Obligated To Guilt In The 'Seventh Man'

You could say as long as you did everything possible to save your friend then there would be no reason to feel guilty. Your friends in war are closer to you than your brother. Putting your life in your fellow soldiers' hands and asking him to do the same creates a bond that can never be broken. Therefore, when your friends dies in combat, no matter how out of control the situation was, guilt forms up inside you. If only it was me that picked up that booby trap then my friend would be alive..

However, this cannot be said for all victims of guilt as the author makes sure to heed the consequences of

Guilt is the regret one experiences when they realise their action was not appropriate according to a lawful or moral standard. In Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, guilt was a major theme and was essential throughout the novel. Davies used the three main characters, Dunstan Ramsay, Boy Staunton, and Paul Dempster to illustrate the different effects of Mrs. Dempster’s incident. The way one is raised, the key disciplines they have developed and their way of thinking reflects how they deal with guilt.

There are many situations in which people feel like they’re at fault for the death of a loved one, or a good friend. Many of these cases, to this day, involve soldiers who have seen the terrors and tragedies of war, and have watched their companions get killed in the line of fire, while they survived. In the story, “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt,” the author, Nancy Sherman, talks about what survivor guilt is, and why some people suffer from it. “The guilt begins an endless loop of counterfactuals- thoughts that you could have or should have done otherwise, though in fact, you did nothing wrong.” (Sherman, 153) Sherman’s statement relates back to “The Seventh Man,” and how the narrator feels guilty for not saving K. even though there was nothing that could’ve been done to help. The Seventh Man has thoughts about what he could have done, and different things he could have said to save K. but in the end, he feels guilty for nothing.

“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.

In a CNN article by Ellzabeth Landau, she talks to people who are living with survivor guilt from recent shooting. In the article Eric Hunter said, ¨You're happy that you're alive, but then again, you're sad because you know certain people who died.¨ Eric was a witness of a movie theater shooting in Colorado, where he knew a 6 year old who had passed away. He is living with the guilt of not risking his own life to save the others he knew. The shooters to not always plan to go in a place and shoot up certain people, like natural disasters do not choose to happen to kill a certain

“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.

The human tendency is to feel guilt after a great tragedy, and so in turn humans will feel survivor’s guilt. Good people will naturally put more blame on themselves even if they had done nothing wrong or all that they could to help. In the editorial “The Moral Logic of Survivor’s Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, the author gives many examples of good people feeling survivor's

An example of this is when Holden is failing from Pencey he blames his parents for making him go there in the first place. Holden might be to blame for some things like braking all the windows in his basement, but society is to blame for his downfall in mental health. “In fact, lack of success may more often be caused by what I call The Peter Pan Syndrome: they won’t grow up.”(Nemko, pg.1) Holden never wants to be responsible for the things that he causes to go wrong. He has blamed his parents for the things he has done and for him not trying at all. He blames his parents for Allie’s death and that they were the reason that he wasn’t able to go the his funeral. Holden blames his parents and doesn’t want to take responsibility for his wrongdoings.

v Guilt (such as feeling others should have lived and he should have died, or feeling

The narrator of “The Seventh Man” should seek forgiveness in himself. Not only is forgiving yourself an essential thing that keeps our lives going, but in his circumstances, there wasn’t much more to do to help his friend.

Life or Death Everyone has done something that they may not be proud of, but is everyone responsible for his/her own actions in all cases? There are certain cases where one doesn’t have to own up for their actions. There’s situations in life that drive someone to making a mistake, such as peer pressure, disparity, and even to the extent of life or death. In the book “A Long Way Gone” a boy by the name of Ishmael is introduced, he is running away from the war alongside with a few friends.

Personal Responsibility: In the movie The Blind Side, Michael Oher was part of the Tuohy family and after earning their trust, he was given a car. Later on, Sean Tuohy and Michael Oher were both in the car and having a good time riding together and on their way to pick up a new game. Oher got distracted and hit another car. After the blow both of the boys had taken, Michael made himself responsible (Hancook, The Blind Side). Accepting personal responsibility may be hard sometimes, but it takes a great deal of courage.

the narrator it was not at all his fault that K had died. He should have been able to forgive himself. A great story to source is “The Moral Logic of Survivor's Guilt.”The story explains what survivor guilt is. “The classic scenario is not so much one of good luck (as in survivors guilt), but of bad luck, typically having to do with accidents where again, there is little or no culpability for the harms caused”(Sherman 154). In the narrator of “The seventh man” case K had tragically died in a typhoon. He felt that it was his fault that K had been swallowed when in reality, if he had tried to save K he would have died himself. There was no way he could have saved K. The narrator should be able to forgive himself for not running after K. It was an accident, peer bad timing though he feels as if it was his fault. Even though the narrator of the story had watched K die, he should have been able to forgive himself because of the simple fact that it was not his

The overwhelming guilt will be directed towards themselves due to being aware of the selfish act as their own choice