I Am Legend: Reading Response Essay on Vampire Characteristics

This reading response essay analyzes Richard Matheson's 'I Am Legend', exploring the portrayal of vampires and their relationship to humanity. The essay delves into the characteristics of the vampires, contrasting them with humans and examining their moral ambiguity. It discusses whether the vampires are metaphoric or metonymic, providing specific examples from the novel to support the analysis. The essay also examines themes of isolation, survival, and the human condition, as seen through the protagonist's struggle against the vampire threat. The response considers the vampires' communal nature, their lack of transfigurative powers, and their foreign yet American identity. Ultimately, the essay argues that the human essence is central to the story, highlighting how isolation can impact a person's fate. The essay also touches on the allegorical nature of the novel, suggesting that the vampires could represent the evils of the mind or the isolating effects of technology.

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

vampires as foreign elements or intruders. It seems to be his duty to go out and kill the
vampires and protect himself from them.
Kills humans OR does not kill humans
As is evident, the vampires kill humans. That is why Robert is so anxious about
protecting himself. The vampires are interested to convert human beings to one of them.
Once it is morning he is lethargic to make the house sound proof because there are lots to do
for his living. Now, this also shows a kind of lethargy and inactiveness along with alcoholism
that seems to engulf him. At times he wants to surrender to the evil by rushing out at night
but then comes back to senses and steps back. This fear takes place because he knows they
will kill him or convert him into one of them.
At the center of the story with humans marginal to the story OR at the margins of the
story with humans central to the story.
I think the human essence is central to the story which capitalizes the way isolation
makes a person succumb to his fate despite his struggles. At the end he has to take the fatal
dose given to him by Ruth in order to make his death easier. Here a human face of the
vampire seems to emerge, perhaps because the heart still lives on. Depiction of feelings is
also evident in their cravings for revenge against Robert. So they are not mere puppet like
animated dead bodies but also with an infected heart.
I personally would look at the novel with a different eye or as an allegory. Perhaps
technological progress will in a period of time make us behave like robots or perhaps depend
on robots in human form and our own creation could perhaps make us isolated as human
beings and consume us completely. Another way to look at it could be that the evils of our
mind or evil temptations represent the vampires which try to attack him. No matter how much
a lonely person tries to shut himself from these evils, they are unable to do so. Without a
social interaction, human beings usually would succumb to the ill fate of suicidal feelings

which finds reflection in Robert’s death. He dies as a legend that wanted to survive against
the odds and fought for the same. He was perhaps the last of mankind at least in that region.

Work Cited
Matheson, Richard. I am Legend, Tor Books, 2007