Jorge Castro

Professor Greg McClure

Writing 39B

2 February 2018

An Exploration of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson:

A Dark Change into Society

The post-apocalyptic zombie horror novel of Richard Matheson, I Am Legend, sets the

plot in 1976 of Los Angeles where an epidemic plague of vampirism has infected the population

with the male and sole survivor, Robert Neville, immune to the infection and attempts to fend off

the vampire-like creatures. Prior to the publication of the book in the 1950s, Matheson designs

this plot on the premise of the Cold War era and the possibility of global nuclear catastrophe.

The author alludes on the concept of how society would be in the future if it would be destroyed

by building that concept into the context and setting of the text. Matheson implicitly talks about

the message of societal changes through subjecting power and discrimination towards groups

that can’t be understood or are feared. This message is expressed by thematic ideas of Mankind’s

ability for self-destruction and being the monster themselves- both which are referring to the

paranoia of people in the 1950s regarding political tensions and arms races. He broadcasts this

message along with the themes to the audience through imagery, oxymoron, omniscient narration

and the genre of the book shaping the plot of the novel. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the

rhetorical devices and the genre of the book, the following three main sources will be used: Noel

Carroll, The Nature of Horror; Tony Magistrale and Michael A. Morrison, Intro to Dark Night’s

Dreaming; Mathias Clasen, Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard’s Matheson

I Am Legend; In Charles E. Gannon Neither Fire Nor Ice: Postmodern Revisions of America’s

Post-Cold War Apocalyptic Nightmare to build credibility and authority in the assertions and

observation made about the message Matheson is conveying.

The first theme that is associated with the message and consistently seen in the plot of the

story is mankind being the monster. Matheson presents Neville as the monster and expands on

that idea by revealing moments where the character is illustrated as strangely impure and a threat

to himself. With society no longer static and functional, Matheson showcases how the

protagonist responds to that change in society by singling himself away from the vampiric

population yet becomes monstrous in his own right. Thus, the audience receives this

metaphorical reception about change in society due to power and discrimination when separating

groups and having a particular view about that group as seen with the character with the

vampires. This is accomplished through the authors incorporation of oxymoron and imagery to

make a conflict in the character’s behavior creating a figurative connection between the message

conveyed and the story itself. The conflict in behavior portrayed by Matheson serves as a literary

aid and demonstration of how one might act when faced with a society that is crumbling. In

addition, the concept of impurity and the criteria for something being monstrous can be

explained by Noel Carroll, a well-respected philosopher in contemporary art, in his work, The

Nature of Horror, published in 1987 by the American Society for Aesthetics. Carroll states that

“an object or being is impure if it is categorically interstitial, categorically contradictory,

categorically incomplete, or formless” (55) which provides a framework on how Matheson

conveys the protagonist as being the impure creature. For instance, Matheson states that

“Neville often theorized, that Ben Cortman was born to be dead. Undead, that is, he thought, a

wry smile playing on his full lips” (108). Here the author uses the words “born” and “dead’’,
which conflict on how to perceive the corporal state of the vampire, and to show a contradiction

in how the character, Neville, attempts to justify on why he is willing to kill Ben Cortman, a

remnant of his past. Matheson conveys the protagonist as being increasingly adaptable and

assimilated with the thought of killing a former friend that is a vampire and isn’t hesitant about

it. The categorical contradiction is that Matheson manipulated the general expectation where one

normally would want to murder individuals that are particularly close but in this case the

character is seen to accept the idea of killing Cortman. Thus, the protagonist portrayed by

Matheson is seen by the audience as someone considering slaughtering other life such as the

vampires to accept the gruesome past by erasing reminders of it. The message here lies in the

fact that the author depicts the protagonist discriminating against the vampires by eliminating

them since they represent a by-product of the former society. With no laws and restriction, the

author shows the protagonist efforts of perpetuating a new society through the removal of the

vampires. Another instance where Matheson promotes the monstrosity in Neville, is as follows,

