were the contents of the small brown suitcase that McLeery carried?
Ans. It had a sealed question paper envelope, a yellow invigilation form, a special ‘authentication’ card from the Examination Board, a paper knife, a Bible, and a current copy of ‘The Church Times’. Except the last two articles, the rest were related to his morning duties as invigilator.

Q10. What was the object found in McLeery’s suitcase that puzzled Mr Jackson? How did McLeery react to Mr Jackson’s query?
Ans. There was a smallish semi-inflated rubber ring. Even a young child with a waist of about twelve inches might have to struggle into it. Jackson asked McLeery if he was thinking of going for a swim. McLeery’s amiable demeanour was slightly ruffled by this tasteless pleasantry. He answered Jackson somewhat sourly and told him he suffered from piles.

Q11. What instructions did the invigilator issue to the examiner before the examination?
Ans. He asked the examinee if he had got a watch. He would tell him when to start and again
when he had five minutes left. He asked him to write the name of the paper, 021-1, in the .
top left-hand comer, and his index number-313 in the top right-hand comer. Just below that he was to write his centre number-271.

Q12. How did the Governor, who was listening-in, react to these numbers at that time and later on after the escape of Evans?
Ans. Initially, the Governor took them as innocuous, routine information and did not pay much attention. Later on, when Evans had escaped, he consulted the Ordnance Survey Map for Oxfordshire. He found that the six-figure reference 313/271 pointed to the middle of Chipping Norton—the place of hiding for run away Evans.

Q13. What was the import of the two phone calls the Governor received after a quarter of an hour of the start of the examination?
Ans. The first phone call was from the Assistant Secretary of the Examination Board. It was about a correction slip in the O-Level German paper. The word ‘Golden Lion’ was to replace ‘Golden Lowe’. The second call was from the Magistrate’s Court. They needed a prison van and a couple of prison officers for a remand case.

Q14. How did the Governor react to the two phone calls he received in quick succession?
Ans. When the Governor received the first call, he checked it immediately by dialling the number of the Examination Board. He wanted to ascertain whether it was a fake phone call or some signal or secret message. He found the line engaged. After the second phone call, the Governor was wondering whether that could be a hoax. Then he told himself not to be so silly. His imagination was beginning to run riot.

Q15. What did Stephens notice on looking through the peep-hole of Evans’ cell?
Ans. He found Evans sitting with his pen between his lips. He was staring straight in front of him towards the door. Opposite him sat McLeery. His hair was amateurishly clipped pretty closely to the scalp. His eyes were fixed at ‘The Church Times’. His right index finger was hooked beneath the narrow clerical collar. The fingers of the left hand were slowly stroking the short black beard.

Q16. What request did Evans make about half an hour before the end of the examination? How did McLeery and Stephens react to it?
Ans. Evans made a polite request if he could put a blanket round his shoulders as it was a bit chilly there. McLeery told Evans to be quick about it. A minute later, Stephens was surprised to see a grey blanket draped round Evans shoulders.

Q17. Who was the phone call three minutes before the end of the examination meant for? How important did it prove?
Ans. The phone call was meant for Stephens. Jackson told him that the Governor wanted to speak to him. Stephens listened to the rapidly spoken orders. The phone call was important. Stephens had to accompany McLeery to the main prison gates. He was to see the door locked on Evans after McLeery had left the cell. It was also important for Evans. He could make swift changes and adjustments, in his dress and make-up.

Q18. What did* Stephens notice on coming back to the cell of Evans? What did he assume?
Ans. Stephens saw a man sprawling in Evans’ chair. The front of his closely cropped, irregularly tufted hair was covered with red blood. It had dripped already through the small black beard. It was now spreading over the white clerical collar and down into the black clerical front. He assumed that Evans had hit McLeery and left the prison impersonating McLeery.

Q19. How did the Prison machinery swing to action? What point was overlooked?
Ans. Sirens were sounded. Prison officers shouted orders. Puzzled prisoners pushed their way along the corridors. Doors were banged and bolted. Phones were ringing everywhere. Jackson and Stephens supported McLeery on either side and brought him to the prison yard. The identity of the injured “McLeery” remained unchecked. Thus, hasty conjectures prevented them from seeing the obvious.

Q20. How did the injured “McLeery’’ behave? What, do you think, did he achieve by this sort of behaviour?
Ans. The injured “McLeery” claimed to know where Evans was. He showed more interest in arrival of police than of ambulance. He drew the Governor’s attention to the German question paper. The photocopied sheet in German contained the route of escape. He diverted the attention of the prison officers and the police to the person (Evans) who had already left the prison.

Q21. What did the Governor tell Detective Superintendent Carter when he enquired about the injured “McLeery”?
Ans. Carter wondered who had hit “McLeery”. Before the Governor could explain anything, McLeery told the officer to go to Elsfield Way, where Evans… The Governor told Carter to take “McLeery” with him if he thought he would be all right. He was the only one who seemed to know what was happening. Thus, injured “McLeery” left the prison in police car as a witness.

Q22. What conclusion did the Governor arrive at after reading the German text on the question paper?
Ans. The text advised Evans to drive to the Headington roundabout from Elsfield Way. The Examinations Board was in Elsfield Way. Someone from the Board must have been involved in the escape plan from the very beginning. It was clear from the question paper and the correction slip.

Q23. What did the Governor’s questioning of Stephens reveal?
Ans. It was Stephens who had taken “Evans” to the main gates. Stephens claimed that he had acted as he had been told by the Governor on phone at about twenty past eleven just before the paper was over. The Governor said that he had not rung him. He had used the telephone at that time, unsuccessfully, to get through to the Examinations Board.

Q24. Why was the Governor angry with Jackson?
Ans. Jackson had spent two hours in Evans’s cell the previous evening. He had confidently reported that there was nothing hidden away there. Yet Evans had concealed a false beard, a pair of spectacles, a dogcollar and other material of a priest. He also had a weapon with which he hit McLeery across the head.

Q25. What did the Governor think of Evans and his plan after ringing up Detective Chief Inspec¬tor Bell?
Ans. The Governor admired clever Evans and his beautifully laid plan. He called it careless of him to leave the question paper behind. He observed that all criminals made mistakes somewhere. That is why they were nabbed. He hoped that very shortly Mr clever-clever Evans would be back inside the prison.

Q26. What did Detective Superintendent Carter inform the Governor about Evans?
Ans. Superintendent Carter informed the Governor that McLeery had spotted Evans driving off along Elsfield Way. They had got the number of the car all right. They had given chase immediately, but they had lost him at the Headington roundabout. He assumed that Evans must have doubled back into the city.

Q27. Where, according to the Governor, was Evans likely to be found and why ? What did he think about himself after this episode?
Ans. The Governor said that Evans was on his way to Newbury. He explained his reasons for believing so. The clues in the German text pointed to this. It was now a police job to arrest him. He thought he was merely a laughing stock, a credulous governor.

Q28. What truth did the enquiries about injured “McLeery” from (i) Carter and (ii) the Radcliffe reveal?
Ans. Carter said that he was in the Radcliffe. He was really groggy near the Examination offices. They rang for the ambulance from there. The accident department of the Radcliffe informed him that there was no parson named McLeery there. They had sent an ambulance to Elsfield Way, but the fellow had vanished from there by then.

Q29. Where did they find the Reverend S. McLeery and in what condition? What can you deduce from it?
Ans. A quarter of an hour later they found the Reverend S. McLeery in his study in Broad Street. He was bound and gagged securely. He said that he had been there since 8.15 a.m. when two men had called and… It is obvious that the two men were helpers of Evans and one of them acted as the Reverend S. McLeery during the Exam.

Q30. What did the inmates of the prison come to know by tea-time?
Ans. They came to know what had really happened. Earlier, it was presumed that Evans had impersonated McLeery and walked out of the prison. The truth was that Evans, impersonating McLeery, had stayed in.

Q31. What sort of hair did Evans have? How then did he personate McLeery?
Ans. Evans had long, wavy hair, whereas the hair of McLeery had been amateurishly clipped pretty closely to the scalp. Jackson had pinched Evans’s scissors. So, he had to remove his hair off his head with his only razor. Then he kept his head covered with a bobble hat to prevent detection.

