The essence of this chapter for last-minute revision: key facts, themes, lines to remember and a fast recap. The full notes, with the whole explanation, are available separately.
1 The Story in One Line Each
2 The Story, Step by Step
3 Key Facts and Numbers
| Fact | Detail from the story |
|---|---|
| Author | Pearl S. Buck, grew up in China as a missionary’s daughter |
| Dr Sadao Hoki | Surgeon, trained in America (22-30), perfecting a wound-cleaning discovery |
| Hana | Met Sadao at Professor Harley’s house in America; married the traditional Japanese way |
| Tom | U.S. Navy sailor (not a pilot), escaped POW, shot in the back, unexplained neck scars |
| The old General | Took a degree at Princeton; offers his “private assassins,” later admits “I forgot my promise to you” |
| Signal code | Two flashes at sunset = food finished; one flash = all right but still there; no signal after dark; eat fish raw |
| Escape route | Small unfortified island, then a passing Korean fishing boat |
| Final line | “Strange,” he thought. “I wonder why I could not kill him?” |
4 Characters at a Glance
Dr Sadao
Trained surgeon torn between professional duty and national loyalty; operates on Tom, agrees to the General’s plan “thinking of Hana”, then sends Tom away by boat.
Hana
Physically repelled yet compassionate; voices the story’s central question aloud.
Tom
Wounded U.S. Navy sailor, grateful once recovered, carries unexplained scars.
The General
Self-absorbed official; offers assassins to kill Tom, then forgets his promise after his own operation, by which time Tom is already gone.
The Servants
Plain-spoken; quit because they feel the couple “have forgotten to think of our own country first”.
5 Themes
Humanity vs national loyalty
A doctor’s duty to save any patient against a citizen’s wartime duty.
Conscience over instruction
Sadao and Hana cannot do the “correct” wartime thing even when they say they will.
Prejudice on both sides
The prejudice Sadao met in America (he could hardly find lodging “because he was a Japanese”) mirrors the servants’ prejudice against Tom.
Dehumanising language
Tom is “the enemy”/”the white man” until he gives his own name.
Power in an absolute state
Assassins are “essential in an absolute state such as Japan was”.
6 Literary Devices
| Device | Example in the story |
|---|---|
| Irony | The General forgets his promise to have Tom killed, after Sadao has already saved and released him |
| Symbolism | The father’s strict Japanese room shelters the American “enemy” |
| Foil | The cook’s killing of a fowl for its blood vs Sadao’s “cleanest and most precise of incisions” |
| Simile | “Like a fowl that had been half-starved… only feathers and skeleton” |
7 Words to Know
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Slatternly | Untidy, slovenly |
| Dereliction | Shameful failure to do one’s duty |
| Voluble | Talking fluently and rapidly |
| Assuage | Make an unpleasant feeling less intense |
| Gaunt | Very thin from suffering or hardship |
| Haggard | Looking exhausted or worn out |
8 Lines to Remember
“Those islands yonder, they are the stepping stones to the future for Japan.”
Sadao’s father, who taught him to see Japan’s future in the islands
“But certainly I do not want this man to live.”
Sadao’s private thought, even as his hands keep operating
“Why are we different from other Japanese?”
Hana, after the servants quit
“Strange,” he thought. “I wonder why I could not kill him?”
the story’s final, unresolved line
- Author Pearl S. Buck; third-person short story; central dilemma stated in “Before You Read”
- Sadao (surgeon) and Hana shelter and operate on Tom (U.S. Navy POW) instead of reporting him
- Servants (Yumi, cook, gardener) quit, saying the couple “have forgotten to think of our own country first”; the General offers assassins, Sadao agrees “thinking of Hana”, and the General then forgets his promise
- Sadao himself arranges Tom’s escape to an island, then a Korean fishing boat, with a signal code
- Ends unresolved: “Strange,” he thought. “I wonder why I could not kill him?”
- Devices: irony, symbolism (the father’s room), foil (the cook), simile (the starved fowl)
- Themes: humanity vs loyalty, conscience, prejudice on both sides, dehumanising war language, power in an absolute state