The Seventh Man Haruki Murakami

The seventh man should forgive himself for his failure to save K.’s life. In the novel “the seventh man”, the seventh man is a child during a typhoon. He and his best friend ,K., go down to the water during the eye of the storm to investigate the shoreline. When they reached the beach, there were lots of unfamiliar and fascinating items washed up on the shore. The boys were so focused on the treasures that, consequently, they did not notice the waves creeping up the shore. Our narrator, the seventh man, noticed a huge wave moving quickly and maliciously in from the horizon. As he runs to shelter behind the breakwall, he yells for K. to run away from the water. However, K. is still entranced by the debris at the shoreline and doesn’t hear him. The seventh man knows that he should go back for K., but he is transfixed by the horror of it all and only springs into action to run behind the breakwall. K. finally realizes what is going on and tries to run away; but, it is too late. K. is sucked away from the beach in a thunderous torrent of water. In the next wave that attacks the shoreline, the seventh man sees K.’s body; grinning horrendously and wickedly at him. He is traumatized and feels responsible about K.’s death until the day he finally learns to forgive himself. He spends many long years being tortured by his guilt at K.’s death. He needed to let go of the pain that he carried for all those long and terrible years. Maybe he could have saved K., maybe he couldn’t have; but

The improbable idea of guilt rushes through everyone at one time or another. We often find ourselves forgiving people or placing blame on ourselves for inadequate reasons. In the story The Seventh Man by Haruki Murakami, the Seventh Man’s best friend K is swept away by a tsunami. For years, The Seventh Man refuses to forgive himself for the incident. At a young age, he inhabits the quality to run from fear. Moving to a new town and changing his life, the Seventh Man doesn’t learn to forgive himself till 40 years later when seeing K’s paintings. He returns home and becomes at peace with his loss. At the time of the accident, The Seventh Man was dealing with countless emotions in a brief time period, furthermore it is irrational for him to have been able to save K. The Seventh Man should forgive himself for his failed efforts to save his childhood friend.

In the story “The Seventh Man” a the so called “Seventh Man” is someone who feels responsible for his friends death, in a tsunami. “The Seventh Man” should not have to feel responsible for his friends death. It isn't entirely his fault, but the cause of mother nature and natural occurrences. He feels responsible however because he thinks that their may have been enough time for “The Seventh Man” to grab his friend, (k) from the ocean wave but he was frozen in shock and could not move. Based on this “The Seventh Man” feels responsible for the death of his friend and has guilt for life after these events. Based on this evidence from “The Seventh Man” he probably should not have to feel bad about the death of his friend but more at peace because of mother natures decision.

In addition, the short story, The Seventh Man, the narrator fails to save his friend because he was overcome with fear. This is shown through the thoughts of the narrator when the wave is about to hit a small beach with him and his friend on it “ I found myself running the other way-running full speed

Guilt can change people in many different and extreme ways, which makes sense, but on the other hand doesn’t if you never did anything wrong. Guilt takes a huge toll on the narrator of The Seventh Man, to the point that he has to give up many things he loves. “I had always enjoyed swimming, but after that day I never even went in a swimming pool. I wouldn't go near deep rivers or lakes. I avoided boats and wouldn't take a plane to go abroad (Murakami 141).” It seems strange for the narrator to act this way when he didn't do anything, there wasn't anything he could’ve done differently so that K would be alive. That's why he should forgive himself so that way he wouldn't have had to give up the things he loves, his life could have been happier, more fulfilling, and definitely a lot happier.

On the contrary, some may say that the the seventh man shouldn’t forgive himself as he is responsible for K.’s death. The evidence that supports this claim is on page 138 as it reads, “I told myself to run over to K., grab hold of him, and get out of there.” The explanation of the quote, forthrightly, being that the narrator could’ve saved K. but he chose not too. This leads to two main reasonings that support why the position that the seventh man should forgive himself is stronger than the opposing argument. Them being; one, the seventh man’s situation and instinctive response in the moment, and

After I read the story The Seventh Man I have determined that the narrator should no longer feel guilt for not retrieving his best friend K. My reasons to support my claim are because most people in survival situations try to save themselves before others. The other logic that supports this is he might not of made it in time if he saved his friend.

Should the narrator of “The Seventh Man” forgive himself for his failure to save K.? The narrator should definitely forgive himself. It was K.’s life not his, meaning K should have been watching his own back. He should have known that there would be more storm coming because they were only in the eye of the storm. K. might have been his best friend but he shouldn’t be or feel guilty for not saving his life.

The narrator didn't also want to be killed but I think he should have. In the audio “The Key to Disaster Survival” They talked about how the neighbors saved their lives because they had just moved to the area and were not quite familiar with the area. Their neighbors knocked on their door and told them that a hurricane was coming and that they needed to get out. I feel that the narrator in “The Seventh Man” should have gone and grabbed K. since he was very week and I would not have been ok to watch something like that happen. “The Moral Logic of Survival Guilt” showed guilt. The narrator felt some guilt i’m sure but he should forgive himself “High on that list of emotions is guilt” (Sherman 153). That is why I think that he should just forget about not saving

I think the narrator of the story, “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami should forgive himself for his failure to save K. If he wouldn’t forgive himself, then he will have to live with that guilt forever and that’s not healthy. Also, If K. was still alive I don’t think he would want the narrator to feel the way he did. Some would say that the narrator shouldn’t forgive himself, but if he didn’t then he would continue to live a more negative life. The narrator should overcome his guilt to have a good life, but continue to remember K. in a positive way.

What would you do if your best friend was riding inside of a wave sadistically staring at you while trying to drag you in with them? What would your reaction be? In Haruki Murakami’s The Seventh Man, a young boy and his friend witness the unimaginable while battling the after effects of a major typhoon both physically and mentally.

Guilt is a power that can destroy us. It stays with us forever, but eventually we all must forgive ourselves. In Haruki Murakami’s “The Seventh Man”, the death of the main character’s best friend plagues him. This survivor guilt eats away at the Seventh Man until there is very little left. In order to move on with his life, the Seventh Man must forgive himself.

would have thrown the entire family into a lot- Not the changed Jarvis. He had finally found the

Akenten’s tears dropped onto Kiero as he watched the life fade away from his eyes. His sweet blue eyes reminded Akenten of what could have been if he had just protected his brother more. He began to blame himself for the death of Kiero, for he knew that if he had stayed awake and watched over Kiero this would have never happened.

Still, he doesn't know who to blame for that... if there was anybody to blame... Maybe it was timing; they were living in a present, but the impending future was pushing the burdensome past too cruelly for a normal outcome of the situation.