Literary Essay-I am legend

In a world overrun by the undead, the last living man struggles to survive. Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend tells the story of Robert Neville, a man who survived the plague that turned every other person into a vampire. Matheson explores the idea of what makes something “ordinary” versus “legendary”. In a world where humans are “ordinary”, the vampire is the legend—a deadly nocturnal creature that has great power over humans. However, in a world where the vampire is normal, humans become the legend. In this case, the thing that is legendary is the one that is the most powerful, dangerous and rare.

            Before the plague, vampires had power over people. But when Neville was the only real person left, he found that he had power over the vampires. Vampires are frightening creatures that for us, only exist in stories. They have mythical powers and are much stronger than humans in many ways. In this book, the people are afraid of the germ that causes humans to become vampires. When the plague is breaking out, Neville is besieged by a frenzied religious group, praying for deliverance from this plague. “The people twisted and moaned and smote their brows and shrieked in mortal terror and screamed out terrible hallelujahs” (103). These people feel powerless against the germ and the undead, so they turn to God and religion to protect them. When Neville finds himself alone in a world of vampires, he becomes the one with the most power. Every day, he drives stakes through the hearts of the sleeping vampires and every night he sits in his house as the undead roam outside, powerless against his defenses, unable to get in. “Garlic on the windows and nets over the hothouse and burn the bodies and cart the rocks away and, fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch, reduce their unholy numbers” (18). For five months, the vampires have been not been successful in their attempts to kill him, but he has been slowly and surely killing them off, no matter how tedious or disturbing it is. He has the upper hand, he has more power than they do, and that is part of what makes him a legend in their world.

            Vampires were a danger to humans before the plague, but now Neville is a threat to the vampires. During the plague, no one was safe from the vampires and their numbers grew every day. Even after infecting everyone except for Neville, they are trying to entice him outside at night. “As he was pulling on his shirt, he heard Ben Cortman cry out, “Come out, Neville!”” (11). The plague threatened the human species, and the vampires’ mindless thirst for human blood was dangerous. However, Neville is now the threat. Because he has all of this power over them, it means that he is dangerous. Neville kills vampires every day. If he wasn’t stopped in the end, he could’ve obliterated the whole species. “After lunch, he went from house to house and used all his stakes. He had forty-seven stakes”. Legends are sometimes feared, and this fear contributes to their legendary status.

            When something is drastically different in a world of organisms that are all similar, it can be perceived as legendary. In this book, vampires are legendary because they are thought of as fictional, and when plague strikes, no one believes in them because they are so rare. Neville is reading Dracula and comes across this line, “‘The strength of the vampire is that no one will believe in him’” (17). This creature that is legendary is so rare and so frightening that people refuse to believe in it, and that is the real source of its power, because no matter how obvious it makes itself, we will still refuse to believe in it. Neville faces his death at the end, captured by a group of vampires creating an organized community, trying to recreate the world. He realizes that he is, “A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.” (159). He is a new legend, the only real man left alive, a source of fear for the vampires. He is the rare one, the different one, the one with power over a whole race of organisms. The rarity of his kind make him a legend.

Robert Neville, like all the other humans on Earth, thought that vampires were only legendary creatures. They have great power, are dangerous, and rare (if not nonexistent). When he is the only man left, he realizes that to the vampires, he is the powerful, dangerous, and rare creature. This is what made the vampires legends in a world of humans, and this is what made him a legend in the world of vampires.