Comparative and Contrast Essay

This essay will explain The Seventh Man, a short story written by Haruki Murakami and
The Man in the Water, which Roger Rosenblatt publishes. Murakami and Rosenblatt’s story
discuss about disasters that all mankind has to go through in their short life span. Both stories
have us look into the more serious side effects of disasters and help spread awareness to what
can happen at any time. This essay will emphasize on the comparable and contrasting arguments
of each story. This essay will take into consideration the techniques that are used to make this
story as incredibly detailed and educational including, setting, theme, character, both of the
writer’s choice of style, and conflict resolution.
In Murakami’s story, the writing style used is first-person style, and it is likewise a
personal style of writing. However, in Rosenblatt’s story, the writing style is third person, written
in an omniscient arrangement. To have the story be written in third-person point of view can help
the readers get an overall impression for the scenery and what the writer really desires to convey
in the story. Despite the fact that both stories are written in different writing styles, they both
possess an omnipotent understanding. In the fourth line of Murakami’s story, it says, “The man
was the last one to tell his story last night.” This sentence informs the readers that the only
person who can tell what happened in the natural disaster is none other than the man who
experienced it himself, which is why the author uses the first-person writing style for this
particular story. In Rosenblatt’s story, there was more than one man to account for in the
muddled disaster, that is why the story is written in the third person point of view, the purpose is
to get an overall well-rounded idea of what the people in the plane incident had to experience.
In both Murakami and Rosenblatt’s stories, the characters that are included have high
importance on the tone of the story. The characters in each story are what makes the story as
astonishing as it is. In order for a story to be easily understood, the choice of characters bring
high importance. For instance, in Murakami’s story, the character that experienced the disaster is
the one explaining what happened. To have the person who experienced the disaster tell the story
is a remarkable way to fully bring the readers to become hooked on the story. With Rosenblatt’s
story, the readers get the more professional and straight to the point side of the people in the
disaster, because of that, readers do not get to see the stories behind the characters that
experienced the disaster. In Rosenblatt’s story, in lines 81-82, the narrator writes an assumption
as to what he thinks might be going through the man in the water’s mind when he decides to help
the others instead of himself. In Murakami’s story, it is much more enticing to see from the
characters that experienced the disaster and how they felt during the disaster. In lines 66-71,
without the characters point of view, the particular changes in the environment that occurred
right before the disaster wouldn’t have been told with such specific details.
The mere fact that Murakami and Rosenblatt’s stories are even comparable is because
they both contain very similar themes to their stories. Both stories speak on the terrible
encounters that mankind has with nature in times that are least expected. In Murakami’s story,
the man tells the story of his encounter with the tsunami in a small house late into a stormy night.
The seventh man tells the story that takes place around the 1930’s that is set in a small town in
Japan, the author would call this place “the province of S.” As for Rosenblatt’s story, the plane
crash occurred in Washington D.C. a state within the United States of America, where Air
Florida’s plane flight 90 plummeted right into the shivering-cold waters of the Potomac River.
The disaster that occurred in the Potomac River can really remind people that there is no
guarantee to anything in life, and that no matter how progressive technology is at this day in age
that there will always be complications that risks someone’s life one way or another. Nature is a
gift on humanity, the astounding scenery that people can see every day is just a portion of what
nature is. Humans should use the nature to their advantage by knowing its properties and making
it useful in any method they could. Nature is extremely powerful and resourceful, once man
learns how to use that effectively and live with nature’s consequences is when the world can be
at peace.
A story can be extremely well written, but without the perfect mood, tone, and voice the
readers will not be able to get a full grasp and understanding on what the author has to say. For
instance, in Murakami’s story, contained in lines 3-6 are descriptions of what the night was like
for the men who talked about the tsunami years prior. Without the description and an
exceptionally detailed explanation of the night, the readers could assume that it was quite a
sunny day when in reality, it’s the opposite. The mood, tone, and voice of a story goes hand-in-
hand in capturing the essence of what the author has to convey. Rosenblatt communicates his
story in a more informing way rather than storytelling, it makes the story present itself as a more
serious and professional matter as opposed to Murakami’s story.
There is no denying the brilliance behind Murakami’s and Rosenblatt’s story and how it
was portrayed. Both stories tackle the severity of disasters that mankind face without warning
and both stories were told in ways that was simple and easy to fathom, nonetheless left a large
impression on the reader. The two stories were able to capture the seriousness of disasters
immensely well and did not disappoint on letting the readers know the importance of human life
that could be taken away in a fragment of a second. No matter in what ways these stories are
written or their minor alterations, these stories inform readers of important things that they
should take note of for the future. To remember that life is a great thing and living is a blessing,
here is a quote from Albert Einstein, “look deeper into nature, and then you will understand
everything better.”