Kerim presents himself as someone who values intensity of experience even when he recognises that it may shorten his life. His description of being “greedy for life” frames excess as a deliberate choice: he does not deny the physical consequences, but treats them as part of the price of living according to his temperament.

The image of the “Iron Crab” gives heart disease a personal and almost mythic form, linking Kerim’s expected death to that of his father. His lack of fear suggests acceptance rather than ignorance. He knows the risk and chooses not to organise his life around avoiding it.

The imagined epitaph, “This Man Died from Living Too Much”, turns mortality into a statement about values. The passage contrasts longevity with intensity, and presents Kerim’s outlook as one in which a full life is measured by experience rather than duration.