Guilty: The Seventh Man

The Seventh Man was unsuccessful in saving his childhood friend, K. In spite of his lack of success, he should not have to live with guilt about this for his entire life. In Sherman’s editorial, she states that, “Subjective guilt, associated with this sense of responsibility, is thought to be irrational because one feels guilty despite the fact that he knows he has done nothing wrong.” (Sherman 154). The Seventh Man did not do anything wrong, therefore, if he were to feel guilt, it would be subjective. The failure to fulfil a task due to fear or another overpowering feeling is not the same as doing something incorrectly. The Seventh Man says, “What made me do this, I’m sure, was fear, a fear so overpowering it took my voice away and set my legs to running on their own.” (Murakami 138). This statement illustrates how he desperately wanted to do the right thing and run to his friend, but his feelings and subconscious thoughts drove him to do the opposite. This is something a person cannot be blamed for. Therefore, it would only be reasonable for the Seventh Man to forgive himself for what occurred.

Should the author of “The Seventh Man” forgive himself for not saving his friend K? He and his friend were in a tsunami, then all of a sudden the wind stops they look outside and his father tells him they are in the eye of the storm. He told his father he was going to walk around then his friend K followed him out. They went to the beach and huge waves started coming. The little boy ran leaving K behind thinking he was following. He turned around and saw his friend get swallowed by the humongous wave. He has still not forgave himself. I believe that he should forgive himself for these reasons, he thought his friend was following, and finally if he were to run back it would be too late.

After the man saw his friend in the tip of the wave that devastating day he was never able to forgive himself, no one blamed him of course but it was the feeling of survivor guilt. “ In the tip of the wave… floated

In the short story “The Seventh Man” the author uses waves to represent fear in a powerful way. For example, in the story, the reader remembers the tragic incident where his friend was swept away by a massive wave. This traumatic event haunts him, for years, every time he hears waves crashing, it's a constant reminder of what happened on that day. This fear affected him everyday for almost his whole life, “I stayed away from my home town for over forty years.” Not only did he have to leave his home town and family to escape his nightmares, it didn't even help him escape his fear.

In the story “The Seventh Man” the narrator was in a deadly typhoon where his best friend was killed because he went to the beach during the eye of the storm. Instead of going to get his friend when he yelled and thought a wave was going to come, he ran and hid behind the storm wall. His friend was killed because the narrator had taken his friend to the beach and was a coward. The narrator feels surviver guilt and the burden of dealing with that guilt is his fault because he failed to help his friend.”The guilt begins an endless loop of counterfactuals-thoughts that you could have or should have done otherwise.”(Sherman page 153).You could say there was nothing he could do but, instead of yelling he could have grabbed his retarted friend and

“Don’t waste the life I’d sacrificed my own for on feeling bad about yourself. We might as well have both lost our lives at this rate. Go see the things I never got to see. Do the things I never got to do.  Life is spent in hesitation and fear is no life at all.” is something along the lines of how I think K would have felt about the situation, given the personality described. In “The Seventh Man”, a short story by Haruki Murakami, the seventh man tells a story about a natural disaster he survived: in which his best friend did not. He summarizes this event and reminisces on how he could have saved K; that is followed by a third person point of view describing the effects this survivor’s guilt has had on the seventh man. Despite his failure to save his best friend, should he forgive himself? The answer is a clear, and obvious yes because by never forgiving himself, not only is he hurting himself and allowing K to die in vain, but he also spreads pain to those who love him like friends, family, and acquaintances. I’m sure by that present point in time; K, his parents, K’s parents, and everyone but himself had succumbed to forgiveness. The only one left to move on is the seventh man himself.