Q32. Jackson had thoroughly searched Evans’s cell for two hours the previous evening. How then was Evans able to disguise himself as a parson?
Ans. Evans had really nothing hidden in the cell. It was McLeery who had worn two black fronts and two collars. Evidently, Evans put on one set of these. He used the blanket to cover his act. The parson suddenly seemed to have grown slimmer when he left the Oxford Prison.

Q33. “It was that bloody correction slip, I s’pose”. Who said this, when and why?
Ans. Evans said this when he found the Governor of Oxford Prison in his room in Hotel Golden Lion in Chipping Norton. He knew he was beaten. The details of the escape plan were there on the correction slip and he had left it there on the table.

Q34. What two purposes did the correction slip serve? Which of them did Evans consider more important?
Ans. The correction slip provided Evans the name of the hotel and its location. Secondly, it contained the exact time the exam started. The really important thing for Evans was that the phone rang just before the exam finished. Thus, he was able to get the prison officers out of the way for a couple of minutes.

Q35. “How did you know which Golden Lion it was? There’s imdreds of ’em,” said Evans. How did the Governor of Oxford Prison locate the hiding place of Evans?
Ans. The Governor told Evans that he used the same method as Evans had done. The six-figure reference 313/271 was formed by two hints—Index number 313 and Centre number 271. If one takes an Ordnance Survey Map for Oxfordshire, this number lands one bang in the middle of Chipping Norton.

Q36. “Tell me one thing before we go. How on earth did you get all that blood to pour over your head?” asks the Governor. How does Evans react to this question?
Ans. Evans looked a little happier. He said it was very clever to get a couple of pints of blood into a cell. There was none there to start off with. The “invigilator” got searched before he came in. Evans refused to disclose it as he might use that trick again. Governor then enquired if it was anything to do with a little rubber ring for piles. Evans grinned and asked if it wasn’t clever.

Q37. “Must have been a tricky job sticking a couple of pints.” “Nah! you’ve got it wrong, sir. No problem about that.” In the light of the above remarks, explain what problem regarding blood Evans faced and howjt was solved?
Ans. Storing blood in the rubber ring was not the problem. It was clotting that was the big problem. They got pig’s blood from slaughter house in Kidlington. But to stop it clotting actual blood has to be mixed with one-tenth of its volume of 3.8 per cent trisodium citrate.

Q38. How did Evans manage to plan the escape from, prison?
Ans. The Governor had taken enough precautions. Evans had no visitors. He had no letters. Evans told the Governor that he had got lots of friends. He gave the example of his German teacher. The Governor said he was from the Technical College. Evans seemed to enjoy all this and asked if he had checked it. Reluctantly, the Governor had to admit that far more was going on than he thought or imagined.

Q39. What suggestion did the handcuffed Evans make while clambering to van?
Ans. Evans observed that the Governor’s German was pretty good and asked if he knew any more of the modem languages. When the Governor said, “Not very well,” Evans grinned happily. He said that he had noticed that they had got some O-Level Italian classes coming up next September. The Governor said that perhaps he wouldn’t be with them next September. Evans pondered over these words and said that he wouldn’t.

Q40. Who, do you think, has the last laugh—the Governor or Evans? How?
Ans. The Governor is complacent that he has nabbed the run away prisoner and soon the police van will land him in prison. However, facts prove otherwise. As the van turns to the Oxford road, the silent prison officer unlocks the handcuffs and asks the driver to move on fast. The driver enquires in broad Scots accent where they should make for. Evans suggests Newbury. It is crystal clear that the two persons are accomplices of Evans. He has escaped from prison once again. Hence, it is Evans who has the last laugh.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. Should criminals in prison be given the opportunity of learning and education ? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Ans. Modern prisons are no longer the dark dungeons of the middle ages where even the rays of the sun could not penetrate. Human rights are observed scrupulously in all civilised countries even in jails. These prisons are gradually becoming reform houses. Under the prevailing conditions criminals are given the opportunity of self improvement. Provision is made for learning and education. The light of knowledge, it is hoped, will reform the criminals, change their thoughts and make them responsible citizens. They will join the mainstream, give up crime and contribute to the well-being of society and nation. Instead of physical torture and mental agony, love and sympathy be used to transform the bitterness, cruelty and evil bent of mind. Let us hate sin and crime, not the sinner and criminals. Hence, the criminals should be given opportunity of learning and education in prison.

Q2. What precautions were taken for the smooth conduct of the O-Level German examination in prison and why ?
Ans. James Roderick Evans was a smart fellow. He was known as ‘Evans the Break’ among the prison officers. He had escaped from prison three times. Now he was taking O-Level German Examination in prison.His solitary cell was located in D-Wing, which had two heavy gates—outer and inner. Both were locked securely. Evans’s cell was kept under strict observation. Prison officer Mr Stephens watched his activities every minute through the peep-hole. Mr Jackson, the incharge of D-Wing, was in constant touch with the Governor on phone. The Governor himself listened in to the conversation in the cell. During his stay in prison, Evans was not allowed to have any visitor or letters.
All potential weapons such as knife, scissors, nail-file and razor had been removed from the cell of Evans. The contents of the suitcase of the invigilator, Reverend S. McLeery were also thoroughly searched. Even the paper-knife was taken away. In short, all precautions had been taken to see that Evans did not get a means to escape.

Q3. How was Evans able to devise foolproof plan for escape from prison as well as items for disguise in spite of severe restrictions and strict observation ?
Ans. First, Evans joined the 0-Level German night classes in last September. He was the only student. The Governor had appointed a teacher from the Technical College. Since Governor did not check on the person, a friend of Evans joined as German teacher. He was in contact with him everyday and visited him even on the eve of the examination to say good luck. The plan was devised slowly—from September to June.
Reverend S. McLeery, who was to invigilate, was bound and gagged in his flat. A friend of Evans replaced him as invigilator. McLeery put on double clerical collar, two black clerical fronts. He carried a pair of reading glasses and the semi-inflated rubber ring for piles in his suitcase.
Evans had friends in the Examination Board as well. The correction slip fixed the hotel and provided exact time of start of paper. Two more telephone calls proved handy—One asking for prison-van for court and the other for giving instructions to Stephens. It was near the Examination Board that Evans as “injured McLeery” got a car to change his make¬up and clothes and escape to Golden Lion. Here, it is worth-mentioning that the silent prison officer and the driver, who drove the prison van from the Golden Lion and helped Evans escape, were his friends.

Q4. What factors, other than friends, do you think, contributed to the success of the plan of the escape devised by Evans?
Ans. Evans’s calm, pleasant, amusing temperament and his insight into the working of the minds of prison authorities helped him a lot. He devised everything carefully and executed the plan skilfully. Every detail was worked out beforehand. For example, he knew that Mr Jackson who used rough tone, had some compassion for him deep inside. He granted Evans’s request to keep the filthy looking red and white bobble hat on his head during the examination. It was, in fact, a device to hide his recently closely cropped hairs. Secondly, he knew that the whole prison machinery blindly goes by assumption. He impersonated McLeery and posed to be injured. No one checked the injured “McLeery”. The hasty conjecture was that Evans, impersonating McLeery, had hit the parson and escaped. It prevailed. The police was after run away Evans while the real Evans left the prison with the police as the only witness. He claimed to have seen Evans driving. When they reached Examination Board he acted as if he was quite weak. The police officer phoned for an ambulance and left Evans there. He got into the car his friends had kept for him and disappeared from the scene. Thus, his ingenuity, presence of mind and theatricality also helped him.

Q5. What lapses on the part of the police and prison authorities helped Evans to escape from the prison?
Ans. In spite of elaborate precautions and careful arrangements, Evans succeeds in slipping away. Certain lapses on the part of the police and prison authorities contribute to it. The Governor, who smells a rat in every call and tries to cross check it, fails at vital moments. For example, no one tries to verify the identity of the German teacher, the invigilator, the “injured” McLeery, the driver of prison-van and the “silent” prison officer who handcuffs Evans at the Golden Lion hotel. Sometimes, appearance—the outward form and dress— deceives as it is accepted to be genuine. The criminals impersonate even the prison officer and driver. The Detective Superintendent too acts hastily. He does not drive to the Rad- cliffe and get the “injured” McLeery admitted there. This provides him God-sent opportunity to disappear. The greatest lapse is on the part of the Governor who nabs Evans at Golden Lion hotel and fails to bring him to jail as he gets tricked by the prison-van, “silent” prison officer and driver. Had he waited for police escort, Evans would not have escaped yet again.

