The Seventh Man: Responsible or Not? Guilt has the power to make people suffer and not feel enough. Everyone has felt guilt at least once in their lives. People feel guilt for breaking a vase and not telling the truth. People feel guilt for not doing the homework they were assigned. People feel guilty about taking a pack of gum from their local CVS. However, the worst feeling of guilt someone could feel is knowing you could have saved your best friend from death. In Haruki Murakami’s “The Seventh Man,” the seventh man, a young boy, has to fight the feeling of guilt because of his best friend K.’s death, even though he is not responsible.
When reading “The Seventh Man,” it is apparent that the seventh man is not responsible for K.’s death. One reason is that the seventh man’s father allowed him to go outside during the storm, leading the events to unfold. The seventh man recalls, “I asked him if I could go outside. He said I could
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When they were at the beach, the seventh man could feel the wave coming, and he did not warn K. until it was too late. The seventh man stated that he tried to yell and get K.'s attention two times: “I was sure I had yelled loud enough, but my voice did not seem to have reached him” (28). Nevertheless, the seventh man never ran to get K., and the seventh man had the time to grab him. Even though he tried yelling, it did not work. While it is true that the seventh man could have saved K., it would not have been the most realistic situation. The seventh man was only ten years old when this horrific event occurred. The seventh man also had a fight or flight mentality; either save himself or potentially die, along with K. The brain would want to save its body. So the most realistic option would be to fly. When the seventh man froze, he decided to fight or flight. The seventh man cannot be blamed for K.’s death until every person has experienced a near-death