I am Legend

Richard Matheson’s I am Legend brings horror into an isolated context, and plays off of the contrast between solitude and entrapment. The context of the story is immediately an engaging aspect of the story. Robert Neville is presumably the last surviving human among hoards of vampire-like creatures that have an obvious interest in hunting him. Robert must be resourceful in his survival: because he is the only one around he must be completely responsible for all aspects of his endurance.

Vampire creatures aside, the thought of being the last human is an engaging thought for readers. I think that because we are so interdependent as members of planet Earth, the sense of isolation alone that Robert experiences brings a tremendous feeling of horror to the plot. While reading, I had many thoughts along the lines of “I would die. I would be dead by now.” Most humans simply don’t’ have the knowledge to survive such an endeavor: generators, cars, defenses, gathering food, and all of the other chores that are crucial to the protagonist’s survival is overwhelming to say the least.

When zombie vampires make their appearance, the adrenaline factor increases, which creates additional challenges, which in turn further engages the reader. Matheson is clever in slowly revealing information about the monsters. Initially our knowledge is basic: they are hostile, they can talk, they have names, they attack at night. Not knowing all of the details about any character in any work allows for interpretation and imagination to (at least in the forefront of the novel) fill in the blanks much more colorfully than if it was spelled out in great detail. Our hunger for knowing more about Robert’s situation and his history with the zombies propels us farther into the novel until it reaches a more rounded finish.

Additionally, a particularly interesting characteristic of zombies both in I am Legend and otherwise is the fact that they used to be people, and thus have emotional connections for the characters who are still living. It is the classic conflict of interest between violently killing your brother/daughter/mother/etc zombie and submitting to the love that remains for the human version of that character.

In short, aspects of seemingly impossible difficulty, extreme isolation, and mystery allow for a successful delivery of Matheson’s story (on a personal note, much better than the movie I think).