The Seventh Man Guilt

¨And so, what duties to others need to make room for, even in a soldier's life of service and sacrifice, are duties to self, of self-forgiveness and self-empathy. These are a part of full moral repair.¨ (Sherman 157). Often times, in the events following a soldier returning from war or an accident where lives were lost, survivors will feel guilt for living when others were killed in the event. In the short narrative ¨The Seventh Man¨ the narrator faces great amounts of guilt throughout a large portion of his life. It is now time, after many years of experiencing tremendous guilt, for the narrator to forgive himself for not saving K. because there is a chance he could not have saved K., even if he tried; to hold onto guilt for long portions

Some people who have read the text might suggest that to not feel guilt and show remorse for the death of K. is to have no emotion at all, citing a quote from “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” on page 154, “To not feel the guilt is to be numb to those pulls,”. Anyone who brings up this claim is completely correct in respect to showing not showing any guilt, but on page 141, the main character describes that for a long period of time he never returned to the area: “I stayed away from my hometown for over forty years.” By describing how long he had stayed away from his home because of this devastating event, he tells the reader that for a good portion of his life he was never able to forgive himself. Yes, it is respectful and good in morals to show some kind of guilt for not being able to save a friend, but if a person wastes a considerable amount of their lifetime lamenting over their failures, that person is going to fail one’s self as well. The main character showed his respect, he proved he cared deeply about K., so it is now time for the main character to live the rest of his life, which is already halfway gone, and forgive himself for failing to save K.. If K. really was the kind boy he was described to be he would have wanted the main character to forgive himself, like depicted on page 143: “surely K. had not been looking at me with hatred or resentment; he had not been me with: that, too, could have been an accident of angle or light and shadow, not a conscious act on K.’s part. He had probably already lost consciousness, or perhaps he had been giving me a gentle smile of eternal