Analysis of I am Legend

Reading response essay: I am Legend
11/06/2019
Dissimilar OR similar to humans
I am Legend is a science fiction horror novel written by Richard Matheson in 1954.
When I went through the story I could almost find placing myself in Robert’s shoes and
experiencing that dangerous loneliness he was going through. Unlike the gothic stories, in
this one, the vampires resembled more like zombies, i.e. reanimated corpses. They have
human shape and form but moved like puppets with expressionless faces.
Unambiguously evil or morally ambiguous
All they could think of is evil. The city’s residents all turned into vampires while
Robert was fighting everyday to retain the dignity of his life and not surrendering to the calls
of the evil, rather to the call of death. From reading the novel I get the feeling the vampires
were unambiguously evil. Instead of living Robert alone as human, they would try to
transform him like one of them and kept at their attempts every night. Even those familiar
names were now his enemies. I felt glad they did not sabotage the car at least; otherwise it
would be difficult to find his daily necessities and return home before sunset.
An antiChrist/demonic figure OR secular and humanist
They were demonic souls. What I appreciated in the sole living human in the city is
that he kept maintaining his health and was conscious about keeping himself safe despite
knowing he was alone. He would never surrender to the demonic souls. I was happy to note
that he had finally found a way of killing the vampires everyday by driving a stake across
their hearts in broad daylight and letting the bacteria destroy their host completely. I was
hopeful that he might be saved at last. This feeling lasted short because the vampires now
came back in disguise in the form of Ruth who traps him finally. While he had appreciably

escaped temptation of the vampire women making postures to attract him, it was this
apparently normal survivor, Ruth who manages to gain his sympathy by telling a fake story.
Robert, despite all the odds, kept his mind active. Clearly the vampires are antichrist
because the cross tattooed on Robert’s chest kept them away. I would not call them humanist
in any respect although Ruth had taken some sympathy on Robert by asking him to go to the
mountains and warning him of the impending attack of her vampire friends.
Solitary OR communal
The vampires were very much communal as one would understand from the evidence
in the novel. The pathetic part is that his much known people, the residents of that place itself
have turned into strangers in the form of vampires. So the vampires were not foreign to the
place.
Possessive of transfigurative powers OR not possessive of transfigurative powers
I do not think the vampires had transfigurative powers but they behaved in the true
essence of vampire where their corpses came into life every night and by morning they would
collapse. Also after destroying the heart they would not live. Thus I do not find any magic
wand at work here. Hence the vampires were infected beings being transformed into zombie
like forms, thirsty for blood as expected.
Foreign and mysterious OR American
The vampires appeared foreign and mysterious from the eye of a human like Robert.
But they were American because the very people in the locality had turned into vampires.
The idea of being isolated from any kind of human interaction is almost pathetic for any
human beings who have not lost his stability. Being human requires desiring others’ company
and attention of other humans. When Robert tries to shut out the haunting images of
provocative vampire women from his mind, it also speaks a lot about his need for some
woman’s companion which he is afraid to fall trap into. This is because he considered the