The Moral Logic Of Survivor's Guilt Summary

1460 Words3 Pages

Events that occur randomly and are traumatic can take a toll on all aspects of an individual that endure them, what if an individual were in a gruesome situation and the lives of human beings were lost under their unintentional control? How would they feel for the rest of their lifetime? In the article “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, she describes the emotional reality of soldiers at their home are often at odds with the civilian public, and are struggling to garry the burden of feeling responsible of traumatic situations. Survivor’s guilt is the profound feeling that survivors have after a tragic event taking place when others have passed away. Soldiers in battle experience losses during combat. They will have a subjective …show more content…

Bonenberger now feels responsible for no logical sense. This is considered subjective guilt, the feeling of being responsible of a traumatic event, but should be thought to be irrational. Next, she talks about Nietzsche, a modern philosopher coining the phrase bad conscience, which means the feeling of guilt where there was no wrongdoing. Soon, she states the story of Private Joseph Mayek, who died after an accident of a fighting vehicle misfiring. His officer in charge, Captain John Prior, has the feeling of responsibility, due to the fact that he ordered the replacement battery in the turret in the vehicle, causing the accident, even though he did not know what would happen and the consequence. Lastly, she closes out the article by summarizing that moral repair is the duty to self forgiveness and empathy, beginning after survivor's guilt. Furthermore, people in survival situations should not be held accountable for their actions, because we too often take responsibility beyond what we can be held responsible for, and that one understands that he or she has done no wrongdoing on …show more content…

Furthermore, in the passage “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami, during the rising action of the story, the Seventh Man began to talk about how he was best friends with K and how he loved and cared for him immensely, as they would do everything together. The Seventh Man stated “Ever since I could remember, my best friend was a boy I’ll call K. His house was close to ours, and he was a grade behind me in school. We were like brothers, walking to and from school together, and always playing together when we got home. We never once fought during our long friendship. I did have a brother, six years older, but what with the age difference and differences in our personalities, we were never very close. My real brotherly affection went to my friend K.” In addition, after the typhoon struck the city, and K’s body was never found, K’s parents, the Seventh Man’s parents, and the city folks never discussed or aroused the topic of conversation about what happened that night, because they knew how important K was to the Seventh Man. For example, the text stated, “As a great a blow as this had been for them, though, K’s parents never chided me for having taken their son down to the shore in the midst of a typhoon. They knew how I had always loved and protected K as if he had been

Open Document