Assess the question of solitude and the individual in I Am Legend. In what way does Robert Neville's being alone--as opposed to the small groups that populate inspired sequels like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, or for that matter even the cinematic version of I Am Legend--change the manner in which we understand the threat both of the "monsters" outside the house but also the monster within? Use Mathias Clasen's "Vampire Apocalypse" in your response and employ specific text from the novel.
In all of the stories there were monsters the characters were against those monsters; but in Night, Dawn, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later and so on there is a group of people who are able to help eachother physically fight the horde but also mentally keep one another sane in the dark times they are experiencing. For Neville, there is no such net to fall back on, he is alone with his thoughts and even as he deals with the demonic heathens outside he has to persevere through self-hatred, loneliness, and longing and has no one to talk to as he drinks himself numb. “The liquor that managed to reach the
ReplyDeleteglass he bolted down in a swallow. The thin current flared its way down to his stomach, feeling
twice as intense in the polar numbness of his flesh. He stood, sagged against the sink. Hands
shaking, he filled the glass again to its top and gulped the burning whisky down with great
convulsive swallows.” (pg.37) Later in the novel as he finds other things to focus on his alcoholism lessens but he still seeks it as an escape from his current situation and also from his own thoughts wheich are even scarier monsters than the ones that surround him by night.
I agree with what Mitch has to say. Those other stories had a group of people where they were all there to back each other up and get through all the troubles which they had. While neville sat there and was drinking his life away hoping something would happen but it didn't. He was just trying to make it through the night as he states because he never knew what would happen or could happen. He was the only person left so there was no exact way in warning him of anything that was going to happen and how he was to be executed...
DeleteI like how you talked about the sanity of Robert. It's near impossible to comprehend what it would be like to never see another face, let alone a familiar one, in my life. They use solitary confinement as a for of punishment and Robert is serving a life sentence with no hope of parole. This would drive any one of the seven billion human beings on earth to insanity.
DeleteOOOOMEGA, i didnt know you were in this class!
DeleteI would agree with Mitch's original statement, specifically when he implies that Robert Neville using alcohol to fuel his escapist desires. Furthermore, it is important to note that Neville's solitude is not a hell of his own creation, it is something that he has no control over. This, in a way justifies his alcoholic behavior.
DeleteThere is the obvious difference with dealing with an apocalyptic situation of a cohort and an individual standing alone. That is, that the cohort have one another to plan various tactics and have companions through a frantic time, whereas an individual is on their own with nobody to rely on. There are some perks of being an alone, mostly that there are no emotional attachments to others and people to take care Iof, and that if something happens to the last person standing there is nothing left to lose and their legend could possible remain. However, Robert Neville being alone I think represents a whole other monster. It is understood that people need people, and without the social interactions with others we do not function well. Another monster that is brought into play in I Am Legend is the fear of isolation. In all the other films, this monster of solitude does not exist.
ReplyDeleteI do not necessarily agree with you here, yeah when you are alone you have no one to be attached to but because of this he get attached to the dog. Also in the movie I Am Legend in 2007 Will Smith's character gets extremely attached to his dog and also starts to get attached to the Styrofoam clothing models. So perhaps being alone makes you want to communicate so bad that you start attaching yourself to other things that arent people.
DeleteI see where you are coming from because I believe everyone needs some time to themselves. However, I believe without emotional attachments to people, we cannot function. We are designed to be social and interact with other people. The ability to interact on with higher level thinking allows humans to be unique. If we have no one to share our experiences with then what is the point? Human nature desires love and affection and without it, we cannot truly live.
DeleteI don't think she is saying it is better to be alone in such situations. I think she means that there are some advantages to being alone, like only having to provide and take care of yourself, even though being alone is obviously the worst situation. In the darkest of times, you have to look for the glimmers of light.
DeleteI think that especially in I Am Legend we can see the monster that is in us all. In all of the other pieces we have read and watched this particular force was not shown too much because there were many other conflicts in the movies and novels. In each of these pieces the protagonists were all in a group trying to complete a common goal like get out alive or to secure the mall. In I Am Legend, it is just Robert Neville just trying to survive and find a cure, and that is a pretty tall order for one man to complete alone. This daunting of a task is the perfect bed for the monster within him to grow and wait for the time to strike. One of Robert Neville's biggest mistakes was not killing Ruth when he had the chance, he could not do that because she was someone to keep company. Another example of a mistake could be when he is drinking at night. Some people would say that being alone is better in this kind of a situation and some would say that it is not, both have their positives and negatives so neither is really the ideal situation.
