The Enemy Pearl Class 12 English Exam Questions

Please refer to the below The Enemy Pearl important questions for Class 12 English. These questions and answers have been prepared as per the latest NCERT Book for Class 12 English. Students should go through chapter wise Class 12 English Important Questions designed as per the latest examination pattern issued by CBSE. 

Chapter Summary of The Enemy Pearl

• Dr. Sadao, a Japanese surgeon found a wounded American soldier on the beach near his house.

• Though he was his enemy, Sadao was unable to throw him back as he was a doctor and his first duty was to save life.

• Hana, his wife, though initially reluctant because it was dangerous for all including the children to keep the enemy in the house, joined her husband in operating and nursing the enemy soldier back to health, even though the servants deserted the house.

• Hana assisted Dr. Sadao in operating the soldier in spite of her physical discomfort and hesitation.

• Though it was war time and all hands were needed at the front, the General did not send Sadao with the troops as he was an expert surgeon and the General needed him.

• Sadao told general about the enemy soldier but he did not take any action as he was self- absorbed and forgot his promise that he would send his private assassins to kill the enemy and remove his body.

• Taking advantage of the general’s self-absorption Sadao decided to save the soldier’s life.

• After the soldier was out of danger, Dr. Sadao helped him to escape from his house safely.

Question. Will Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?
Answer. The wounded American was in a very bad state and needed to be washed before being operated on. She did not want Dr. Sadao to clean the dirty and unconscious prisoner, and so asked their servant, Yumi, to do so. However, Yum, refused to clean the wounded soldier. As a result, she had no other option but to wash him herself. Although this act was impulsive and dipped in a sense of superiority over her servant Yumi, yet she did it with sincerity.

Question. Do you think the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the bet possible one in the circumstances?
Answer. The doctor tried his best to save the injured soldier as a part of his duty. The ultimate question was that to do next. It could not be said that he betrayed his country as he told the truth to the General. However, when he noticed that the soldier was to be killed not for the benefit of the country but only to save the doctor’s life, he decided to help him flee. In such a situation, the doctor’s final solution to the problem was the best possible one.

Question. Why did the General overlook the matter of the enemy soldier?
Answer. The General had an attack and according to Dr. Sadao he could not survive the second attack. So if Dr. Sadao was arrested, no other doctor was capable of performing the operation. So for furthering his selfish needs he overlooked the matter and promised to send his assassins. But he was so self-absorbed, he forgot about it.

Question. What will Dr. Sadao and his wife do with the man?
Answer. Dr. Sadao and his wife found an unconscious wounded war prisoner who posed a huge threat to their own safety. However, he decided to stand by human ethics and operated on him. He saved his life even though it was for the time being. Though half heartedly, both took good care of the patient’s health and other needs His wife even washed and fed him with her own hands. Although they knew that they would have to hand him over to the army sooner or later, they did their best to help the injured man.

Question. ”But Sadao searching the spot of black in the twilight sea that night, had his reward”. What was the reward?
Answer. The “reward” was the escape of the young boy- a US prisoner of war. Dr. Sadao searched the spot of black in the twilight sea that night to see if the man was still there but there was no light. Obviously the man had gone. The escape of his patient, the enemy, was his reward.

Question. There are moments in life when we have to make hard choices between our roles as private individuals and as citizens with a sense of national loyalty. Discuss with reference to the story you have just read.
Answer. Life has many facets. We live it by maintaining a delicate balance between the various facets it offers to us as part of our existence as an individual in a society. Living for our own self, family, profession and country are just a few of them. However at times, it becomes difficult to maintain this balance, and gets overpowered by confusion and dilemmas. The story about Dr. Sadao, Hana and the war prisoner exemplified that, on finding a wounded war prisoner washed ashore, Dr Sadao and his wife were unable to decide what to do. They were confused whether they should save and tend the injured or leave him to die or inform the army. Eventually, he struck the balance by deciding to save him before handing him over to the army. He and his wife sympathetically tended him but secretly hid a war prisoner in their home by going against the rule of the law and subdued self conscience. In a bid to get rid of that burden, he revealed the fact to the General who promised to get the prisoner killed through assassins. His inner conscience did not allow him to get the war prisoner killed and he helped the enemy soldier flee to the safety.

Question. Dr. Sadao was compelled by duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?
Answer. Dr. Sadao and his wife Hana knew that their decision to save the enemy soldier would be questioned by everyone. However, they firmly followed their sense of duty. For him, this ense of duty came from the profession he was in; but for her, the duty was purely humanitarian. Despite getting no cooperation from her domestic staff, she did all the house-hold work herself with grace and dignity. Her loving, considerate and sympathetic nature blossomed out when she washed and fed the soldier which helped the soldier to recover fast. It was also apparent from the story that she respected her husband which was evident from the fact that she came back to the room and did what ever was told by her husband during the operation.