Q6. What estimate do you form of the Governor of Oxford Prison ?
OR
How far do you agree with the observation: “He was just another good-for-a-giggle, gullible governor, that was all” ?
Ans. The Governor was a fussy sort of person. He would carry things to the extreme and in his enthusiasm, sometimes overdid them and ignored the obvious. His imagination seemed to run riot. He was apprehensive that Evans might try to take advantage of the examination and escape. He was filled with doubts. Evans might take advantage of the invigilator and hi-jack-knife him.
The Governor wag duty-conscious. He did not run away from responsibility. He listened- in to the conversation in the cell himself. In spite of all his virtues, the Governor had a serious flaw. He was too credulous. He had full faith in his officers and the law-enforcing machinery. He believed the injured “McLeery” and let him accompany Superintendent Carter to help him trace Evans. Actually, he let Evans leave the prison.
The final act of foolishness was when he let Evans be carried in a prison-van, without sufficient police escort. He had used his intelligence to locate the hide-out of Evans and nab him. His gullible nature deprived him of all credit. In the end, he appeared as “another good-for-a-giggle, gullible governor.”

Q7. Using examples from the play ‘‘Evans Tries An 0-Level’ show how the criminals like Evans turn the tables on the Governor of Oxford Prison and the local police.
Ans. Evans is familiar with the methods of the prison authorities and he anticipates all their moves. Hence, in the battle of wits between himself and the official machinery he employs tricks unknown to them. The new German teacher and the replaced invigilator are merely stooges of Evans. Carrying blood in a rubber ring for piles is a novelty. The device of the correction slip to fix the hide out and the route to it is another piece of ingenuity. The master-stroke is when Evans impersonating wounded “McLeery” stays in prison and misguides the police to trace the parson. The use of modem devices such as prison-van, car, telephone, Ordnance Survey Map for Oxfordshire etc. shows how the criminals can misuse these facilities for their own ends. The whole operation is run by someone in the Examination Board who remains unknown till the end. It is well-planned and skilfully executed escape using the prison-van and prison staff.

Q8. What impression do you form of ‘Evans the Break’?
OR
Attempt a brief character sketch of James Roderick Evans.
Ans. “Evans the Break” as he was known among the prison officers was a jail-bird. He was a congenital kleptomaniac, but he was non-violent. He was quite a pleasant sort of person— an amusing chap; a star at the Christmas concert good at imitations.
Evans had long wavy hair. When we meet him for the first time his face was unshaven and he wore a filthy looking red and white bobble hat upon his head. He had tucked a grubby string-vest into equally grubby trousers. He smiled cheerfully at the prison officers. “Evans is smart, cunning and resourceful. He makes a request to Mr Jackson to allow him to put on his bobble hat. But he complains to the invigilator against Stephens. Stephens’ presence disturbs Evans’ concentration. He makes a very polite request to cover himself with blanket as it is chilly. He uses it to put on the clerical collar and black front. He employs the brief absence of prison officers to disguise himself as parson McLeery and spill blood on himself to look injured. He acts the part of injured parson well. He offers to help police and wins their confidence. He becomes groggy and is left there to wait for ambulance.
Evans enjoys the faith, support and active cooperation of his dedicated friends. They plan carefully, working out the minute details and execute it skilfully. He never loses his calm or presence of mind even in the worst circumstances.

Q9. Comment on the ending of the play ‘Evans Tries An O-Level’.
Ans. The ending of the play is qyite surprising and unexpected. Only a couple of minutes ago the Governor of Oxford Prison had nabbed Evans from his hide-out at the ‘Golden Lion’. A silent prison officer handcuffed the recaptured Evans. Then the two men clambered awkwardly into the back seat of the prison-van.
The Governor bade him farewell but wished to see him soon in his jail. Evans too behaved as if he would remain there for a long time and wanted to know about the O-Level Italian classes coming up next September. The Governor remarked that perhaps Evans might not be with them then. Evans pondered over it and said that he wouldn’t. After a couple of minutes Evans implemented what he had predicted. Not only were the handcuffs unlocked, but the van moved on fast towards Newbury.
Evans is once again free. The broad Scots accent leaves us in no doubt who the driver was. Once again Evans scores over the prison authorities.

Q10. Comment on the aptness of the title ‘Evans Tries An O-Level’
OR
Do you think the title ‘Evans Tries An O-Level’ is appropriate. Give reasons in support of your answer.
Ans. The title ‘Evans Tries An O-Level’ is quite apt and suggestive. The action of the play begins with a conversation between the Secretary of the Examination Board and the Governor of the Oxford Prison about holding the O-Level examination in German at the prison. The play ends with the mention of O-Level Italian classes and Evans’s interest in them. The middle portion of the play is devoted to the holding of the O-Level Examination and its consequences—escape of Evans impersonating McLeery, the Invigilator. In short, the title dominates the play and is interwoven in the whole action.
The title indicates how criminals may exploit a facility for their selfish purpose of escaping from prison. It, thus, throws a comment on crime and punishment. The complacent Governor and methodical prison officers are outwitted again by a smart criminal ahd his friends who help in his adventure. It makes us laugh at the discomfiture of the efficient prison authorities.

Q11. Describe the precautions taken by the prison officers to prevent Evans from escaping.[Delhi 2014]
Ans. Special precautions were taken by the prison staff to prevent him from escaping during Evans O-level German test. A parson from St. Mary Mags was called to invigilate. Evans “was put in the heavily guarded recreational block. Between the cell and the yard there were two locked doors. The prison officers were on alert. In Evan’s cell a microphone was installed while Mr. Stephens kept eye on Evans. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Stephens, the two prison officers checked his cell thoroughly for the possible escape.
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Death the Leveller Summary

NCERT Solutions For Class 12 Vistas English The Enemy

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED

READ AND FIND OUT
Q1. Who was Dr Sadao? Where was his house?
Ans. Dr Sadao Hoki was an eminent Japanese surgeon and scientist. He had spent eight valuable years of his youth in America to learn all that could be learnt of surgery and medicine there. He was perfecting a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean.
Dr Sadao’s house was built on rocks well above a narrow beach that was outlined with bent pines. It was on a spot of the Japanese coast.

Q2. Will Dr Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?
Ans. Dr Sadao knew that they would be arrested if they sheltered a white man in their house. The wounded man was a prisoner of war who had escaped with a bullet on his back. Since Japan was at war with America, harbouring an enemy meant being a traitor to Japan. Dr Sadao could be arrested if anyone complained against him and accused him of harbouring an enemy.

Q3. Will Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?
Ans. The gardener and the cook were frightened that their master was going to heal the wound of a white man—an enemy. They felt that after being cured he (the white man) will take revenge on the Japanese. Yumi, the maid, was also frightened. She refused to wash the white man. Hana rebuked the maid who had refused to wash a wounded helpless man. Then she dipped a small dean towel into the steaming hot water and washed the white man’s face. She kept on washing him until his upper body was quite dean. But she dared not turn him over.

Q4. What will Dr Sadao and his wife do with the man?
Ans. Dr Sadao and his wife, Hana, had told the servants that they only wanted to bring the man to his senses so that they could turn him over as a prisoner. They knew that the best possible course under the circumstances was to put him back into the sea. However, Dr Sadao was against handing over a wounded man to the police. He dedded to carry him into his house. He operated upon him and extracted the bullet from his body. He kept the white man in his house. He and his wife looked after him and fed him till he was strong enough to walk on his legs. .

Q5. Will Dr Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?
Ans. It was the seventh day since Dr Sadao had operated upon the young white man. Early that morning, their three servants left together. In the afternoon, a messenger came there in official uniform. He told Dr Sadao that he had to come to the palace at once as the old General was in pain again.
Hana, who had thought that the officer had come to arrest Dr Sadao, asked the messenger, “Is that all?” The baffled messenger enquired if that was not enough. She tried to cover her mistake by expressing regret and admitted that the General’s illness was enough. Dr Sadao told the General about the white man he had operated upon. Since Dr Sadao was indispensable to the General, he promised that Dr Sadao would not be arrested.

