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The Seventh Man Copy

A boy narrowly survives a typhoon and loses his best friend, K. Haunted by guilt, he avoids the sea until adulthood. The story explores forgiveness, trauma, and healing as he learns to accept the past and move forward with life.

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    THE SEVENTH M A N S U M M A R Y & ANALYSIS SUMMITS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ENGLISH DEPARTMENT GRADE 9 SUMMARY • The seventh man of the title tells a group of people a story from his childhood. When a typhoon and tsunami struck his hometown, the ten-year-old boy narrowly escaped being swept away by the wave. He did not or perhaps could not save his friend, and the other little boy was swept away and died. Imagine you lost your best friend at such a young age and this situation put you in a horrific position i n life. Haruki Murakami the narrator from The Seventh Man has a lotto share about this tragic situation. • tn the story The Seventh Man Haruki Murakami "Narrator" experiences the same horrific moments. • It is true that the seventh man did not intend t o cause k*s death. The seventh man should forgive himself because his actions were not the best but his intentions were not bad either. • As an adult, the guilt-ridden man avoids the sea but finally returns to the shore and comesto terms with the past - It is also not healthy for the seventh man to carry guilt on for his whole life and by carrying this guilt he did not have the life he wished to have. • First of all, the narrator should forgive himself because The seventh man felt Iike a protector towards K. Forexample,( Para9) pg 6 states " Ever since I could remember, m y best friend was a boy I'll call K. His house was dose t o ours, and he was a grade behind me in school. We were like brothers, walking t o and from school together, and always playing together when we got home". This shows that the seventh man and K were really close friends before his death. Furthermore, (para 9) " we never once fought during our long friendship. I did have a brother, six years older, but with the age difference and differences i n our personalities, we were never very close. Although it may seem like the seventh man should notforgive himself because it was his decision to go down to the beach while the storm was still going on, ultimately, he shouldforgive himself because he had good intentions, he tried to shout out to K to save his life, and he also regretted it enough until he was a middle aged man. • The seventh man never really grewclose to someone after the death o f his bestfriend K.

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    S U M M A R Y * The story opens with a frame narrative that introduces the character o f the seventh man who is narrating a story from his past comprising of an encounter with nature's power in the form of a typhoon which Japan as an island country often experiences. The past then transforms the man into the narrator who recalls losing his best friend K to a huge sea wave when he fails to hear the narrator's warning. Witnessing his friend being swallowed by the sea, the narrator falls unconscious and views K resting at the tip of a wave attempting to grab him and take him to another world. This fear elongates, gradually translating into trauma and compelling the narrator to leave his hometown. After forty years, he revisits the shore where he saw K for the last time and unable to bear the pain, he resorts to finding solace in K’s seascape paintings which he has gifted to the narrator. Surprisingly, they help him to re-establish his relationship with nature and especially the sea. The narrator is able to overcome his fear with his eventual realization that his nightmares are not K’s anguish at his friend's failure to protect him but rather a departing smile. Confronting is what releases the narrator from the chains of horrifying memories and enables him to move forward in his life t o live the remaining years in peace and tranquillity. ANALYSIS The Seventh Man'" is a reflection on the past by the story’s narrator when he was only ten years old. He experienced a terrible tsunami event that took the life of his good friend, K. The narrator had the opportunity t o save his friend but he failed t o do so which had a traumatic effect on his . However, should the narrator feel guilty and not forgive himself for his failure to save K? The narrator should not feel guilty for his actions on that tragic day forty years ago and he should forgive himself. K was not the only victim that day; the narrator was also a victim. He was young and scared at the time and was forced to make a very difficult, adult-like decision which was to either save himself or risk his life to save his friend.

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