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Bing Lu

Professor McClure

Writing 39B: Rhetorical Analysis

05/02/2018

Rhetorical Analysis on I Am Legend

I Am Legend is written by Richard Matheson and published on 1954 as a science fiction

horror fiction. Instead of being categorized as a traditional gothic horror genre with previous

vampire literature, this book has influential developments as a vampire literature transition to

science fiction horror and was chosen as the vampire novel of 20th century. Matheson portrays a

very novel character: the last human on earth. The protagonist, Robert Neville’s loneliness and

depression during his survival from the human extinction is revealed from different aspects in

this book uniquely. The author’s particular tone and purpose of this story will be discussed in the

following contents.

This book is not considered the gothic horror genre because there are not much scary or

bloodcurdling scenes. Instead, the author is trying to show the audience the invisible monster

behind the protagonist’s loneliness and the darkness caused by fear and depression. In the first

part of this book, the author mainly describes Neville’s and the vampires’ daily routines and

gives a fundamental setting of the story to show the audience that Neville was lonely and

desperate in every aspect but still trying his best to avoid death. Matheson starts off with

Neville’s daily activities: fixing what was damaged in the house by the vampires at last night,

hanging garlics for defense, getting life supplies, reading and drinking at night. The words

“force”, “again”, and “ask himself” are used frequently when the author is describing Neville’s

actions to show that he was no longer living for himself but living for hiding from the vampires
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“for he was a man and he was alone and these things has no importance to him.” (Matheson 3)

By saying Neville forced himself to complete his routines that were basically the same every

day, the author is interpreting Neville’s dilemma of to live or to die. It was both hard to stay alive

in such a lonely situation and to give up his identity of the last man on earth. The use of Ben

Cortman, one of Neville’s close friends before they were infected, is to give the readers a fuller

image of the world was composed of the same things from the past but the essence of everything

was potentially changed. In the author’s description of Neville, compelling himself to read and

playing the music loudly was his only methods to shut himself from the cricked world outside.

Matheson’s purpose to provide this scenario is to characterize the protagonist’s dull life, internal

inhibition, and helplessness to change the current situation. After the author gives a systematic

and stereotyped life of Neville, anything abnormal and risky will make the readers think if

Neville will lose the control of his life. Matheson uses large paragraphs to interpret Neville’s

loneliness in order to strengthen the mental stress and helpless that will carry out the inner devil

of Neville.

Neville’s depression not only came from his loneliness, but also from the loss of family

and friends and his intense desire to find one. Since he was all alone without company, he lived

in his memory. Neville would be reminded of the memories with his friend Ben Cortman before

he became a vampire when Ben shouted “Neville, come out” at some nights. There are many

parts in the book that Neville thought of his wife and daughter and called his wife’s name. The

day that Neville went to the cemetery to visit his wife and daughter, he had an accident and

almost got killed. Everyone he knew was gone and might possibly hurt him both directly and

indirectly. Matheson indicates that Neville’s life was in danger at any time because even his

loved ones might hurt him in some way.

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During Neville’s struggling to survive from the extinction, the conflicted mind of Neville

was growing stronger as the time passed. At the beginning of this book, Neville sometimes

questioned himself why not went out to confront the vampires. All his behaviors in his life show

that he was trying to survive from the vampires and it was impossible for him to defeat them if

he came out. In the subsequent texts, there was even sometimes that he actually opened the door

and prepared to come out. Therefore, his hesitations, even short ones, are written to show his

long-time depression was driving his will of living fluctuated. Matheson intended to combine

Neville’s instinct of defense and his thoughts of ending the miserable life to explain Neville’s

gradually formed obsession to violence: experimenting on vampires and has killed countless

vampires accumulated.

Violence became an outlet of Neville’s depression, and his sexual imagination would be

his outlet of the loneliness. In such a lifeless world, the only possible thing for Neville to

entertain himself was experimenting and looking at female vampires. Matheson writes a lot

about Neville’s peeking sexy female vampires through the hole on his door and uses languages

that have sexual implication, for example, “jerking off the crossbar” and “coming, girls” on page

22. When Neville injected the garlic extractive to a vampire, he did it on the girl’s buttock. All

these frequent thoughts of female vampires lead to that Neville’s cognition of the world was

twisted after being through the high-level pressure and desolation. The figuration of hero for the

protagonist is made imperfect in this aspect. The unevenness between the reader’s anticipation

for Neville as a hero and the Neville in reality will make the audience feel Neville’s desperation

deeper. In the book, Neville has made his confession on that he found the female vampires

attractive and he admitted that he always experimented on women. However, he didn’t stop these
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behaviors even though he knew they were not things that normal people would do. The inner

monster caused by his grief was formed deliberately.