Q6. What will Dr Sadao do to get rid of the man?
Ans.Dr Sadao had told the old General that he had operated upon a white man. The General promised to send his private assassins to kill the man silently and secretly at night and remove his body. Dr Sadao left the outer partition of white man’s room open. He waited anxiously for three nights. The servants had left their house. His wife Hana had to cook, clean the house and serve the wounded man. She was unaccustomed to this labour. She was anxious that they should get rid of the man.
Dr Sadao told Tom, the white man, that he was quite well then. He offered to put his boat on the shore that night. It would have food and extra clothing in it. Tom might be able to row to the little island which was not far from the coast. It had not been fortified. The .water was quite deep. Nobody lived there, as it was submerged in storm. Since it was not the season of storm, he could live there till he saw a Korean fishing boat pass by. He gave the man his flashlight. He was to signal twice with his flashlight at sunset in case his food ran out. In case, he was still there and all right, he was to signal only once.
Dr Sadao gave the man Japanese clothes and covered his blond head with a black doth. In short, Dr Sadao helped the man to escape from Japan. At the same time he also got rid of the man.

READING WITH INSIGHT
Q1.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. Dr Sadao Hoki faces a dilemma when he finds the body of an unconscious wounded white man lying on the lonely coast with dangerous rocks near his house. His first reaction was that the person was perhaps a fisherman who had been washed from his boat. He ran quickly down the steps. His wife, Hana came behind him. When they came near, Sadao found that the man was wounded and lay motionless. His face was in the sand. As they saw his face, they found that he was a white man with long yellow hair and a rough yellow beard.
Being an expert surgeon, Dr Sadao saw that the man had a gun-wound on the right side of his lower back. He at once packed the wound with sea moss to stanch the fearful bleeding. Since Japan was at war with America, the white man was an enemy. Dr Sadao muttered, “What shall we do with this man?” He answered the question himself, “The best thing that we could do would be to put him back in the sea.” His wife approved of his decision.
Then Sadao made another observation. If they sheltered a white man in their house they would be arrested and if they turned him over as a prisoner, he would certainly die. Hana still insisted on putting him back into the sea. From his battered cap, Dr Sadao concluded that he was a sailor from an American warship. The man was a prisoner of war. He had escaped and that was why he was wounded in the back..
Hana asked if they were able to put him back into the sea. Sadao then said that if the man was whole he could turn the man over to the police without difficulty. He cared nothing for the man. He was their enemy. All Americans were their ‘enemy’. But since he was wounded… Hana understood his dilemma and realised that in the conflict between his sense of national loyalty and his duty as a doctor, it was the latter which proved dominant. Since Sadao too could not throw him back to the sea, the only course left for them was to carry him to their house. Sadao enquired about the reaction of the servants.
Hana said that they would, tell the servants that they intended to give the man to the police. She told Sadao that they must do so. They had to think of the children and the doctor’s position. It would endanger all of them if they did not give that man over as a prisoner of war.
Sadao agreed and promised that he would not think of doing anything else.

Q2. 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. Dr Sadao and his wife, Hana, together lifted the wounded man and carried him to an empty bedroom in their house. The man was very dirty. Sadao suggested that he had better be washed. He offered to do so if she would fetch water. Hana was against it. She suggested that the maid, Yumi, could wash the man. They would have to tell the servants. Dr Sadao examined the man again and remarked that the man would die unless he was operated upon at once. He left the room to bring his surgical instruments.
The servants did not approve of their master’s decision to heal the wound of a white man. Even Yumi refused to wash the white man. There was so fierce a look of resistance upon Yumi’s round dull face that Hana felt unreasonably afraid. Then she said with dignity that they only wanted to bring him to his senses so that they would turn him over as a prisoner. However, Yumi refused to have anything to do with him. Hana asked Yumi gently to return to her work.
The open defiance from the domestic staff hurt Hana’s feelings. She had told the servants to do what their master commanded them. She was convinced of her own superiority. She now became sympathetic to her husband and helped him in his efforts to heal the wounded man. Though the sight of the white man was repulsive to her, she washed his face and his upper body. She prepared herself to give him the anaesthetic according to her husband’s instructions. She had never seen an operation. She choked and her face turned pale like sulphur. She felt like vomiting and left for a while. She returned after retching and administered anaesthetic to the man. Thus she co-operated with her husband fully to save the wounded man.

Q3. 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. On the third day after the operation, the young man asked Dr Sadao what he was going to do with him and if he was going to hand him over. Dr Sadao said that he did not know himself what he would do with the mem. He ought to hand him over to the police as he was a prisoner of war.
The young man saw that Dr Sadao and his wife Hana were different from other Japanese. They spoke English well, looked after him and served him food. Seven days after the operation of the man, Dr Sadao was called to the palace to see the General. Hana thought that the police had come to arrest Dr Sadao. Dr Sadao confided in the General and he (General) promised to send his personal assassins to kill the man and remove his body. Dr Sadao waited for three nights. Nothing happened. Then he made a plan to let the prisoner escape. He told Tom, the young American, about it. The young man stared at him and asked if he had to leave. It seemed he was reluctant to leave. Dr Sadao told him that he should understand everything clearly. It was not hidden that he was there and this situation was full of risk for himself as well as for the doctor and his family. Thus it is quite clear that the reluctance of the soldier was caused by the single motive of self-preservation. He knew from the treatment he had received from the couple that they would save him.

Q4. 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. During his meeting with the General, Dr Sadao told him about the man he had operated on successfully. He explained that he cared nothing for the man. The General appreciated his skill and efficiency and promised that he would not be arrested.
The General thought it quite unfortunate that the man had been washed up to Dr Sadao’s doorstep and thought it best if he could be quietly killed. He promised to send his private assassins to do so and remove his dead body. He suggested that Dr Sadao should leave the outer partition of the white man’s room to the garden open at night.
It is evident that the General had no human consideration in this matter. For him an enemy was an enemy and must be wiped out. He wanted the man to be eliminated silently to save the doctor from being arrested. It was neither lack of national loyalty nor dereliction of duty that guided and inspired his decision. It was simply his sense of self-absorption. He “wanted to keep Dr Sadao safe only for his own sake. He had no faith in the other Germany trained doctors. He might have to be operated upon anytime when he had another attack and he had full faith in the skill and loyalty of Dr Sadao only.
This fact is further corroborated by the General’s remarks to Dr Sadao, one week after the emergency operation upon the General. Dr Sadao informed him that the man had escaped. The General asked whether he had not promised Sadao that he would kill the
man for him. Dr Sadao replied that he had done nothing. The General admitted that he had forgotten his promise as he had been suffering a great deal and he thought of nothing but himself. He revealed the whole truth. He admitted that it was careless of him to have forgotten his promise. But added that it was not lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty on his part.

Q5. 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 the consciousness of the demands of one’s calling that make a sensitive soul respond to the call of his duty as a professional doctor to attend to the wounded human being regardless of his being an enemy.
In the story ‘The Enemy’ Dr Sadao Hoki finds a prisoner of war washed ashore and in a dying state thrown to his doorstep. As a patriot, it is his duty to hand him over to the police. If he does not want to be entangled, the next best thing is to put him back to the sea.
However, the surgeon in him instinctively inspires him to operate upon the dying man and save him from the jaws of death. First, he packs the wound with sea-moss to stanch the fearful bleeding. Then he brings him home with the help of his wife. In spite of stiff opposition and open defiance of the servants, he operates upon the man and harbours him till he is able to leave. He knows fully well the risk of sheltering a white man—a prisoner of war—in his house. But his sentimentality for the suffering and wounded person help him rise above narrow national prejudices and extend his help and services even to an enemy.

