In “The Seventh Man” there is an unfortunate event that occured. The seventh man watched his friend K. be swepped up by a big wave that killed him when he could have tried to save him from the terrible event. He failed to save K. and never forgot it for the rest of his life. The narrator of the story “The Seventh Man” never showed him ever forgiving himself for that day. The seventh man lived with such guilt in his life he missed out on the joy in life which K. would have wanted. The seventh man should be forgiven of his failure of saving K. because that is what K. would have wanted for him. When that incident occurred in the seventh man's life, his life was never the same again. He lived with guilt for the rest of his years. When he was older, he returned to the scene of the incident. He improved some, although he still was not the same. At the end of the story I would have hoped that the seventh man would have been forgiven and went on to have a happy life, but that never happened. It was unfortunate that this had happened and he was never forgiven. This can be compared to the term “survivor guilt,” which is used to describe the feelings of the survivors of any war or accident that wonder how they were able to make it out alive when …show more content…
His life after all of this occurring was very sad and filled with depression. In the story the seventh man says, “It took me a long time to recover from the emotional shock.” It is sad that the seventh man had to live like that. He could have tried to save K. but he didn’t and now he will never know if he could have saved him although he should not live in such sorrow. K. would have wanted him to go on with his life because in the story when the wave was being washed over K. the seventh man saw him for the last time. K. kind of smiled and looked pleased with what was happened. In the end of the story the seventh still lives in sadness but is somewhat forgiven when he returns to his
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 narrator for the seventh man should forgive himself for not being able to save K because he did everything he could do to try to save him but he would not listen. In the story the seventh man a huge typhoon strikes the beach with a big boom while the narrator and his friend K were investigating the previous damage from the past wind and rain. The narrator heard the big booms and tried to warn his friend K but he just couldn't K was too interested in whatever he was looking at that he did not hear the yelling or the loud booms.
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.
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
Time moves so quickly for people in these cases so they have to think fast, but also what’s the right decision. They don’t have the time to process the information with the scene that is happening at the moment and often people don’t realize if it is the right decision or not until it is too late. In situations like these, everyone feels stress to the point where they have no other option until it is too late when they make their final choice like what happened in “The Seventh Man” about their situation with the wave. “My feet, though, which knew what was about to happen, turned away from my willin exactly the opposite direction. I ran away to the breakwater alone. I guess it was the overwhelming fear that made me do it. It robbed me of my voice, but it got my feet moving well enough. I fled stumbling across the soft sand beach and, arriving there, turned to shout at K” (Murakami 5). This shows how the situation the seventh man was in was happening so quickly that his brain couldn’t process what to do at the moment until when it was too late that he realized he could’ve made a different choice.
It is simple to argue that the Seventh Man should not forgive himself for failing to save K. One may assert that the narrator could have physically warned K. by giving him a slight shove or patting him on the back. Although this is logical, if one were to literally put him or herself in the Seventh Man’s situation, he or she would recognize the overwhelming amount of thoughts running through his head in the moment. In “The Key to Disaster Survival? Friends and Neighbors,” Shankar Vedantam reports about a 2004
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
“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.
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.
A handful of people will agree that the Seventh Man left K. intentionally and let him die. For example, (evidence). Thus, what killed K. was the “wave like a huge snake with its held wanted him to die” (138). Furthermore, it was impossible for the narrator to save K. because he was “ten yards” away from him. Therefore, if he tried to run up to him and save him both of them could’ve died. In addition, although, the narrator failed on saving K., he was traumatized and had a difficulty moving on with his life. For example, “I was burning with fever, and my mind was clouded… been asleep for three days… vomited several times, and had bouts of delirium… in my dreams, K. would hop out of his capsule in the wave and grab my waist to drag me inside him...I never married… never went to swim in a pool… wouldn’t go near deep rivers or lakes…” (139-141). Others might conclude that the seventh man deserves everything he’s been through. However, this proves that the Seventh Man was miserable and couldn’t live life to the fullest because of the
Should the narrator of “The Seventh Man’ forgive himself for his failure of saving K?
The seventh man should forgive himself because K is his best friend and he wouldn't want the Seventh Man to hate himself for the mistake he made. K will understand because the
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.
Have you ever felt guilty by something you have done wrong? How did you try to fix that mistake. Some people would want to do everything in their power to try to be forgiven or feel a bit of relief from the mistake they have made. What do you do if you cannot be forgiven or get over the mistake you have done. In the movie Seven Pounds, Tim Thomas made a mistake that end up costing the lives of seven people, including his wife. Over the years, he finally finds a solution he feels what will give him a peace of mind.
He needs to understand his motive in doing those actions because his intention was not for him to feel regretful for the rest of his life, but he was not thinking about how this could be a long term effect on his life and others. In order to make up for his sins he has to sacrifice many things in the painful process towards redemption.