“The hand lashed out again, this time smashing her across the cheek and snapping her head to the

side…. Ten minutes later he threw her body out the front door…” (51). The author intensely

circumscribes the events where the protagonist kills the vampire woman and throws her out

where the other vampires struggle with one another for a part of her dead body. The

contradiction here is that the Matheson exudes Neville’s drastic and overwhelming frustration

and aggression that conflicts with the early behavior of being calm and collective when

interrogating the female vampire. The category contraindication between human survival and

paranoia that makes the character impure and monstrous, allows Matheson to reinforce the

message where one changes society through excluding others from it. The author driven the

character with this idea of exclusion by decimating the vampires with them being different from
him. The theme of being a monster from uncertainty and the message in the book then prompts

the concept of mankind’s capability for self-destruction.

Matheson draws on another corresponding theme which is the imminent self-destruction

of mankind. The idea behind this theme which is received by the audience from the author, is

that as the story unfolds, the protagonist tamper and embody undoubtable characteristic of self-

ruin and destruction which are paranoia and isolation from others. This theme resonates with the

message when referring to the protagonist increasing sense of paranoia that reflect the anxiety of

the 1950s. Matheson includes this theme to show the complication and disasters bestowed on the

character to reflect the mindset of post-Cold War mentality that political tensions would be the

ruin for humanity with nuclear warfare seemingly inevitable. The historical context behind this

theme serves as the bases for the message where post-Cold war society were tense and changing

because of people discriminating against groups in other countries that are different or a threat to

them. In Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, by

Mathias Classen, a Danish scholar in horror fiction, gives an overlook why Matheson “encode

very specific and largely outdates cultural anxieties” (313) in the book for the audience to

receive the message about societal changes through apprehension of 1950s and theme of

mankind’s destruction. The author mentions in that “Morality, after all had fallen with society.

He was own ethic” (50). Here the author emphasizes on “fallen with society” which is a

precursor reflecting how Matheson viewed “individual fears in the larger context of the Cold

War USA” (Classen 314). The idea is that with the brink of possible nuclear destruction that

seem relatively close to those years, Matheson designed this message as a reference to how the

isolated and converging fears of people against one another might dismantle society. This allows

the audience to receive the theme of mankind’s self-destruction through observing the
protagonist’s uneasy and solitary behavior woven by the author. The author reveals how as a

society can both influence an individual and can be shaped by the majority of that society, in this

case the vampires are the “majority”. Classen states that “even the terror of isolation is somewhat

culturally modulated” (322). In the book, Matheson mentions a scene where the protagonist

explains to the co-equal prevalent character Ruth, that he was unable to escape because he got so

used to be alone and in that living habit (154). The author presents the idea of how the

protagonist was well assimilate into being alone and couldn’t bring himself to leave to save his

life. This reflects the theme of self-destruction because Matheson shows the character inability to

ward away from isolation has now place the protagonist is facing execution. The character facing

execution is partly due to the new society fearing the protagonist linking to Matheson message

about the change of society through discriminating those groups that are feared- the new society

fears the protagonist and thus will kill him to ensure their safety and survival. With the thematic

concepts, Matheson formats the message where we see how the society is changed in

correspondence to the group with the most power and molded by the majority (the new vampiric

population) while the minority is suppressed (Neville). These themes as well as the message are

proliferated by the genre of the book that acts as the foundation for these ideas.

The genre of the Matheson I Am Legend is fixated on the post-apocalyptic zombie-

vampire horror that manifests the idea of how society could possibly be in a futuristic place

where nuclear disaster and war occurred. The main purpose of the form of this genre is to

provide the audience a hypothetical yet possibly senses or alternative of how society might be

undone or ruinous by mankind’s own fear and self-destruction. The message is projected through

the genre of the book by exploring the possibility of how society would be if it continues to

discriminate and forcibly power over groups. Post-apocalyptic genre explores several nodes of
external forces that would preemptively deteriorate society which includes: severe climate

change, nuclear warfare and resource depletion. In Charles E. Gannon, a distinguished Professor

of English at St. Bonaventure University ,Neither Fire Nor Ice: Postmodern Revisions of

