The Enemy/PEARL S. BUCK
Dilemma
Save Tom the P.O.W?
Sadao Saves Tom
Return him to sea and leave him to die?
Main Characters
Tom -The American POW
Grateful
brave
fighting spirit
Hana
Ideal Wife
Humanitarian
Caring mother
General Takima
Selfish/clever
self - centered
Not promising
Dr. Sadao Hoki
Family Man
Surgeon
Patriot
Plot
Sadao was a Japanese surgeon. He studied in America and returned with Hana, a Japanese girl whom he met there, and married her in Japan and settled down comfortably. While most of the doctors were sent to serve the Japanese army in the World War II, Sadao was allowed to stay home because he was wanted by the old General who was dying. But one night into his uneventful life came an American Navy-man, shot, wounded and dying. Though unwilling to help his enemy, Sadao took the young soldier into his house and provided him with medical aid.
Conclusion
To sum up, The Enemy summary, we learn how love and compassion can make us better human beings as opposed to prejudices and biases against other people with whom we do not share anything but the bond of being humans.
Sadao becomes the real man in him, a true human being who realizes the essential worth of human life and universal brotherhood. He thinks beyond countries and continents and races and wars. He finds no reason to believe that the American is his enemy. Sadao rescues the American. Thus Sadao rises above narrow prejudices and acts in a truly humanitarian way.