In Washington in 1982 there was a plane crash on the pentatonic river. A man repeatedly saved other lives in the place of his own. Rosenblatt states “The odd thing is that we do not even really believe that the man in the water lost his fight.” This man had so much courage and faith to put others lives before his. This saying, he had a plan in mind, he followed through with it, and achieved it so he did not lose the fight, he really won, and also shared his victory with others. He gave up everything he had to give hope to others. Rosenblatt gave another point being, “When the helicopter took off with what was to be the last survivor, he watched everything in the world move away from him, and he deliberately let it happen.” One could think he was content with what he had done. He sacrificed himself for the life of another life. This being said, the anonymous man in the water not only saved 5 lives with a humble heart but gave hope to

In the years 1994 to 2013, 218 people were affected by a natural disaster. These people who then seeked medical attention, should not have to pay for the damaging effects of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you put yourself in a life endangering risk, you should pay for the rescue. In the story The Seventh Man, by Haruki Murakami, the narrator is haunted by a devastating typhoon that took his best friend K’s life. The narrator had the choice of saving himself, or saving his friend, however fear took hold of him and ran the opposite direction of his friend. The second text used was The Cost of Survival, by Theo Tucker. It is an essay about weather survivors should pay for their rescue. The author categories two groups of survivors as risk takers and people with bad luck. The third text used was The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt, by Nancy Sherman. It explains survivors of tragic events often carry guilt, and it is not always their fault what occurs. Survivors of natural disasters should not have to pay for their survival.

In the story the 7th man by Haruki Murakami the narrator loses his best friend, K., to a wave and feels responsible for his death and it has taken the narrator a lifetime to ease the pain. He shouldn't blame himself for K.'s death because of the situation. The situation involved a wave in which the narrator had no control of, the narrators instincts took him over and also because the narrator has paid a price for the incident. The first reason the narrator should forgive himself is because he couldn't control the wave.

Constricted by the dirty beige walls that used to be pearly-white, inflicted by black discrete scratches from 1 year ago by furniture he bought off of craigslist with his alimony money. Every night, room number 7 exudes an aura of balanced evil and hatred. The only company provided is the gossip overheard from the two women on the stairs leading to my room and the occasional police sirens fading in the distance. “Did you hear Esmeralda? Number 8 is going to be evicted.” The second lady responds, “So crazy. That’s the second family to be evicted from that room.” He closed his eyes and tuned them out. He lay in the comfort of his bed, which was placed horizontally in the top left corner of the room, strictly sleeping on the right side

In life, accidents happen. Some can be more drastic than others but everyone fails or makes a mistake at some point in their lifetime. In the story “The Seventh Man”, the narrator fails to save his friend from drowning in the ocean during a horrible hurricane and he obviously feel guilty for failing to save his friends life. Although he will never be able to entirely forget about what happened on the terrible day, the seventh man should forgive himself for failing to save his friends life.

Do you think you would feel guilty if you lost a good friend and you thought it was your fault? Some people may but others won't. I believe that if you have the opportunity to same someone you should but if it was risky and you could also be killed i wouldn't. Many people have different thoughts on this topic.in the book “The Seventh man” a boy names K. was neighbors and good friends with the narrator. The narrator could have taken a life or death situation to help his friend but he didn't.

Survivors guilt.... An emotion brought on by a traumatic experience. Thing like watching a fellow soldier or close friend die. In the story, “ The Seventh man” The narrator Goes through watching the death of his best friend K. This experience bring on survivor's guilt talked about in the story “The Moral logic of survivor's guilt.” Even though the narrator of the story had watched K die, he should have been able to forgive himself. Although there is a cost to surviving, no matter what he told himself it was not his fault that K had died so tragically.

“In war, standing here rather than there can save your life but cost a buddy his. It’s flukish luck, but you feel responsible.” (Sherman 153). In “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt,” Nancy Sherman uses this quote to explain the basis of survivor guilt in war. In “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami, the narrator failed to save his closest friend from a wave. As Sherman said in her quote, people often feel guilty when they survive a situation that others didn’t. The narrator’s situation in “The Seventh Man” is a perfect example of this. Despite his failure to save K., the narrator should still forgive himself.

“Hi-ya, sport, you look you could use a good stiff drink?” a good-sized man said to Glenn as he handed him his champagne flute. “Here, take mine.”