In Chap­ter 7, the pro­tag­o­nist endures a tor­tur­ous four days marked by the oppres­sive atmos­phere of forced labor, while a pro­found anguish gnaws at him regard­ing his fam­i­ly’s fate. The island where he is con­fined feels des­o­late, with lit­tle to occu­py his thoughts beyond fish­ing, sleep­ing, and writ­ing as a means to grap­ple with his own nar­ra­tive sur­round­ed by the haunt­ing mem­o­ry of vio­lence suf­fered by his wife, Katie, and the per­pet­u­al threat to his daugh­ter. His anger sim­mers, par­tic­u­lar­ly direct­ed at the over­seer, Hop­kins, who rep­re­sents the cru­el­ty inflict­ed upon them.

One fate­ful morn­ing, the pro­tag­o­nist seizes an unex­pect­ed oppor­tu­ni­ty when he observes Hop­kins, left behind by a group of white men, drunk­en­ly singing by a fire. Draw­ing upon a qui­et deter­mi­na­tion, he approach­es the over­seer, whose vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty is enhanced by intox­i­ca­tion. Engag­ing him in dia­logue, he clev­er­ly manip­u­lates Hop­kins’ fear and attempts to regain some pow­er, reveal­ing the under­ly­ing dynam­ics of their rela­tion­ship as he takes the over­seer’s pis­tol and bran­dish­es it as a means of con­trol.

As he encir­cles Hop­kins in a threat­en­ing embrace, the pro­tag­o­nist unleash­es a tor­rent of pent-up rage, forc­ing the over­seer to con­front the bru­tal real­i­ty of his actions towards women like Katie. The inten­si­ty esca­lates as he squeezes tight­ly, plung­ing Hop­kins deep­er into fear and sub­mis­sion. The dynam­ic shifts as the pro­tag­o­nist rev­els in the notion of agency over his oppres­sor, rel­ish­ing the moment of vio­lent ret­ri­bu­tion that he feels is long over­due.

Dur­ing this vio­lent con­fronta­tion, Hop­kins strug­gles and ulti­mate­ly suc­cumbs to the over­whelm­ing pres­sure. The pro­tag­o­nist inter­spers­es ques­tions about the overseer’s heinous acts against women, invok­ing the fear and suf­fer­ing he inflict­ed upon Katie. As the ten­sion reach­es a fever pitch, the over­seer’s con­di­tion dete­ri­o­rates, cul­mi­nat­ing in a silent defeat. The pro­tag­o­nist, indif­fer­ent to the overseer’s fate, drags him to a canoe, where he des­e­crates it fur­ther before send­ing it adrift into the riv­er, sym­bol­iz­ing a final act of defi­ance against his tor­men­tor and a small reclaim­ing of agency amidst a trans­for­ma­tive real­iza­tion of his own pow­er.