Q6. Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances?
Ans. Yes, I think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one in the circumstances. Initially, the doctor as well as his wife thought that the best as well as kindest thing would be to put him back into the sea. But neither of them was able to put him back into the sea.
Sadao explained that if the man was whole he could turn him over to the police without difficulty, but since he was wounded, the doctor could not throw him back to the sea. He could not kill the man whom he had saved from the jaws of death.
The General promised to send his private assassins to kill the man and remove his dead body. Sadao waited for three nights for their arrival, but they never came as the General being preoccupied with his own suffering, forgot everything else.
Meanwhile the fear of Hana, the doctor’s wife, that he would be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy kept on mounting. Dr Sadao made up his mind to get rid of the man as it was not only inconvenient but also dangerous for them to have him there any longer. He, therefore, quietly devised the plan of letting the prisoner escape by using his own boat and Japanese clothes.
As soon as the enemy left, the servants returned and life became normal once again. Dr Sadao informed the General that “the man” had escaped. The General admitted that he had forgotten his promise as he thought of nothing but himself as he was suffering a great deal. He confessed that it was careless of him but it was not his lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty. In short, the doctor’s strategy to let the prisoner escape was the best possible solution to the problem under the prevailing circumstances.

Q7. Does the story remind you of ‘Birth’ by A. J. Cronin that you read in ‘Snapshots’ last year? What are the similarities?
Ans. Yes, the story ‘The Enemy’ by Pearl S. Buck certainly reminds us of the story ‘Birth’ by A. J. Cronin. Both the stories have certain obvious similarities. Both the stories revolve around the protagonist who is a doctor. Both of them focus on the doctor’s devotion and dedication to his duty and his concern for the well-being of his patient. The doctor sacrifices his own rest and comfort while attending to the patient. If the doctor brings a ‘still-born’ baby back to life in the story ‘Birth’, Dr Sadao Hoki performs no less a miracle. He saves an almost dying man from the jaws of death by skilfully extracting the bullet from his body and giving him medicines and injections for quick relief.
Dr Sadao runs a greater risk than Dr Andrew Mason. While the former could be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy and condemned to death, the latter (Dr Andrew) was foregoing rest and staking his reputation as a medical practitioner. He had had a disappointing evening with Christine, the girl he loves, but he forgets his personal feelings and concentrates on the safe delivery of child and then of reviving the middle-aged mother and the still-born child. Similarly, Dr Sadao is dedicated to his patient and his problems. He forgets everything while concentrating on the operation. His servants have defied him for sheltering an enemy and run away. His wife, Hana, has to do menial jobs while attending to the patient and her retching disturbs him. Her distress and his inability to attend to her make him impatient and irritable, but he does not desert the man who is under his knife. To conclude, we may say that the zeal, dedication and efforts of both the doctors are similar. There is difference of degree in the risk factor, but their devotion to suffering humanity is undoubtedly of the same kind.

Q8. Is there any film you have seen or novel you have read with a similar theme?
Ans. I remember an old Hindi film ‘Dr Kotnis ki Amar Kahani’ that deals with a similar theme. The eminent doctor gives up his practice and goes to the war front to look after the wounded and ailing soldiers and render them medical help. He spares no pain in performing his duties. He ignores the demands of his own body that is sleep, rest and comfort. Service to suffering humanity is his sole motivation and in his zeal to restore the maximum number of victims back to health, the doctor suffers from physical and mental exhaustion and ultimately dies.
The film based on the life of Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp, also glorifies the spirit of service and sacrifice of a member of the medical profession. It is through her sheer hard work and dedication to duty that Florence Nightingale raises the job of a nurse to a high pedestal.

MORE QUESTIONS SOLVED

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1.What do you learn about Sadao’s father from the story ‘The Enemy’?
Ans. Sadao’s father was a visionary. He knew that the islands near the sea coast were the stepping stones to the future for Japan. No one could limit their future as it depended on what they made it. His son’s education was his chief concern. He sent his son to America at the age of twenty-two to learn all that could be learned of surgery and medicine. He loved the Japanese race, customs and manners.

Q2. Why was Dr Sadao being kept in Japan and not sent abroad with the troops?
Ans. Sadao was an eminent surgeon and a scientist. He was perfecting a discovery which would render wounds entirely clean. Secondly, the old General was being treated medically for a condition for which he might need an operation. Due to these two reasons Sadao was being kept in Japan and not sent abroad with the troops.

Q3. Who was Sadao’s wife? Where had he met her? Why did he wait to fall in love with her?
Ans. Hana was Sadao’s wife. He had met her by chance at an American professor’s house. Professor Harley and his wife had been kind people. They held a party at their home for their few foreign students. Hana was a new student. He waited to fall in love with her until he was sure she was Japanese. It was because his father would never have received her unless she had been pure in her race.

Q4. When and where did Sadao marry Hana? How was their married life?
Ans. Sadao married Hana when they returned to Japan after finishing their work at medical school. Sadao’s father saw her. The marriage was then arranged in the old Japanese way. They had been married years enough to have two children. Their married life was quite happy. They still loved each other.

Q5. ‘Both of them saw something black came out of the mists’. What did they see and how did they react to it?
Ans. It was a man who had been flung up out of the ocean, to his feet by a breaker. He staggered a few steps with his arms above his head. Then the curled mists hid him again. When they next saw him, he was on his hands and knees crawling. Then they saw him fall on his face and lie there. Sadao thought that he was perhaps a fisherman who had been washed from his boat. He ran quickly down the steps. Hana followed him.

Q6. In which state did Sadao and Hana find the man? What did they learn about him?
Ans. The man lay motionless with his face in the sand. As they turned the man’s head, they saw that he was a white man with long yellow hair. His young face had a rough yellow beard. He was unconscious. From his battered cap they learnt that he was a sailor from an American warship.

Q7. What did Sadao learn about the white man’s wound?
Ans. Sadao saw that a gun-wound had been reopened on the right side of his lower back. The flesh was blackened with powder. The man had been shot recently and had not been tended. It was bad chance that the rock had struck the wound and reopened it.

Q8. How can you say that Sadao’s head and hands worked in different directions?
Ans. Sadao’s head told him to put the man back into the sea as he was an American soldier-an enemy of Japan. His trained hands seemed, of their own will, to be doing what they could to stanch the fearful bleeding. He packed the wound with the sea-moss that strewed the beach. The bleeding was stopped for the moment.

Q9.What dilemma did Sadao face about the young white man?
Ans. The white man was wounded. He needed immediate medical care. Dr Sadao could do so. But if they sheltered a white man in their house, they would be arrested. On the other hand, if they turned him over as a prisoner, he would certainly die. Dr Sadao was in a fix. It was difficult for him to come to any decision.

Q10.What was the attitude of Sadao and Hana towards the white man?
Ans. They stared upon the inert figure of the white man with a curious repulsion. Both talked of putting him back into the sea, but neither of them was able to do so alone. They hesitated. Sadao said that being American, the man was his enemy. He would have handed him over to the police if he had not been wounded. But since he was wounded… He left the sentence incomplete, implying that he couldn’t do so.

Q11.What solution did Hana offer to resolve Sadao’s predicament?
Ans. Hana found that neither of them could throw the white man back into the sea. There was only one thing to do. They must carry the man into their house. They must tell the servants that they intended to hand him over to the police. She reminded her husband of his position and children. It would endanger all of them if they did not give that man over as a prisoner of war.

Q12. How did Sadao and Hana take the man inside their house?
Ans. Together they lifted the man. He was very light. His arms were hanging down. They carried him up the steps and into the side door of the house. This door opened into a passage. Down the passage, they carried him towards an empty bedroom. They laid the man on the deeply matted floor.

Q13. Hana took out a soft quilt from the wall cupboard. Then she hesitated. Why? What did her husband suggest? Why did she not agree?
Ans. The quilt was covered with flowered silk and the lining was pure white silk. Secondly, the man was quite dirty. So Hana hesitated. Her husband suggested that he should be washed. He offered to wash him, if she was willing to fetch water. She could not bear for him to touch the man and offered to tell Yumi, the maid, to wash him.

Q14. Why did Dr Sadao had to touch the man? What did he observe?
Ans. The utter pallor of the man’s unconscious face moved Dr Sadao first to stoop and feel his pulse. It was faint but it was there. Then he put his hand against the man’s cold breast. The heart too was yet alive. He observed that the man would die unless he was operated on.

Q15. Why did Hana come behind Sadao when he went out of the room quickly?
Ans. Hana did not wish to be left alone with the white man. He was the first she had seen since she left America. He seemed to have nothing to do with those whom she had known there. Here he was her enemy, a menace, living or dead.

