I Am Legend

“That was what the situation had been. Something black and of the night had come crawling out of the Middles Ages. Something with no framework or credulity, something that had been consigned, fact and figure, to the pages of imaginative literature.”

This quote introduces the theme of Science Versus Legend by describing the infectious spread of the vampiris bacteria as a threat that belongs to folklore or literature. Partially inspired by his scientist father, Neville wishes to better understand the Undead and begins searching for scientific explanations.

“Why do through all this complexity when a flung-open door and a few steps would end it all?”

Neville’s suicidal thoughts correspond to his alcoholic binges. He questions why he should continue living without purpose or companionship, deeming it easier to die at the hands of the Undead. This contemplation only lasts as long as his inebriation, so it becomes a familiar cycle for him.

“Really, now, search your soul lovie—is the vampire so bad? All he does is drink blood. Why, then, this unkind prejudice, this thoughtless bias?”

During a drunken night, Neville questions the moral relativism associated with his current situation. As a former member of the military, he has witnessed atrocious human acts. As such, he begins to understand that the vampire’s greatest threat lies with it not belonging to human society, and that its thirst for blood is not objectively evil (as per the theme of Moral Relativism and War).

“Why couldn’t he have Kathy there too? Why had he followed so blindly, listening to those fools who set up their stupid regulations during the plague?”

In the past, the health regulations imposed on infected individuals required Neville to deliver his deceased daughter, Kathy, to the city’s mass grave. His adherence to protocol reflects the mass hysteria that came with the initial spread of the vampiris bacteria. Following Kathy’s death, however, Neville buried his wife Virginia in a crypt.

“Was there a logical answer, something he could accept without slipping on banana skins of mysticism?”

As Neville begins to conduct experiments on the Undead, he encounters setbacks in trying to rationalize their vampiric symptoms. He is determined to explain the Undead through the lens of grounded, objective science, so he can maintain hope of survival.

“It was thinking of the past that drove him to the bottle. He was just going to have to accept the present.”

Neville’s alcoholism ebbs and flows depending on the progress of his research. To maintain clarity, he refrains from thinking about the past. This results in Neville spending over two years committed to the present and daily survival without lingering on his deceased wife and daughter.

“The dead walk about and I think nothing of it. The return of corpses has become trivial in import. How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it enough!”

Though the Undead and the apocalyptic nature of the vampiris contagion have irrevocably changed Neville’s life, he discovers that it is possible to grow accustomed to anything through habit. At this point, he has fully adjusted to his new life, hiding from the Undead and studying them.

“All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet’s intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.”

While at the Los Angeles library gathering scientific books, Neville becomes cynical about the relative importance of human accomplishments. He is surrounded by great works of art and literature, yet they ultimately mean nothing in the current world.

“Was the life force something more than words, a tangible, mind-controlling potency? Was nature somehow, in him, maintaining its spark against its own encroachments?”

While considering suicide and spotting a stray dog on his lawn, Neville still doesn’t know why he clings to life. He does not yet realize that he is being kept alive by the hope of meeting another survivor. The dog symbolizes this hope.

“If a dog, with its limited intelligence, could manage to subsist through it all, wouldn’t a person with a reasoning brain have that much more chance for survival?”

Neville’s relationship with the stray dog allows him to hope that he might find other humans out in the world. His loneliness and seclusion drive him to drink, but he never pushes himself so far that he is in danger of dying—unconsciously driven by this hope.

“Burying the dog had not been the agony he had supposed it would be. In a way, it was almost like burying threadbare hopes and false excitements. From that day on he learned to accept the dungeon he existed in, neither seeking to escape with sudden derring-do nor beating his pate bloody on the walls.”

Neville reaches his lowest point upon the stray dog’s death. However, he realizes that things can only go up from here. The hope that the dog gave him helps him overcome his self-destructive tendencies in order to fully devote himself to studying the Undead.

