Overcoming One's Guilt and Fear in The Seventh Man

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Guilt. You should have saved him... Guilt. You should have helped him... Guilt. You should have…, you should have…, you should have… Guilt is a parasite that overwhelm the person causing to not move on from the past just like the character in “The Seventh Man.” In “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Marakami, the seventh man tells his story about a typhoon that occur in his hometown and how fear was able to manipulated him to escape the tsunami instead of saving his friend causing him to leave his friend, K.

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, behind to die. Since he was K.’s protector, this incident causes guilt to overwhelmed the seventh man causing him to avoid his past making the man lonely and timid for a couple of years. However, after returning to the beach where K. was consumed by the wave, he was able to see the world in a K.’s perspective helping him relieve all the guilt that had once overwhelmed him.

“The Seventh Man” by Haruki Marakami is the story I recommend reading because of how important the theme is and how engaging the story is.

Throughout the story, there are many reasons on why I recommend this book. One of the reason is that in it lies an important theme which can be used to help people get over their guilt that still persist in their daily lives. For example, after K. die, the seventh man was living in guilt that remained in his life for a couple of years since he could of done something to save K.

but he didn’t. However, after returning back to the beach where K. died, he “realized that his eyes [K.’s eyes] were my eyes [Seventh man’s eyes]” and by looking at K.’s watercolor reveals that K. isn’t full of hatred when he died relieving the huge weight on his back (p. 142). From the context of these words, one can conclude that the theme is that one can overcome guilt by looking at the situation through new lens. This life lesson is important for people to help relieve the weight on their back instead of carrying it for the rest of their lives. Also, throughout the story, the author help the reader feel the character’s emotion making the reader engaged in the story since they feel like they are actually there struggling with the character within the story. For example, when the author describes the typhoon by saying, “A big hand might have swung down from the sky and flattened everything in its path,” the readers imagine a monster destroying the house making both the character and the reader feel terror in that section of the story (p. 136). Since both the character and the reader feel the same emotion, the reader feel like they are that character in the story making the story more engaging. To sum it up, one can obtain new knowledge and enjoy themself at the same time if they read this book.

Even though I recommend reading “The Seventh Man,” this may not be everyone cup of tea due to the fact that the some section of the story is slow-paced and the sentences doesn’t get straight to the point the author is trying to make. For example, the author uses a whole paragraph just to explain how the destructive the typhoon is by showing how it “beat against the house” and how “many people had been killed or injured by flying debris” (p. 135). By using a whole paragraph to explain the destruction the typhoon caused, it shows that the story is slow-paced since the author uses many explanation to expand the detail he put. The slow-paced story may cause the reader to be bored making the reader not like the story. Also, the sentences doesn’t get straight to the point which might confuse the person on what the story is about making the story less enjoyable. Even though the story is slow-paced, it helps the reader better understand it helping the story makes more sense and enjoyable. In addition, by making the beginning of section of the story slow-paced, makes the transition into a fast-paced story have more tension and creates more drama making it more enjoyable for the reader. Finally, even though those sentence doesn’t get straight to the point, the readers might imagine what is going on during those events making the reader much more engaged in the story. To sum it, the good outweighs the bad making it why I recommend reading this book.

In essence, the way the author made the readers engaged to the story and how impactful the theme is makes it why I recommend reading “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Marakami. By making the reader engaged to the story, it makes the story more memorable and the story more enjoyable. This helps create a more important and impactful theme which can be used in the reader's daily live. By reading this book, one obtain new knowledge that can help you relieve guilt that within the reader. So, next time, when you are in the library or bookstore, be sure to check the book out and look at the world in a new len to release the guilt living in your head.