Q16. How did the servants react when their master told them about the wounded white man?
Ans. The servants were frightened and puzzled. The old gardener told Hana that the master ought not to heal the wound of that white man. He said that the white man ought to die. First he was shot. Then the sea caught him and wounded him with her rocks. If the master healed what the gun and the sea had done, they would take revenge on them.

Q17. Why had Hana to wash the wounded man herself?
Ans. Hana told Yumi to fetch hot water and bring it to the room where the white man was. Yumi put down the wooden bucket, but refused to wash the dirty white man. Hana cried at her severely. She told her to do what her master commanded her to do. The fierce look of resistance upon Yumfe dull face made Hana afraid. Under these circumstances, Hana had no option but to wash the white man herself.

Q18. How did Hana wash the wounded man?
Ans. First, Hana untied the knotted rugs that kept the white man covered. When she had his breast bare, she dipped a small clean towel into the steaming hot water and washed his face carefully. She kept on washing him until his upper body was quite clean. But she dared not turn him over for fear of the wound.

Q19. What help did Dr Sadao seek from Hana while operating the wounded white man?
Ans. First, he asked her to fetch towels. Then he told her that she would have to give him the anaesthetic if he needed it. Since, Hana had never done so, he told her that it was easy enough. He asked her to soak the cotton with anaesthetic and hold it near his nostrils. When he breathed badly, she had to move it away a little. Thus, Hana proved herself helpful to her husband.

Q20. How did Hana react to Sadao’s absorption in his work?
Ans. Sadao went on with his swift concise movements. He did not seem to hear her. She was used to his absorption when he was at work. She wondered for a moment if it mattered to him what the body was upon which he worked so long as it was for the work which he did so excellently.

Q21. What did Sadao remark when he peered into the wound with his bright surgeon’s light?
Ans. He remarked that the bullet was still there. He said so with cool interest. He then wondered
how deep that wound was. If it was not very deep it was possible that he could get the bullet. He observed that the bleeding was not superficial. The man had already lost much blood.

Q22. What made a cool surgeon (like Dr Sadao) speak sharply to his wife? How did she react to his command?
Ans. The sight of blood made Hana choke. Her face turned pale. She had never seen an operation. Dr Sadao spoke sharply and asked her not to faint. He did not put down his exploring instrument. He argued that if he stopped then the man would surely die. Hana clapped her hands to her mouth, leaped up and ran out of the room. He heard her retching in the garden. But he went on with his work.

Q23. What forced Dr Sadao to be impatient and irritable with his patient?
Ans. Sadao heard Hana retching in the garden and said that it would be better for her to empty her stomach. He went on with his work. He had forgotten that she had never seen an operation. But her distress and his inability to go to her at once made him impatient and irritable with the man who lay like dead under his knife.

Q24. What instructions did Sadao give to Hana to administer the anaesthetic and when?
Ans. The man was beginning to stir. Hana asked Sadao where the anaesthetic was. Sadao motioned with his chin. She now had the bottle and some cotton in her hand. Sadao instructed her to saturate the cotton with anaesthetic and hold it near the man’s nostrils. She had to move it away a little when he breathed badly.

Q25. How did Hana react to the stories they heard of the sufferings of the prisoners of war? What made her think so?
Ans. These stories came like flickers of rumour, told by word of mouth. They were always contradicted. Hana wondered whether these stories were true. In the newspapers the reports were that people received the Japanese armies gladly with cries of joy at their liberation.

Q26. In what context does Hana remember General Takima? What does she infer?
Ans. General Takima was a ruthless despot. At home he beat his wife cruelly. No one mentioned it now because he had won a victory in a battle in Manchuria. Hana remembers him in the context of the sufferings of the prisoners of war. She infers that if a man (like General Takima) could be so cruel to a woman in his power, he would be quite cruel to a prisoner. The deep red scars on the white man’s neck confirmed her apprehension.

Q27. “Ml thought left him. He felt only the purest pleasure.” Why, do you think, did Dr Sadao behave in this way?
Ans. Dr Sadao was concentrating hard on locating the bullet. He felt the tip of his probing instrument strike against something hard, dangerously near the kidney. He was filled with the purest pleasure at the success of his skill. He thought only of curing his patient and did not answer even his wife’s query.

Q28. Dr Sadao was ‘familiar with every atom of this human body’. Who had seen to that knowl¬edge and how?
Ans. It was Sadao’s old American professor of Anatomy who had seen to the perfect knowledge of human body. He would tell his students, ‘Ignorance of the human body is the surgeon’s cardinal sin.” He would go a step further and impress upon the budding surgeons to have as complete knowledge of the body as if they had made it. To operate with anything less than that meant a murder.

Q29. Comment on Dr Sadao’s attitude to the white man in the light of the following:
(i) “Sadao took up his wrist, hating the touch of it.”
(ii) “But certainly I do not want this man to live.”
(iii) “This man will live in spite of all.”
Ans. Sadao has an ambivalent attitude towards the wounded white man. Since he is their enemy, he hates touching his wrist. As a patriot he does not want that man to live. However, as a surgeon, he does not want the man to die after a successful operation. Hence, in order to revive his faint, feeble pulse, he gives him an injection. The pulse now flutters and then grows stronger. The survival of the man is the victory of the surgeon’s skill.

Q30. How did Harm look after the white man? How did he react?
Ans. Hana had to serve him herself, for none of the servants would enter the room. She did not like him and yet she was moved to comfort him. She found the man quite weak and terrified. She knelt and fed him gently from the porcelain spoon. He ate unwillingly but still he ate.

Q31. How did Dr Sadao respond to the boy’s query: “What are you going to do with me?…Are you going to hand me over?”
Ans. Dr Sadao examined the boy and then told him that he did not know himself what he would do with the boy. He ought to give him to the police as he was a prisoner of war.

Q32. What did Hana inform Sadao about the servants? How did Sadao react to it?
Ans. The servants felt that they could not stay there if their master sheltered the white man there any more. They also accused them of liking Americans and of having forgotten to think of their own country first. Dr Sadao protested that it was not true. Americans were their enemies. But he had been trained not to let a man die if he could help him. Hana told him that the servants could not understand it.

Q33. ‘Somehow the household dragged on’. How did the servants behave after Sadao had operated upon the American? What opinions did they express?
Ans. The servants grew more watchful day by day. Their courtesy was as careful as ever, but their eyes were cold towards Hana and Sadao. The old gardener was sore, why Sadao had not let the young man bleed when he was so near the death. The cook remarked contemptuously that being proud of his skill to save life that he saves any life. Yumi added that they must think of the children. She enquired: “What will be their fate if their father is condemned as a traitor?”

Q34. What two things happened on the seventh day after that?
Ans. In the morning the servants left together with their belongings tied in large square cotton kerchiefs. Hana paid them off gracefully and thanked them for all that they had done for her. In the afternoon, a messenger came to the door in official uniform.

Q35. How did Hana react when she saw a messenger at the door in official uniform?
Ans. Hana was working hard on unaccustomed labour. When she saw the uniformed messenger, her hands went weak and she could not draw her breath. She feared that the servants must have told everything already. She thought that they had come to arrest Dr Sadao.

Q36. Why, do you think, had the messenger come to Dr Sadao’s house? How did Hana react to the message and what did the messenger take exception to?
Ans. The messenger had arrived there to ask Dr Sadao to come to the palace as the old General was in pain again. In her anxiety for her husband’s safety, Hana asked if that was all. The messenger took exception to the word ‘all’ and enquired if that was not enough. Hana  apologised for the error.

Q37. Why did Dr Sadao tell the General everything about the man he had operated upon?
Ans. Dr Sadao could not report the arrival of the escaped prisoner at his doorstep. He wanted to get rid of the man for the sake of his wife. He explained his position to the General. He did not care for that man, but since he had operated upon the man he could not kill him. The
General praised his skill, called him indispensable and promised that he would allow nothing to happen to Dr Sadao.

Q38. Why, do you think, did the old General not want Dr Sadao to be arrested?
Ans. Dr Sadao had told the General that he could stand only one more such attack as he had that day. Then he would have to be operated upon. The General wanted Dr Sadao to operate upon him. He had no faith in the other surgeons trained by the Germans. So, he would not let Dr Sadao be arrested.