Question. How would you explain the reluctance of the soldier to leave the shelter of the doctor’s home even when he knew he couldn’t stay there without risk to the doctor and himself?
Answer. When the American war prisoner came to consciousness and realized that he was saved by a Japanese family, he feared that he would be soon handed over to the army. However, as he realized the hospitality and care given to him by the family, he understood that he was in safe hands. He knew that although he was a threat to the doctor’s family but his own life might be saved there. Burdened with gratitude towards the family, he ultimately decided to comply with what the doctor planned for him for his escape.

Question. Who was Dr. Sadao? Where was his house?
Answer. Dr. Sadao was famous surgeon and a scientist of Japan. He was a sympa-thetic man who remained loyal to his profession even in adverse situations. He lived in his ancestral square stone house built upon rocks of a narrow beach at a coast of Japan.

Question. Will Dr. Sadao be arrested on the charge of harboring an enemy ?
Answer. Dr. Sadao, tended a wounded war prisoner which was a serious crime. However he did not get punished for this offense as it was never revealed to anyone, except his wife, loyal but timid servants, and the General who was too self-obsessed with his own treatment assured him that he would never let the doctor leave him.

Question. While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during war time, what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?
Answer. News of war is fast becoming a way of life. The moment one picks up a newspaper, one is bombarded with news of wars between different countries, directly or indirectly. It is obvious that the countries at war are enemies of each other and hatred is a part of this enmity. However, the success of humanity comes when we rise above this enmity and show our love towards the civilization as a whole. Dr. Sadao did the same. He did whatever he could to save the life of a man whom he knew was a war prisoner and the enemy of his country. He ignored the fact that he could be executed for the treachery by the law of his country for sheltering a war prisoner.

Question. Why was Dr. Sadao not sent with the troops?
Answer. The General thought that Dr. Sadao was indispensable to his life and could save anyone as he was very skilled. He did not trust anyone except Dr. Sadao. So he was not sent with troops.

Question. How was the plan of the prisoner’s escape executed in the story?
Answer. The prisoner was successful in his escape only because of the right guidance and help from Dr. Sadao. He provided him his boat, gave him food, made him wear Japanese cloths and also helped him in comfortable sail to a nearby island.

Question. Why did the servants leave Dr. Sadao’s house?
Answer. They were not in favour of keeping the American prisoner hidden in the house. They also did not want Dr. Sadao to save his life as he was the enemy. Also, if the police had come to know of it, all their lives would have been in danger. So they left the house.

Question. What explains the attitude of the General in the matter of the enemy soldier?
Was it human consideration, lack of national loyalty, dereliction of duty or simply self absorption?
Answer. The General was totally governed by self absorption. He was a patient of Dr. Sadao and did not trust anyone except him when it came to his health. He could not risk executing the doctor for treachery at the expense of his health. He conspired to kill the soldier by private assassins to ensure his own interest and safety. His soft attitude towards Dr. Sadao was absolutely a gesture of selfish interest which overcame human consideration and lacked national loyalty.

Question. Who was the wounded white man?
Answer. The white man was an American soldier as evident from his clothes. They guessed that he was a prisoner of war because his cap wore the letters ‘US Navy’.

Question. What will Dr. Sadao do to get rid of the man?
Answer. As the injured American war prisoner gradually recovered his health Dr. Sadao and his wife were in a state of dilemma as to what should be done with him. Their loyal servants had left them and sheltering the war prisoner in their house could pose a threat to their lives. As his wife’s impatience and distress grew he revealed the matter to the General who decided to send assassins to kill the young American while sleeping. The American war prisoner survived because the assassins did not come to kill the war prisoner. He decided to save his patient once again. He secretly sent him to an isolated island with food, bottled water, clothes, blanket and his own flashlight on a boat from where he boarded a Korean ship to freedom and safety.

Extract Based Question

He packed the wound with the sea moss that strewed the beach. The man moaned with pain in his stupor but he did not awaken. ”The best thing that we could do would be to put him back in the sea,” Sadao said, answering himself. Now that the bleeding was stopped for the moment he stood up and dusted the sand from his hands. ”Yes, undoubtedly that would be best,” Hana said steadily. But she continued to stare down at the motionless man.

Question. Why did Dr Sadao treat the soldier when he was from enemy’s nationality?
(a) He was a doctor
(b) It was against his professional ethics
(c) as a doctor he could not let anyone die
(d) All

Question. Who was Dr. Sadao?
(a) An Iranian Doctor
(b) An American doctor
(c) A Japanese doctor
(d) None

Question. Which word in the passage is similar in meaning to the word ‘cried’
(a) pain
(b) moss
(c) moaned
(d) strewed

Question. Who was bleeding in the above lines ?
(a) Yumi
(b) Tom
(c) Hana
(d) Jack