Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 4 The Enemy by Pearl S. Buck is hosted here as the official NCERT Book PDF (2026-27 reprint). This page lets you download the chapter PDF directly, read it inline through the embedded flipbook, and review a quick chapter map so you know what to look for in the text before you start. Vistas is the supplementary reader for Class 12 English Core and supplies roughly 10 marks of the CBSE Board paper.
- Book: Vistas - the Class 12 English supplementary reader (NCERT)
- Chapter: 4 - The Enemy by Pearl S. Buck
- Pages in textbook: 24 to 46 (23 textbook pages)
- Reprint year: 2026-27 (December 2024 reprint)
- Board weightage: 6 to 10 marks in CBSE Section C
This is the same PDF NCERT publishes on the official NCERT portal. We host it here so students do not have to chase the NCERT website during exam season; the file is identical, including the December 2024 reprint pagination.
The PDF is hosted by Collegedunia exactly as published by NCERT for the 2026-27 academic session.
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About the Chapter
"The Enemy" is a short story by the American writer and 1938 Nobel laureate Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973). The story was written in 1942 during the Pacific War. It is set on the Japanese coast and follows Dr Sadao Hoki, a Japanese surgeon educated in America, who finds a wounded American prisoner of war washed up on the beach below his cliff-top house. Sadao must choose between his oath as a doctor and his duty as a Japanese patriot. The chapter is a moral imagination across the war's front line - Buck asks her American readers to inhabit the conscience of an "enemy" surgeon.
The Enemy Video Chapter Walkthrough
Source: Magnet Brains on YouTube
Chapter Map - What the Textbook Contains
| Textbook Page | Section | Key Content |
|---|---|---|
| 24-25 | Before You Read + Opening | Introduction; Sadao's father and education; meeting Hana in America |
| 26-30 | The Discovery | The wounded American on the beach; the first dilemma; the decision to take him in |
| 30-36 | The Operation | Servants' defiance, Hana holds the ether, bullet removed, prisoner survives |
| 36-42 | The General's Promise | Sadao reports; the General offers assassins; the wait; the General forgets |
| 42-45 | The Escape | The boat, the torch signal, the Korean fishing boat, the prisoner's safe departure |
| 45-46 | Closing + Reading with Insight | "Strange, I wonder why I could not kill him?" + 8 LA questions |
Why You Should Read the Original NCERT Chapter
- Direct evidence for Section C: CBSE markers reward textual quotation, not paraphrase. Every quotation needed for a Long Answer comes from these 23 pages.
- Footnote glosses: the textbook glosses words like "haori", "Galesburg", and clinical terms in footnotes; these are tested for vocabulary.
- Reading with Insight at end: the 8 questions on page 45-46 are the only formal exercises for this chapter. Working from the textbook copy means you see exactly what was asked.
- The chapter's length: at 23 pages, The Enemy is one of the longer Vistas chapters. Reading it once end-to-end takes about 45 minutes; reading it twice means you actually have the chapter in memory.
What to Read Before You Open the PDF
- Note the year and context. Pearl Buck wrote this in 1942, during the Pacific War, when Japan and the U.S. were declared enemies.
- Mark the four-act structure. Discovery, Operation, General's Promise, Escape. The plot moves in clean stages.
- Track the five named characters. Sadao, Hana, the unnamed soldier, the General, the three servants. Make a small list with one defining detail per character.
- Look for the closing line. "Strange, I wonder why I could not kill him?" is the chapter's single most important sentence.
- Underline the eight Reading with Insight questions. They are the exercise the Board reuses.
CBSE Board Weightage and Pattern
| Year | Marks From This Chapter | Question Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | Long Answer on rising above wartime prejudice |
| 2024 | 4 | Short Answer on Hana's role in supporting Sadao |
| 2023 | 6 | Long Answer on whether the doctor's final solution was the best possible |
| 2022 | 5 | Short Answer on the General's attitude + 1-mark MCQ on the wound |
| 2021 | 6 | Long Answer on private individual vs citizen with national loyalty |
| 2020 | 4 | Short Answer on the soldier's reluctance to leave the doctor's home |
Frequently Asked Questions on Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 4 NCERT Book PDF
Frequently Asked Questions on Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 4 NCERT Book PDF
Q1. Is the Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 4 NCERT Book PDF free to download?
Yes. The official NCERT chapter PDF for The Enemy is hosted free of charge from this page. It is the same PDF NCERT publishes on the official NCERT portal, identical in pagination and content.
Q2. Which book is Chapter 4 The Enemy from?
Vistas - the Class 12 English supplementary reader published by NCERT. Vistas is paired with Flamingo (the main reader) in the Class 12 English Core syllabus.
Q3. How many pages does The Enemy occupy in the Vistas textbook?
Twenty-three textbook pages (page 24 to page 46 in the 2026-27 reprint), including the eight-question Reading with Insight exercise at the end. The Enemy is one of the longer Vistas chapters.
Q4. Who is the author of The Enemy?
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), an American writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. She wrote The Enemy in 1942, during the Pacific War.
Q5. Is this the latest 2026-27 reprint?
Yes. The PDF hosted here is the 2026-27 reprint (the latest December 2024 reprint with no textbook content changes from the previous edition).
Q6. How heavily is this chapter examined in CBSE Class 12 English Core?
Vistas chapters typically supply 6 to 10 marks of the Class 12 English Core paper, with one 6-mark Long Answer (Section C) drawn from the chapter almost every session. For The Enemy, the modal item is a Long Answer on the duty-vs-loyalty conflict, on rising above prejudice, or on the doctor's final solution.
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