Q39. What plan did the old General suggest for getting rid of the ‘man’?
Ans. He thought that it would be best if the white man could be quietly killed—not by the doctor, but by someone who did not know him. He offered to send two of his private assassins any night to his home. These capable assassins would make no noise. They knew the trick of inward bleeding. They could even remove the body. Dr Sadao had to leave the outer partition of the room open and this made restless.

Q40. Why did Sadao sleep badly at night after meeting the General?
Ans. Sadao woke up time and again thinking he heard the rustling of footsteps, the sound of a twig broken or a stone displaced in the garden—or any noise such as men might make who carried a burden. This went on for three nights. Every night Sadao expected the assassins to come and this made him restless.

Q41. What plan did Dr Sadao devise to get rid of the man?
Ans. Dr Sadao devised the plan of letting the man escape to the nearest uninhabited island. He told the man everything. He put his boat on the shore with food and extra clothing. He advised the man to row to the little island not far from the coast. He could live there till he saw a Korean fishing boat pass by.

Q42. How was the plan of the prisoner’s escape executed?
Ans. Dr Sadao had put food and bottled water in his stout boat. He also put two quilts. After supper, he cheked the American again. He gave him his flashlight and told him to signal two flashes if he needed more food. One signal would mean he was OK He had to signal at sunset and not in the darkness. The man was dressed in Japanese clothes and his blond head was covered with a black cloth.

Q43. What did Sadao tell the General after a week? Why did he wait that long?
Ans. The General had undergone an emergency operation a week before. The gall bladder was involved. He was in critical state for twelve hours. Then he recovered slowly. After a week Sadao felt that the General was well enough to be spoken to about the prisoner. He told the General that the prisoner had escaped.

Q44. What did the General tell Dr Sadao about his promise to kill the prisoner for him?
Ans. Dr Sadao did not want to disturb the General much. So he simply said that the prisoner had escaped. The General at once remembered his promise. He confessed that he had been suffering a great deal. He thought of nothing but himself. He forgot his promise, but it was not lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty.

Q45. “I wonder why I could not kill him?” What makes Dr Sadao think so?
Ans. After the departure of the young American, Dr Sadao thinks of the other white faces he had “come across. The Americans were full of prejudice and he had found it bitter to live there. The white people were repulsive even in their kindness. It was relief to be openly at war with them. Then he remembered the youthful, haggard face of the prisoner. It was also white and repulsive. He thought it strange that he spared his enemy. He wondered why he could not kill him.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. Why did Sadao Hoki go to America? What do you learn about his experiences there?
Ans. Sadao’s education was his father’s chief concern. So he had been sent at twenty-two to America to leam all that could be learnt of surgery and medicine. He studied there for eight years and returned to Japan at thirty. Before his father died, Sadao had become famous not only as a surgeon, but also as a scientist.
He had had great difficulty in finding a place to live in America because he was a Japanese. The Americans were full of prejudice and it had been bitter to live in it, knowing himself to be superior to them. An ignorant and dirty old woman at last consented to house him in her miserable home. He found her repulsive to him even in her kindness.
One of his American professors and his wife were kind people. They were anxious to do something for their few foreign students. But their rooms were quite small, the food was very bad, the professor was a dull person and his wife was a silly talkative woman.

Q2. How can you say that Dr Sadao’s father was a Japanese to the core?
Ans. Dr Sadao’s father had high dreams about the future of Japan. There was no limit to their future as it depended on what they made it. He never played or joked with his only son. But he spent infinite pains upon him. For the sake of the best possible medical education, he sent his son to America. Sadao met Hana there, but waited to fall in love with her until he was sure she was Japanese. His father would never have received her unless she had been pure in her race. Their marriage was arranged in the old Japanese way only after Sadao’s father had seen her when both of them had come home to Japan after finishing their education.
He was a Japanese every inch. The floor of his room was deeply matted. He would never sit on a chair or sleep in a foreign bed in his house. The quilt was covered with flowered silk and the lining was pure white silk. In short, everything here had been Japanese to please him.

Q3. What do you learn about Dr Sadao and Harm from the story ‘The Enemy’?
Ans. Sadao and Hana represent modem, enlightened and educated Japanese who get the benefit of American training in medical science, yet retain love and respect for their moth¬erland and its customs and traditions. He was an obedient and caring son who had deep regard for his father. He married Hana only after his father had seen her. Their marriage was arranged in the old Japanese way. They were perfectly happy and had two children. Even years after their marriage they retained the same love and affection for each other. Since Japan was at war with America, they considered the Americans as their enemies. The waves of the ocean had flung up a wounded young American to their doorstep. They wanted to put him back into the sea, but neither of them was able to do so. They brought the wounded man inside their house in spite of repulsion for him. Sadao had been trained not to let a man die if he could help him. The ethics of the medical profession forced him to save even his enemy. His wife Hana obeyed all his commands and instructions like a child though she suffered a lot internally.

Q4. What was the dilemma that Sadao faced when he saw a wounded, young white man washed to his doorstep? What solution did his wife, Hana, offer to resolve his (Sadao’s) predica¬ment?
Ans. The young white man was bleeding. He had a bullet wound on his lower back. He needed immediate medical attention. Dr Sadao, an eminent surgeon, could do so. But if they sheltered a white man in their house, they would be arrested. On the other hand, if they tinned him over as a prisoner, he would certainly die. Neither of them could put him back into the sea and get rid of him. They were true humanist. So, they hesitated.
Sadao declared that being an American, the man was his enemy. He would have handed him over to the police if he had been hale and hearty. But since he was wounded… He left the sentence unfinished implying that he could not do so as he had been trained not to let a man die if he could help him.
Hana suggested that they must carry the man inside the house. They must tell the ser¬vants that they intended to hand him over to the police. She reminded her husband of his position and the children. It would endanger all of them if they did not hand that man over as a prisoner of war. His doubts were removed and they decided to carry the man into their house.

Q5. How did Dr Sadao take the man inside his house and try to save him?
Ans. Dr Sadao and Hana lifted the man together. He was very light. His arms were hanging
down. They carried him up the steps and into the side door of the house. This door opened •
into a passage. Down the passage, they carried him towards an empty bedroom. They laid the man on the deeply matted floor. The man was quite dirty, so Dr Sadao suggested that he should be washed.
The utter pallor of the man’s unconscious face moved Dr Sadao first to stoop and feel his pulse. It was faint, but it was there. Then he put his hand against the man’s cold breast.
The heart too was yet alive. He observed that the man would die unless he was operated upon immediately. He left the room to bring his instruments to perform an emergency operation to save the man’s life.

Q6. How did the servants initially react to the presence of a white man in their masters house?
Ans.When Dr Sadao told the cook and the gardener about the wounded young white man, they
had brought inside the house, the two servants were frightened and puzzled. The *
superstitious old gardener looked so annoyed that he pulled the few hairs on his upper lip.
He bluntly told Hana that the master ought not to heal the wound of that white man. He said that the white man ought to die. First he was shot. Then the sea caught him and wounded him with her rocks. If the master healed what the gun and the sea had done, they would take revenge on them.
Even the maid, Yumi, refused to wash the man though Hana cried at her severely and told her to do what the master had commanded her to do. The servants seemed to be in a defiant mood. The fierce look of resistance upon Yumi’s dull face frightened Hana. She thought that the servants might report something that was not as it happened. She main¬tained her dignity and told the maid that they wanted to bring him to his senses so that they could turn him over as a prisoner. Even this explanation failed to convince Yumi and she refused to do anything for the white man.

Q7. What was the change in the mood of open defiance of their master on the part of domestic staff as time passed and the white man was kept in Dr Sadao’s house ?
Ans. Dr Sadao not only kept the young white man at his home, but also operated upon him. It was the third day after the operation. The servants continued their open defiance of their master and did not enter the white man’s room. Hana served him herself. Hana told Sadao what the servants had conveyed through Yumi. The domestic staff felt that they could not stay there if their. master sheltered that man any more. They accused them of having forgotten to think of their own countiy because they had lived for a long time in America. They thought that their master and mistress liked Americans. Dr Sadao tried to clarify his position as a man and as a doctor. Hana told him that the servants could not understand this subtle distinction.
”Somehow the household dragged on. The servants grew more watchful day by day. They were careful in their courtesy as ever but their eyes were cold. The old gardener was the most vocal. He taunted that their master knew very well what he ought to do. He was sore why Sadao had not let the young man bleed when he was so near to death. The cook remarked contemptuously that the young master was so proud of his skill to save life that he saved any life. Yumi added that they must think of the children. She enquired: “What will be their fate if their father is condemned as a traitor?”
Since the white man was not handed over to the police, even after a week, all the servants left on the seventh day after that.

