The Seventh Man Essay

“The Seventh Man”, a short story written by Haruki Murakami, is primarily consisted of a flashback into the death of the narrator's childhood friend, K. The narrative starts off with a group of men listening to the seventh man, who never once mentions his actual name, verbally recalling the events of his life. Starting with his young years, the seventh man anonymously introduces his childhood best friend, K., who meant great importance to the narrator. The story’s setting of a small beach town, called the Province of S, heavily contributes to the overall conflict; the little town placed directly in the eye of a violent typhoon. The Seventh Man and K’s parents allow them to inspect what damage was done, they decided to venture off to the beach. Instinctively, the narrator noticed the large wave approaching and instantly retreated as fast as possible. K, unaware of the imminent danger, is swallowed by the massive tsunami wave.
To most people, water is a solitary symbol of peace and happiness, sometimes reminding people of vacation at the beach or a nice bath. To the seventh man, it meant regret and death. In his adult life, he is reminded of his friend’s death every night when he shut his eyes, only seeing the last glimpse of K smiling in the wave on the beach. “I wake up in the darkness, screaming, breathless, drenched in sweat.” He is now an old man and will not let anyone sleep with him; he is scared he will awake them in the night with his screams. He believes he keeps having this recurring dream because K is mad at him for only saving himself and not his best friend being swept into the ocean. “I wouldn’t go near deep rivers or lakes. I avoided boats and wouldn’t take a plane to go abroad.” The deep water scared him, triggering him of the deep ocean water that K would forever be lost in. This turns out to be his greatest