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The Seventh Man Essay

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The Good and Evil in Water In the story,“The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakimi, water has the same effect as the the devil and angel that sits on each shoulder helping to depict what is good and what is evil. This is because there are two different perspectives of the wave described, one perspective is good and the other is bad. In “The Seventh Man,” the narrator tells the story of a boy and his best friend K. getting swept away by a giant wave and how it takes many years for the boy to recover and forgive himself. The seventh man becomes best friends with K.; they possess the kind of friendship where they consider themselves as brothers. One day, during the eye of a storm, the seventh man, K., and K.’s dog go down to the calm beach to examine …show more content…

inserts several problems into the seventh man’s life. The pain that this huge wave causes leaves him struggling in every aspect of his life. He is unable to really connect with people and he is hesitant to get into a serious relationship. A thought he shared regarding his relationships is, “That is probably why I never married. I didn’t want to wake someone sleeping next to me with my screams in the middle of the night. I’ve been in love with several women over the years, but I never spent the night with any of them” (366). This quote highlights his fear of his nightmares putting additional stress on people who do not deserve it. He does not want to share that burden with anyone else. In addition, he did not go back to his hometown for forty years, or even another seashore. All the things he once loved, he no longer can gather the emotional strength to love again. The seventh man says, “I had always enjoyed swimming, but after that day I never even went to swim in a pool. I wouldn’t go near deep rivers or lakes. I avoided boats and wouldn’t take a plane or go abroad. Despite all these precautions, I couldn’t get rid of the image of myself drowning”(366). This expresses just how deep his fear of water is. He is limiting his life because he is still traumatized by the wave swallowing K. He feels that because he did not try to save K. that he also will be sucked in by the water and never brought

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