Acceptance of Guilt Theme in The Seventh Man by Haruki Murakami Essay Example

60% of survivors of disasters experience survivors guilt, including the narrator of “The Seventh Man”, a fictional short story by Haruki Murakami. “The Seventh Man” takes place in a small town in Japan, the narrator experiences a typhoon which kills his best friend and scars him for life, the seventh man struggles with the tragedy, experiencing survivors guilt throughout his whole life, as well as having nightmares about his friend dying in the wave. Until eventually he realizes that K was not evil and a quite gentle soul. The narrator of The seventh Man should forgive himself for the death of K.

To begin, the first reason the narrator should forgive himself for not saving K is that at the time of the incident, the narrator was only 10 years old when it happened, “It happened on September afternoon when I was ten years old.”(Murakami 133). Since the narrator was only 10 years old, he could not have done much of anything, and should not be blamed, as putting that much stress on such a young person is not healthy, nor is it healthy to worry and feel guilt for the rest of one's life. To feel responsible for someone's life is normal, but to grovel about it and not forgive yourself, for a short period that is normal, but to do so for one’s entire life, isn’t healthy, and would be considered barely living. Clearly, the narrator should not feel guilty for not being able to save K because he was only 10 years old. 

Secondly, the narrator of the seventh man should forgive himself for the death of K, as what the narrator is experiencing is survivor's guilt which is often irrational, as the situation can usually not be helped, “Subjective guilt, associated with this sense of responsibility, is thought to be irrational because one feels guilty despite knowing that he has done nothing wrong.”(Sherman 154). This supports the idea that the instance of the narrators survivors guilt is irrational because he was unable to save K even if he wanted to,  “As clearly as I knew what I ought to be doing, I found myself running the other way--running full speed towards the dyke, alone.”(Murakami 138). This illustrates how the narrator is experiencing an irrational guilt, as he wanted to save K, but fear overcame him, making him unable to go the other way and save K, so since his fear is irrational, he should forgive himself, as he did nothing wrong and tried to save K, but was unable to. Therefore, the narrator should forgive himself for the death of K because he was experiencing irrational guilt. 

Finally the narrator of the seventh man should forgive himself for the death of K because the narrator shouldn't let his life be controlled by his guilt of not saving K. “I stayed away from my home town for over forty years”(Murakami 141). “I might have been making a terrible mistake all those years.”(Murakami 143). These quotes prove that the seventh man should forgive himself because it shows that over 40 years he was feeling guilty and was plagued by dreams of the death of K, now if he forgives himself he will finally be free from 40 years of terror and guilt, and not waste any more of his life in misery. Obviously, the seventh man should forgive himself for the death of K.

In contrast some people believe differently, they believe that the seventh man should not forgive himself for the death of K. They believe this because the seventh man didn't do all he could to save K and was responsible for the life of someone ending. However they are wrong about how the seventh man should not forgive himself for the death of K. They are wrong because the narrator was grieving and feeling guilty for 40 years, he wasted his entire life feeling guilty, barely living, not able to forgive himself, this would be a nightmare for anyone. Obviously one can see that the seventh man should forgive himself for the death of K because he shouldn't throw away any more of his life to grief.

Ultimately, the seventh man should forgive himself because he was only 10 years old when K died, so he did not have much control over his fear, and should not be blamed for not knowing how to respond. Secondly, the instance of the seventh man's guilt is an irrational guilt, as he was not able to help K, he wanted to, but was not able to because fear overcame him, and did not allow him to help K. Finally the seventh should forgive himself because he shouldn't throw away any more of his life to guilt, he already has thrown 40 years of his life away, living in guilt. It is clear that one should not be consumed by guilt for their life, to be always fearing is not living at all, that is just being, one must forgive or be forgiven in order to actually live their life to the fullest.