America’s Post-Cold War Apocalyptic Nightmare” published in 1999 by the University of North

Carolina Press, states that novels in of apocalyptic setting “looked beyond the crisis of their own

moment and anticipated those to come”(153). This means that the literary work of Matheson is a

response to his effort of creating a scenario of how society would be in the future based on the

current “crises” at the time. The message is thus infused and attached with that concept of

foreshadowing and foreboding seemingly destructive and desolated societies which is

implemented in the story through genre. In Tony Magistrale, an associated Professor at the

University of Vermont and Michael A. Morrison, Professor of English and Physics at the

University of Oklahoma in their work, Intro to Dark Night’s Dreaming, published by the

University of South Carolina Press situates insight on how the genre of horror provide

significance to the message of the book. Essentially, Magistrale and Morrison explain how the

integration and appeal of horror that is embedded into societal interest and how it amplifies the

message made by the author. In the text Matheson claims that “Cold fear poured through his

veins at the thought of them all waiting for him at his house…. You go to all that trouble to

preserve your existence and then one day you don’t just come back in time. Shut up!” (30). In

this passage, the author shifts between his narration of the dire events unfolding and the

character’s own “voice” trying to cease his self-beating of not keeping up with the time of the

day. Stylistically, “cold fear poured through his veins” is concisely constructed by the author to

show Neville’s increasing despondent that he might cause his own death. The appeal here is that

the author provides a chilling scene that leaves the audience with anticipation and concern about
what’s going to happen next. With the audience more engaged, the genre helps Matheson

incorporate the message implicitly and subtly. Magistrale and Morrison explains “the art of terror

is concerned with detailing the tragic consequences of…personal disintegration” (Magistrale and

Morrison 3). This idea that the intense feelings and horror that Matheson incorporates into the

protagonist emulates and confounds on the premise of “personal disintegration” is described by

the author that the arrogance of the character almost lead to the self-demise of his livelihood.

Matheson goes through the descriptive mechanics and motion of the protagonist immediate

postulation and speculations about how it will turn out in the end for him which corresponds to

the “collective cultural fears and personal anxieties” (Magristrale and Morrison 3) that the

audiences receives- during the Post-Cold war era, many people were unsure and unknown to the

how societies might be in the future due to the tension of nuclear warfare.

The challenges with I Am Legend by Richard Matheson when determining and

compounding the actual message and overall theme of the plot, it simply not enough to refer to

point out that Neville is the monster and prominent creature of story-its explicitly cleared and

stated the end of the story. . Matheson thoughts and voices are the one being projected and

correlated along the progress of the story by showing the complication of the protagonist in the

scenes and moments where the author highlight the loneliness and madness being experience It’s

futile and completely useless to refer as Neville as a real person and position him on a mantle

that make him appear authentic. Thus, to say that the loneliness and lack of human interaction

provides a stronger and more profoundly impression of being both source and monster of the

works more effectively than saying Neville is the monster. However, referring the protagonist as

the monster through the means of the author’s influence and writing is also optional and just as

effective argument that indirectly connects the character as the monster of the authors implicit
rhetorical devices. To get to the heart of the idea and concept made by Richard Matheson, the

message of the text needs be addressed and connected to the genre that of the book as well as to

how the audience might receive the messages made through what means particularly the

convention and background of the story.

 Work Cited

Gannon, Charles E. “Neither Fire Nor Ice: Postmodern Revisions Of America’s

Post-Cold War Apocalyptic Nightmare.” The Comparatist, vol. 23, 1999,

pp. 152–159. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44367024.

Carroll, Noël. “The Nature of Horror.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 46, no.

1, 1987, pp. 51–59. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/431308.

Clasen, Mathias. Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard’s Matheson’s I Am

Legend. Philosophy and Literature, Vol 34, No.2. 2010, pp.313-328, Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2010.

Magistrale Tony and Morrison, Michael A. Introduction A Dark Night’s Dreaming:

Contemporary American Horror Fiction. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia,

S.C, 1996.

Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. New York City: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC,

pg.101-104, 1995.