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Plot Summary of I Am Legend. Spoiler alert: important details of the novel are revealed below. ‘I Am Legend’ begins on a cloudy January day in 1976. It has been six months since a plague swept through the world, turning the victims into zombie-like vampires who feed on blood.
- Historical Context
Being a highly successful book influenced the adaptation of...
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The setting of ‘I Am Legend’ is Cimarron Street in Los...
- Historical Context
- Themes
- Analysis of Key Moments
- Style, Tone, and Figurative Language
- Analysis of Key Symbols
Loneliness
A theme in Richard Matheson’s ‘I Am Legend’is loneliness. Robert Neville was an average American man before the epidemic struck. As the lone survivor of this plague, he becomes the last human being on earth. His daily routine changes as he includes experiments and workouts. Surrounded by vampiric people who only crave to kill him, he learns to cope with alienation. Since he can no longer have physical relations with people, he takes comfort in the memory of other people that he has. He consta...
Survival
In this novel, Robert Neville finds himself surrounded by vampires at night and travels around Los Angeles during the day murdering vampires in their sleep. As the last man uninfected by the vampire germ, Robert quickly accepts that the vampires will kill him if he refuses to protect himself. For this reason, he spends his days fixing damages they made in the night, hanging garlic to repel the terrifying creatures, and researching ways to kill the vampiric germ. In ‘I Am Legend,’ Richard Math...
Violence
In Robert Neville’s flashbacks, there was a war between the United States, where the protagonist lives, and another world power. This world war continued for several years and ended with both countries using nuclear weapons to prove their superiority. These acts of violence possibly created the basis of the social and environmental violence that Robert faces throughout the book. The vampires attack Robert’s house at night, trying to get in. During the day, he attacks them when they are asleep...
Robert walks around his house fixing damages from the previous night’s vampire attack.Robert deals with sexual frustration and is disgusted with himself because of the sexual urges aroused within him when he thinks about the female vampires.Robert picks up two bodies of vampires killed in the night by other vampires to dispose of in the city’s fire pit on his way to Sears. He reminisces about his dead daughter, Kathy.Robert thinks of how hard it is for him to kill vampires, especially females. He asks himself why they all looked like his dead daughter. He struggles with the morality of his actions but reminds h...‘I Am Legend‘ is regarded as one of Richard Matheson’s best books because of its exceptional storyline and excellent language. With a subtle narrative tone, the storyline unfolds with the tale of Robert Neville and his struggles for survival. Using the third-person point of view narration,‘I Am Legend’ maintains a consistent level of thrill and cap...
Music
In‘I Am Legend,’ Robert Neville entertains himself by listening to classical music. Classical music offers Neville some level of comfort during the period the vampires roam the streets at night. He plays them loud enough to overcome the screams and howls of the zombie vampires. Robert’s music symbolizes the swiftly disappearing human civilization.
Vampires
The vampires symbolize disparity. They represent the impulsive nature of people to fear, suspect, and destroy people who are different from them.
The Dog
The dog in ‘I Am Legend’ represents Robert’s last hope of companionship. To his astonishment, Neville finds himself praying for the dog’s survival. He admits that he needs the dog and when it eventually dies, he becomes resigned to fate.
Chapter 1. The year is 1976—one year after a deadly plague sweeps the world, killing virtually all human beings. After their deaths, the world’s human beings rise from the grave and become vampires: sensitive to light, garlic, and mirrors, dormant during the day, and impervious to bullets.
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Key Facts about I Am Legend. Title: ‘I Am Legend.’. Author: Richard Matheson. Book Inspiration: Richard Matheson’s inspiration for writing ’I Am Legend′ includes ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker, European vampire legends, and hysteria about global diseases. Publication Date: August 7, 1954.
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I Am Legend by Richard Matheson was published in 1954. The novel depicts a post-apocalyptic world in which people infected with a contagious disease behave like vampires. The last human man, Robert Neville, must protect himself as he studies the scientific basis for the disease.
