“The rumbling had stopped…finally, K. heard my shouting and looked up. But it was too late. A wave like a huge snake with its head held high, poised to strike, was racing towards the shore”.(Murakami, 138). This life or death experience was shared between two friends in the middle of a typhoon. While they were exploring the damage of the outside, a huge wave came upon them. This resulted in a life being lost and a friend hurting, feeling responsible for what had happened. However, whenever you are in nature, you never have complete control. Nobody should ever take the blame for a survival accident when in reality they did nothing wrong. Since nature can never be fully controlled, The narrator of this survival story should forgive himself for his failure to save K. …show more content…
There have been many stories that have been told that tell about a failure to save someone's life. One of these stories is mentioned in the short story of, “The Moral Logic of Survival Guilt”. This story shares, “In war, standing here rather then there can save your life but cost a buddy his. It’s flukish luck, but you feel responsible” (Sherman, 153). This shows that just like in the narrator's story, that it is complete luck for who survives and who doesn't. In all reality, that big wave probably should've hit the narrator too, but it didn’t. Another example to show why the narrator must forgive himself for not saving K’s life is talked about in a radio broadcast. This broadcast talks about how neighbors must be there for each other during hard times. This overall showed that a community after hard times must work together to heal the
If you think about it the man in the story should forgive himself because he tryed to his best ability to save him. If anything it was K’s fault because he couldn't here the man. He was to focused on something elses then the waves which he should have had an eye on him them whole time. The narrator even told him. He said that once you start to feel any wind to run back home. Sure there was some problems in his plan like the how K couldn't here him and how the wind
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.
Despite the sufferance of victims, they often aren’t entirely blameless, as their poor decisions and irresponsibility is ultimately associated with their upsetting and newfound situation. Therefore victims like Fin O’Neil in The Story of Tom Brennan, who ultimately chose to travel in a car with drunken, inexperienced, and impulsive driver, it becomes questionable whether he is also culpable for his injuries. Despite Fin’s sobriety and awareness prior to the accident, this does not implicate him, however it becomes debatable whether the outcomes would be alike; with Fin’s extensive injuries and crash itself, if the decisions made on Fin’s behalf were different. Similarly in the story of ‘In My Little Town’, Leigh Charter Jnr also decides to travel with a drunk driver, regardless of the risks. Although his alertness was also compromised by alcohol, he holds some level of responsibility in his death. However, in ‘Shattered’, there are no obvious victims who made poor decisions, due to the situations isolation. Although, it is disputable whether the perpetrator; Peter Hodgkins’ friends who witnessed the accident could have altered the outcome. Though, it was voiced to Peter; “don’t throw a rock at a car, that’s stupid,” (‘Shattered’, 2011) this partly ousts some responsibility, especially due to their intoxication, which is similar to the other stories. However, responsibility is never fully removed from others, as it only takes one person, one conversation, and any one action during the lead to alter the outcome of July 21st 2007, in Kiama, New South
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
This can refer back to the 7th man because even though no one blamed him or made him feel guilty for the death of his friend, he still felt like it was his fault. K got swallowed up in the storm and died. Some would say that the 7th man should feel guilty for his friend's death because he didn't try to grab K so they could leave together.
“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.
However, the narrator stated that“ I looked at one of K.’s works, that something was permeating my very flesh… surely K. had not been looking at me with hatred or resentment” (page). This proves that the friendship that they developed gave the narrator a reason to convince himself that he wasn’t responsible for K.’s death.
“It happened one September afternoon when I was ten years old.” (Murakami, 133). This statement right here should already have you convinced. The narrator states that he was only the young age of ten when the tragic event happened, his friend, K, was taken away by the wave of a typhoon. At that age most children would have no clue what to do in a situation similar to this and that’s when they’re not under pressure. The narrator also states that he called for his friend, “Hurry K! Get
“The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami is a short story about a boy who lost his best friend to a wave during a storm. We can see this in, “They would come to me like debt collectors at the door. It happened whenever I was on the verge of forgetting,” (Murakami 141). Nightmares would haunt the seventh man's dreams, constantly reminding him that it was his fault that his best friend died. When it wasn’t his fault, there was nothing he could of done to stop the wave from striking his best
Could your go through life knowing that you might of been the reason your best friend is dead?The seventh man should not forgive himself. He knew that the outside was dangerous but still insisted to explore the beach. If i would be in his situation i would run and save my friend because he was not moving K had no reaction to the wave well the seventh man started running leaving his best friend to die. He even stated that he had enough time to save him why didn’t he fight the fear.
The narratorś backstory is tragic. To simplify it, his home town was undergoing a typhoon, he and his best friend K had decided to travel down to the beach while they had been in the eye of the storm. While they were scavenging the beach the narrator described it as “ strange “. “I do recall that my voice sounded strange to me, as though it belonged to someone else”( Murakami 137). As he had watched a wave start to form his first instinct was to run.
“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.
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.
The seventh man should forgive himself because if K was alive he wouldn't want the seventh man to be mad and hate himself. K would want the Seventh Man to forgive himself for his mistake. The Seventh Man did yell for K to move but K did not hear him and as a result he was eaten by a wave. Perhaps the seventh man should have tried to grab K, but he was really far out at the beach and he was probably worried that he would end up getting eaten by the wave just like K was another reason the Seventh Man should forgive himself is because he didn't create the wave to get K.
Survivor's guilt occurs when one blames themself for not saving another in a life or death experience. “The guilt begins an endless loop of counterfactuals-thoughts out could have or should have done otherwise, though in fact you did nothing wrong.” (Sherman, 153). What the Seventh Man feels throughout Murakami’s story is guilt for surviving when K. did not. Even if the narrator couldn’t have helped K. anymore than what he accomplished by calling out to him. “‘I’m getting out of here!’ I yelled to K. … my voice did not seem to reach him. He might have been so absorbed in whatever it was he had found that my call made no impression on him. K. was like that.” (Murakami, 137). K. wouldn’t have been able to be saved because even just calling to him