Q8. Hana was a loving, caring, devoted and obedient wife who was quite anxious about her husband’s wellbeing, position and reputation? Discuss.
Ans. Hana is the alter ego of her husband, Dr Sadao Hoki. She has adapted herself to his ways. She knows that saving a life is a mission for him and when he is attending on his patient, he forgets everything else—even Hana herself. Even years after their marriage, they retain the same love and affection for each other.
She cared for him a lot and would not let him stand outside in the cold foggy February night. She was a bit sentimental, yet pragmatic in her approach. She was quick to judge what went on in her husband’s mind and suggested solutions. She maintained her dignity when the servants showed resistance and open defiance. As an obedient and devoted wife, she carried out all the orders and instructions of her husband. She washed the wounded white man, gave him anaesthesia and later on food.
She was worried about her husband’s safety, position and reputation. Initially, she suggested to throw the man back into the sea. She was afraid that the servants might misreport. Her fears are exhibited clearly when a messenger in uniform arrives from the palace. In order to calm down her fears, Dr Sadao decides to get rid of the white man anyhow. In short, she is an ideal life partner.

Q9. What impression do you form of Dr Sadao as a man and as a surgeon from your reading of the story ‘The Enemy’?
Ans. Dr Sadao Hoki was a true Japanese like his father. He was a brave boy who obeyed and respected his father and loved Japanese culture, tradition and people. He was intelligent and hard working and studied surgery and medicine in America for eight years. He mar¬ried a Japanese girl, Hana, whom he had met in America. But he waited for his father’s approval and their marriage was arranged in the old Japanese way after they had re¬turned home to Japan. They had two children. He still loved his wife as warmly as ever. He returned home at fixed hours.
Dr Sadao was an eminent surgeon as well as scientist. The old General had full faith in him. He was not sent abroad with the troops because the old General might need an operation. Dr Sadao was called even at odd hours from the palace. Dr Sadao was a real doctor. He would not let a man die if he could help him. That is why he cured even an “enemy” of bullet wound and did not hand him over to the police. He faced a great risk to his position and life by sheltering the man. Since Dr Sadao could not kill the man himself, he sought the help of the old General to get rid of him. When that plan failed, he let the prisoner escape in order to calm down the fears of his wife and let the household run properly. It may be a blemish from a narrow patriotic angle but a sensitive soul can’t take back what he has given.

Q10. Under what circumstances did Dr Sadao let the wounded white man escape? Was it lack of national loyalty, professional ego and sentimentality, human consideration or just an attempt to save his skin?
Ans. Hr Sadao had no love for the repulsive Americans and he considered them his enemies. Unfortunately, the sea-waves pushed a wounded white man to his doorstep. He knew that the best possible thing was to throw him back into the sea. He could not handover a wounded ‘enemy’ to police because he would certainly die. Being a doctor, he could save him and not kill him. His efforts to get him removed with the help of the old General’s private assassins did not bear fruit.
He was under a severe strain. His domestic servants had left him. His wife had to do unaccustomed labour and run the household. Moreover, his wife was anxious about his safety. They might be arrested for harbouring an enemy prisoner of war and condemned as traitors.
Dr Sadao let the man escape in the larger interest of professional ethics and human consideration. He rose above narrow national loyalty and sentimentality. He did not think of himself as the General had already assured him that no harm would be caused to him. The matter remained unreported and closed from public eyes and ears. The servants returned after the white man had “left”. Everything became normal again.

Q11. Comment on the role of the old General in the story ‘The Enemy’.
Ans. The old General plays an important role in the story. He is being treated medically for a condition which might need an operation any time. Since he has full faith in Dr Sadao, he is kept back in Japan. Dr Sadao is indispensable to the General. He assures Sadao that nothing will happen to him and he will not be arrested.
The arrival of the messenger rouses Hana’s worst fears. She thinks that police has come to arrest her husband. Dr Sadao gets distressed at her anxiety and decides to get rid of the white man for her sake. When Dr Sadao confides in the General, the latter promises to send two of his private assassins to remove the man from the scene.
The old General has an unsual sense of humour as well as frankness and ability to admit his mistake. Dr Sadao keeps on waiting for three nights for the assassins who fail to turn up. He loses sleep and rest. Finally he lets the white man escape.
When Dr Sadao tells the General that the man has escaped, the General admits that he forgot his promise. He was suffering a great deal and thought of nothing but himself. It was careless of him but not lack of patriotism or dereliction of duty, It is his self-absorption and instinct of preserving himself that saves Dr Sadao and his family from being arrested.

Q12. The ending of the story ‘The Enemy’ epitomises the attitude of a Japanese towards Americans during the war. Elucidate.
OR
Comment on the ending of the story ‘The Enemy’.
Ans. The ending of the story, ‘The Enemy’ is highly artistic. The old General, recovering from the operation, promises that Dr Sadao will be rewarded as he is a good man. Dr Sadao has his reward when he finds that his prisoner has gone away safely from the island. He now recalls all the other white faces he ever came across. The professor, at whose house he met Hana, was a dull man and his wife had been a silly, talkative woman, in spite of her wish to be kind. His old teacher of anatomy had been insistent on ‘mercy with the knife’. He remembered the face of his fat and slatterly landlady whom he had despised for being ignorant and dirty. He remembered the difficulties he faced in finding a place to live in America because he was a Japanese. The Americans were full of prejudice and, it had been bitter to live in America. He found the white people repulsive. It was a relief to be openly at war with them. Then he remembered the youthful, haggard face of the prisoner. It was also white and repulsive. He thought it strange that he spared his enemy. He is left wondering why he could not kill the white man “his enemy”.

Q13. Do you think the title ‘The Enemy’ is appropriate? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Ans. The title ‘The Enemy’ is quite appropriate and highly suggestive. It focuses our attention on the wounded man who is incidentally washed ashore to the doorstep of a famous Japanese surgeon, Dr Sadao Hoki during the war.
The first reaction of the Japanese pair is typical of average, patriotic Japanese who hate their white enemies. However, the doctor in Sadao prompts him to bring the man inside his house and cure him. The doctor’s involvement with the white enemy annoys the domestic staff who show open defiance and resistance. The doctor faces grave danger to his position, safety, name, fame and family by harbouring the enemy. He could be condemned as a traitor and killed.
In spite of all the odds, the doctor finds himself emotionally unable to hand him over to the police. He has no love for the man. He regards him his enemy, yet he can’t kill him. He tells the old General how he operated on the white man and saved him. The General is all praise for his skill, hopes for his own successful operation at his hand, and promises to kill the man for him.
The doctor faces a lot of tension—mental, emotional and physical. He passes sleepless nights waiting for the assassins, who never turn up. Meanwhile, ‘the enemy’ recovers and the doctor devises means to let him escape in order to get rid of him. At the end of the story he is left wondering why he could not kill that man.

Q14. What was the General’s plan to get rid of the American prisoner ? Was it executed ? What traits of the General’s character are highlighted in the lesson ‘The Enemy’?[All India 2014]
Ans. The General made a plan to get rid of the American prisoner by sending his personal assassins to kill the prisoner. He also wanted to remove the body of American prisoner from Sadao’s house. But, unfortunately he could not succeed in his attempt. The plan was i not executed. The General could not send the assassins.
The General had an unusual sense of humour as well as frankness and ability to admit his mistake. Dr. Sadao keeps on waiting for three nights for the assassins who fail to turn up. He loses his rest and sleep. Finally he lets the white man escape. When Dr. Sadao tells the General that the man has escaped, the General admits that he forgot his promise. It was carelessness of him but not the lack of patriotism. It is his self-absorption and instinct of preserving himself that saves Dr. Sadao and his family being arrested.
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