Having to Face the Fear in The Seventh Man by Haruki Murakami

Imagine living to see your best friend die right in front of your eyes from a huge wave and everyday you thought it was your fault for something you couldn't control. The seventh man tells the story written by author Haruki Murakuami. The story begins with a meeting where everyone takes turns talking. The main character in the story is the last one to speak. He is called the Seventh Man. The man described a terrible incident when he was ten years old.

The typhoon in his city was followed by a real tsunami. The man related that after the typhoon struck, the city was in the whirlpool of a storm. The little seven humans were allowed to go outside to observe the damage but not go far. Yet, he wants to look beyond his yard. He and his best friend K went to the beach to see the debris. Arriving at the beach the boy realized that something was happening in the water.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Not long the big waves come to the two children. Miraculously after almost a year suffering his injuries, the boy physically survived. However, he was haunted in his dreams and thoughts by feeling guilty for the death of his friend. Forty years passed, and the man never married or found happiness. The Seventh Man states that the most miserable thing for humans is to live in alienation and fear from others.

The story mainly revolves around three characters. The Seventh Man, whose trauma made him unable to approach the water, told of the incident that affected his entire life.

K character is not given a name, this may be intended to represent the feelings of everyone who has also felt fear and guilt. The last character K is a disabled boy who has great artistic talent. The seventh Man should forgive himself for his failure to save K. He should forgive himself because everyone makes mistakes in their lives that leads to some type of failure. He shouldn't have this on his continuous his whole life for something he couldn't do. He was very young at the time and it was either save himself or K and in that situation anybody would pick themself but at least he tried to yell for help, he could of put himself in more serious danger and died, saving others can put your life at risk even professionals even fail to rescue sometimes but they get over it.

The Seventh Man should forgive himself for the failure to save K. He should forgive himself because everyone makes mistakes in their lives that lead to failure and you just gotta get through it. It can't be on his continuous for his whole life for something he couldn't control and at the time of the incident he was very young and didn't know what to do. The Seventh Man had to choose either saving himself or saving K and he at least he tried saving K he could of easily died in the process of trying to save him. Some will say The seventh Man should not forgive himself because he had the opportunity to save K. The seventh man stated, “I told myself to run over to K and grab hold of him and get out of there I found myself running the other way.” In the beginning of the story the seventh Man could not forgive himself but after getting older thinking through the story he finally did forgive himself if he didn't forgive himself he would have gone crazy.