Forgiving the Seventh Man
“Oh, fear is there, all right.. But the most frightening thing we can do at such times is to turn our backs on it, to close our eyes.” When the seventh man speaks these words the reader starts to realize that after forty years he is ready to to move on from the wave. Although just because he’s ready to move on that doesn't mean he has forgiven himself for surviving and letting K. die. When the reader hears this man’s story and how it affected his life it just proves to us that no one should have to live with survivor's guilt. For if they do they go living there life being numb on the outside but tormented mentally. Survivor’s guilt is what happened to the seventh man and he should have forgiven himself instead of distancing himself.
Initially the seventh man tells his story. When he lost his best friend K. we saw him box up his emotions, childhood, and freedom. Then the moment he quite literally opened up the box with his childhood things we saw him look at K.’s painting and saw him
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Which can sometimes be one of the most helpful things after a disaster. In the “The Seventh Man” in paragraph fifty three he talks about how “The intense look of hatred I thought I saw on his face had been nothing but a reflection of the profound terror that had taken control of me for the moment.” Showing that he was ready to make amends with that terrible wave. At this point he starts to realize how he let his terror rule his life and now that he has matured he can start separating his terror from the actual events. The Seventh man can finally let go. As declared before sometimes letting go is the best thing while letting go has obviously helped the seventh man he needs to forgive himself because he has already lost so much time, love, and life, all because he let terror rule his life and it took him a long time to realize