In the beginning he fights his urges that cry out for sex which the
monsters outside seem to know he has and use against him. Celibacy isn't
something I've ever thought of as a potential problem in a
post-apocalypse setting because there are usually a number of human
survivors. What do you do when you're the only one?
He drowns his
emotional pain and shock in whiskey and cigarettes which I think is
probably how he stayed sane through the first year of being alone.
Isolation is a terrible thing that breaks minds and I'm not sure why it
didn't break Robert Neville. The only explanation I can think of is that
he had chores and music and he used booze as an anaesthetic.
I
found his exploration into the workings of the germ and learning from
books rather remarkable. I didn't find it at all unbelievable, but I was
very impressed at his ability to learn so much with no help from an
experienced hand.
I thought the explanation for the infection was
novel and interesting. I found the distinction between the living and
dead infected brilliant, and I was always interested in any theory
Robert Neville posed because it was always well thought out and well
presented. The idea that the living were actually psychologically rather
than physically changed was fascinating. If you consider how mass
hysteria can produce physical symptoms of illness it makes perfect sense
that many of the living would simply go crazy and think they too were
monsters of the night.
I found the part of the story when he find
the dog and tries to win him over very touching and heartbreaking. It
was beautifully done and one of the most powerful parts of the book for
me.
I didn't ever stop being suspicious of the girl. I knew she'd
be the end of Robert Neville though I didn't know how exactly. The
questions of how you come to deal with loneliness and what an intrusion
company can be was very cleverly done. When you're used to your life
being just so and you get the thing you've been wanting for so long,
suddenly you can really ask yourself if you really wanted it after all.
The
ending. I found it emotionally unsatisfying at first, but it made a
huge impact! He really was the outsider now and his death was a
necessary part of the formation of the new society. I didn't really
expect or need him to live happily ever after, but I was sad to see him
die. He survived so much for so long. But he was outnumbered and a
threat they had to get rid of.
For a spoiler-full discussion of the many film adaptations join the conversation
I Am Legend is a 1954 horror fiction novel by American writer
Richard Matheson. It was influential in the development of the zombie genre and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and as I Am Legend in 2007, along with a direct-to-video 2007 production capitalizing on that film, I Am Omega. The novel was also the inspiration behind the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.
Robert Neville is the apparent sole survivor of a
pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. It is said that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that it was spread by dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population. The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks:
the disease claimed his wife and daughter, and he was forced to kill
his wife after she seemingly rose from the dead as a vampire and
attacked him.
Neville survives by barricading himself by sunset inside his house, further protected by garlic, mirrors, and
crucifixes.
Swarms of vampires, led by Neville's neighbor, Ben Cortman, regularly
surround his house, trying to find ways to get inside. During the day,
he scavenges for supplies and searches out the inactive vampires,
driving stakes into their hearts to kill them. He finds brief solace in a
stray dog that finds its way to his house. Desperate for company,
Neville slowly earns the dog's trust with food and brings it into the
house. Despite his efforts, the dog proves to be infected and dies a
week later.
After bouts of
depression and alcoholism,
Neville decides to find out the scientific cause of the pandemic. He
obtains books and other research materials from a library, and through
painstaking research discovers the root of the disease in a strain of bacteria
capable of infecting both deceased and living hosts. He also discovers
that the vampires are affected by the garlic, mirrors, and crosses
because of "hysterical blindness", the result of previous psychological conditioning of the infected. Driven insane
by the disease, the infected now react as they believe they should when
confronted with these items. Even then, their reaction is constrained
to the beliefs of the particular person; for example, a Christian vampire would fear the cross, but a Jewish vampire would not.
Neville also discovers more efficient means of killing the vampires,
other than just driving a stake into their hearts. This includes
exposing them to direct sunlight (which kills the bacteria) or
inflicting deep wounds on their bodies so that the bacteria switch from
being
anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites,
rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air. He is now killing
such large numbers of vampires in his daily forays that his nightly
visitors have diminished significantly.
After three years, Neville sees an apparently uninfected woman, Ruth,
abroad in the daylight, and captures her. After some convincing, Ruth
tells him her story of how she and her husband survived the pandemic
(though her husband was killed two weeks earlier). Neville is puzzled by
the fact that she is upset when he speaks of killing vampires; he
thinks that if her story of survival was true, she would have become
hardened to the act. He attempts to test whether she is a vampire by
exposing her to garlic, which causes her to recoil violently. At night
Neville is startled awake and finds Ruth fully clothed at the front door
of the house. Suspicious, he questions her motives, but relates the
trauma of his past, whereupon they comfort each other. Ruth reluctantly
allows him to take a
blood sample but knocks him unconscious when the sample reveals that she is infected.
When he wakes, Neville discovers a note from Ruth confessing that she
is actually infected and that Neville was responsible for her husband's
death. Ruth admits that she was sent to spy on him. The infected have
slowly overcome their disease until they can spend short periods of time
in sunlight, and are attempting to build a new society. They have
developed medication which helps them to overcome the most severe
symptoms of the infection. Ruth warns Neville that her people will
attempt to capture him, and that he should leave his house and escape to
the mountains.
Neville cannot bring himself to leave his house, however, and assumes
that he will be captured and treated fairly by the new society.
Infected members of the new society eventually attack the house. During
the attack, the members of the new society violently dispatch the other
vampires outside the house, and Neville becomes alarmed at the grim
enjoyment they appear to take from this task. Realizing that the
intention of the attackers may be to kill him rather than to capture him
he tries to defend himself with a pistol, leading to one of the
infected shooting and badly injuring him.
Neville wakes in a barred cell where he is visited by Ruth, who
informs him that she is a ranking member of the new society but, unlike
the others, does not resent him. Ruth attempts to present a facade of
indifference to Neville, but is unable to maintain it during her
discussion with him. After discussing the effects of Neville's vampire
killing activities on the new society, she acknowledges the need for
Neville's execution and gives him pills, claiming they will "make it
easier". Badly injured, Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to
let this society become heartless. Ruth kisses him and leaves.
Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected waiting for
his execution. He now sees that the infected view him with the same
hatred and fear that he once felt for the vampires; he realizes that he,
a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the
infection. He recognizes that their desire to kill him is not something
he can condemn. As the pills take effect, he thinks: "[I am] a new
superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am
legend."
