The following paragraphs are my personal comments on the themes and the purpose of the story. I wrote these paragraphs for my teacher, so he could easily understand the messages of the story in a quick amount of time. You may reference these paragraphs to help you analyze and understand the story.

In The Seventh Sun Rises, I pose the question: "If people were to implement moral relativism into a society, disregarding moral objectivity, what would result from this change?" I answer this question through the prideful ideals of Ashmit. He strongly believes that moral relativism, the ability to determine good and evil for oneself, will advance and progress the crew's exploration of the new planet, while additionally viewing Judeo-Christian moral objectivity as a regressive and antiquated concept disproven by modern science. However, Ashmit's subjective moral ideals ultimately ruin the crew, contributing to each member's death. At the end of the novel, Ashmit's moral relativism concedes to Dismas' moral objectivity, revealing the absurdity of living in accordance to a self-created and relative moral code.

    The entire story is an argument about the human condition. Purposefully, I reference Dante Alighieri's poetical work The Divine Comedy, where he lists humanity's seven greatest vices, as a framework for the seven antagonists of the story. By associating each character with a specific vice, I consequently argue that all humans, no matter how virtuous, are unmistakably guilty of committing many of these vices innumerably throughout their lives. Then, I argue that each human possesses an inherently corrupt and selfish nature, revealed by our inevitable tendency to commit moral atrocities. After presenting all this information, I finally conclude that practicing moral relativism will lead to one's personal demise, yet have no choice but to practice moral relativism if they refuse to practice moral objectivity. Therefore, humans are locked in a position of moral absurdity and chaos, revealed to us through the actions of the story's characters.

The most notable theme of the story is how moral relativism will ultimately lead to humanity's demise. Although I depict in a hyperbolic way the demise of each character in the story, I realistically portray the characters' moral situation, where each person possesses the ability to determine right and wrong for themselves. Similarly, many progressive thinkers in our current society abandon the "old-fashioned" concept of moral objectivity, where a singular objective source, most often a knowledgeable and righteous deity, determines right and wrong. Rather, most of these thinkers argue that we are intelligent, independent, and virtuous enough to create our own moral codes. The Seventh Sun Rises is a literary critique of this modern and progressive perspective on morality.

Thank you for reading this far. If you enjoyed the story, don't just vote and leave. Engage with the story, analyze the story, pose questions about the story. Intelligent discussion matters more to me than a simple vote.