“So, he thought, slowly, surely, we find out about them. Find out that they are no invincible race. Far from it; they are a highly perishable race requiring the strictest of physical conditions for the furtherance of their Godforsaken existence.”

Neville finally rationalizes the Undead’s disparate symptoms. He is able to do so by considering the psychological effects of mass hysteria, expectation, and fear. Rather than being true vampires of lore, the Undead merely mimic the vampire because their human minds believe themselves to be vampires.

“There was only the present for Robert Neville; a present based on day-to-day survival marked by neither heights of joy nor depths of despair.”

Two years since the loss of his wife, Neville has achieved a homeostasis that depends on him devoting his full attention to the present. He feels little emotion, but force of habit keeps him alive.

“The man who died of thirst saw mirages of lakes. Why shouldn’t a man who thirsted for companionship see a woman walking in the sun?”

Neville sees a woman named Ruth across a field and questions his sanity. He has already made peace with his lonely life; furthermore, the infected sending Ruth as a spy is the perfect weapon against Neville’s desire for companionship (as per the theme of Femininity and Horror).

“All these years, he thought, dreaming about a companion. Now I meet one and the first thing I do is distrust her, treat her crudely and impatiently.”

Neville is conflicted over taking Ruth to his house. He distrusts her, but is so desperate for companionship that he ignores this instinct. Eventually, Neville’s desire supersedes caution, reflective of his early obsession with sex—even with a female Undead.

“It was harder to distrust her when she spoke. The sound of the human voice was so strange to him that it had a power over him it had never had before.”

When first questioning Ruth, Neville’s resolve is broken at the sound of her voice. His distrust ultimately gives way to the hope that she will become his companion, sexual or not—this siren-like display reinforcing the theme of Femininity and Horror.

“He was afraid of giving out his heart, of removing the chains he had forged around it to keep emotion prisoner. He was afraid of loving again.”

Upon meeting Ruth, Neville reverts to his old self, obsessed with finding a companion. He realizes that his suppression of emotions and memories of Virginia are actively working against the prospect of Ruth as a partner. In other words, he must be vulnerable if he hopes to end his loneliness.

“How long did it take for a past to die?”

Though Neville had long thought himself protected from the past, Ruth’s presence in his home reminds him of Virginia. He realizes he cannot truly suppress his memories, as he still very much loves his wife.

“I’ll save you, Ruth. I will. Or I’ll die myself.”

Before taking Ruth’s blood to test her for the vampiris bacteria, Neville attempts to calm her by promising to look after her. He has completely set aside his suspicion, made himself vulnerable, and commits himself to protecting Ruth.

“And she had lied and smiled and feigned hopeless acceptance and carefully got all the information she’d been sent after.”

After discovering Ruth’s note explaining her role as a spy for a group of infected, Neville is shocked by how easily she was able to get information from him. Ruth is an archetypal femme fatale, seducing Neville by acting innocent and in need of protection while preparing to betray him. Yet, she expresses genuine concern in her note.

“Did they have to do it like this, with such a black and brutal slaughtering?”

As Ruth’s group of infected attack the Undead in front of Neville’s house, Neville questions the morality of their proposed society (in which Undead and humans have no place). He detests the violence they use against the Undead, despite the fact he himself has killed many Undead and infected.

“In spite of having lived with death all these years, in spite of having walked a tightrope of bare existence across an endless maw of death—in spite of that he couldn’t understand it. Personal death still was a thing beyond comprehension.”

After being attacked, Neville wakes up a prisoner of the infected. His thoughts return to death, but he still cannot fathom how to face it. On the other hand, he feels little guilt over having killed Undead and infected; however, he does feel grief and sympathy.

“I’m the abnormal one now. Normalcy was a majority concept, the standard of many and not the standard of just one man.”

The majority of infected, with their own society and moral code, are the new norm. While imprisoned, Neville realizes that he himself has become an outsider to the infected, a threat to their peace.