Q.Dr. Sadao is disturbed and in a dilemma since he has decided to help the enemy soldier. Describe his conflict and the challenges faced in the form of a diary entry. (The Enemy)

The extract you are referring to comes from the chapter Indigo (from the NCERT Class 12 English textbook, Flamingo). In this passage, Gandhi is explaining his dilemma about whether to obey the court's order to leave Champaran or to defy it. He says: "On the one hand not to set a bad example as a lawbreaker; on the other hand, to render humanitarian and national service."

This is not a simple choice between right and wrong. Gandhi was a lawyer who deeply respected the law. He did not want to encourage people to break laws casually, because that would set a dangerous precedent. At the same time, he had come to Champaran to help the indigo peasants who were being exploited by British planters. If he obeyed the court and left, he would abandon the very people who needed him. That would be a betrayal of his duty as a humanitarian and a nationalist.

So the line expresses a conflict — an inner struggle between two competing values. On one side is the principle of lawfulness; on the other, the call of justice and service. Gandhi resolved this conflict not by choosing one over the other, but by willingly accepting the penalty for breaking the law. He was prepared to go to jail, which he saw as the honourable way to serve both his conscience and the cause.

In Pearl S. Buck's "The Enemy," Dr. Sadao Hoki is not only a gifted surgeon but also the doctor the old General relies on completely. Having been treated by Sadao before, the General has such faith in his ability that he keeps him from being sent to the war front, wanting him close at hand for his own health.

So when the General's ailment flares up again, he sends for Sadao to come to the palace and treat him. The visit is a medical one: the General needs Sadao's care and trusts no other surgeon with his life. …

This question tests your recall of a pivotal moment in Pearl S. Buck's The Enemy, when the couple confronts the impossible choice between their duty as Japanese citizens during wartime and their humanity toward a suffering stranger.

The scene unfolds after Sadao and Hana discover the wounded American prisoner of war washed up on their private beach. They carry him into their home, and Sadao begins treating his injuries—but the weight of what they've done quickly becomes unbearable. They are harboring an enemy soldier in a country at war with America, risking accusations of treason. The servants have already fled in protest, and the couple is left alone with their dangerous secret.

In her distress, Hana turns to her husband with a desperate request. She cannot endure the tension, the fear of discovery, the moral conflict. She asks Sadao to take the man back to the sea—to undo their act of mercy, to let the ocean reclaim him as if they had never intervened.

Let me walk through why the other options don't fit:

1. (A) Treat the wounded soldier — Sadao is already treating him; this is not something Hana asks him to do alone as a separate, difficult decision. The treatment happens almost automatically, driven by Sadao's medical instinct. …

In Pearl S. Buck's "The Enemy," Dr. Sadao Hoki finds himself in a profound moral quandary. As a highly skilled Japanese surgeon, he is bound by his professional oath to save lives, yet as a loyal citizen during wartime, he is expected to treat an enemy soldier with hostility. This conflict intensifies when he discovers a wounded American prisoner of war washed ashore near his house and decides to operate on him and nurse him back to health.

During this period of intense personal and national conflict, Dr. Sadao receives an urgent summons from the General. This call was not related to the presence of the American prisoner at his home, which was a secret he was grappling with. Instead, the General, an old and ailing man, was suffering from a medical emergency. Dr. Sadao was the General's personal physician, and his skills were considered indispensable for the General's survival.

The General had an old condition that often flared up, and he trusted no other surgeon with his life. His summons to Dr. Sadao was a direct consequence of his deteriorating health, requiring immediate medical attention. This situation, ironically, provided Dr. Sadao with a unique opportunity to confide in the General about the prisoner, knowing that the General's self-interest in his own survival would likely protect Sadao from severe repercussions.

Let's consider the other options presented: …