ReplyDeleteI think that Robert being alone really brought the monster out in him. He had to survive alone for a long time and I think that made his mind go crazy. I agree when you said it was not a good idea for him to drink. Him drinking only made matters worse because alcohol is a depressant and made him sulk in his misery. If Robert were in a group of people I think he would have been able to kill Ruth because he would have had other people backing him up on his first thought about her being a vampire. Whether you are in a group or alone no one wants to being dealing with monsters.
DeleteI think that being alone for short periods of time is okay but being a long for that long and not having anything to really communicate to can and will make a person go crazy. Being around other human beings is what makes a person human in this case.
DeleteI agree with Kelsey because the fact is if your not around anybody and have no source of human interaction, you will go stir crazy. Being around other humans is a small part in what makes us humans civilized, law abiding people. For example, if you were raised an brought up inside a society consisting of only gorillas like Tarzan, you would portray gorilla like qualities even though your human. Robert being alone and surrounded by vampires made him into a monster, created by his surroundings.
DeleteThere are obvious differences between the story and movies we talked about. In the movies it was usually a group of three or more people working together against the zombies. In I Am Legend Robert Neville is dealing with the vampires alone. Robert, being alone, brought out the monster inside him. In the text he gets so sick of being alone that many times he talks about just going outside and letting the vampires take him captive. This shows that he is sick of being alone and he needs human interaction. He became paranoid and psycho because he didn’t have anyone to talk to or work with beside himself. Neville being alone had many negative side effects. He had no one to help him get rid of the monsters, had no one to talk to, and had no one to comfort him. He had to survive without the help of others. The only positive about being alone is that he only has to fight for him to survive. Whether you are alone or in a group no one wants to be worried about being killed by monsters.
ReplyDeleteThough I do agree that only having to fight for himself is a positive thing about being alone, I also think there are more pros to his solitude than just that single thing. You are definitely right that no one, alone or with others, wants to worry about their death by monsters. However, I think being alone gives a person a sense of independence, as stated in my comment below. Robert does not have to put up with opinions that differ from his own, which could cause confusion and prolong their chances of being killed. While having help from others is a good thing, it can also become a pile of bickering, especially if every person in that group is set in his or her own individual opinion. Chances are, big groups of people equals several thoughts ranging on all sides of the spectrum. It is unlikely that everyone is going to agree right away, and Robert Neville is at an advantage because the only person he needs to convince that his plans are worthwhile and possibly successful is himself. Once his mind was made up and he was confident in himself, all he had to do was follow through in his plans. No one else was there to stop him. In a way, his independence, I believe, is what allowed him to survive for so long.
DeleteI agree when you said that Robert had to deal with the issues of being alone and had to fight the vampires by himself. It did turn him into a monster because he became mentally unstable and the vampires viewed him as a monster. I agree also when you said he did not have anyone to help him like in the other movies we have watched.
DeleteI agree with your arguments on Neville's solitude being the reason he became so deranged. However, I think the fact that if he was alone or in a group wouldn't change the fact that the vampires were now the majority. They were building a society and would have to get rid of the people trying to damage that. A small group would still not prevail. Social interaction helps with sanity, but I think even if Neville had people with him, they would go insane from not being able to lead the lives they once did.
DeleteOne of the basic needs in life is companionship. I am Legend is a great example of this because he is last human in the world and wants to find comfort in anyone he can. This story proves that it is not enough to live off of only food, water and shelter. The most ironic part of Neville’s lonelieness is that he is surrounded by vampires and therefore, not really alone. Often the monster within is worse than the monster outside of the house. People can handle fear as long as they have someone to share in that fear, but when we are alone, we can be driven crazy by this fear. Human nature craves attention and our biggest fear as people is to not have anyone care about us. Clasen addresses this issue by “affirming the value of sociality”. Therefore the fear of loneliness, which is the inspiration for most of actions as human beings, is the greatest fear of all.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a good point that the only reason that people fear things is when they are alone, but if they have someone to talk things through with, that fear becomes less scary. I think, however, that in Neville's situation it would be impossible to not be scared even if there was another person to share the experience with. A person could get used to being the only person on earth but i believe the loneliness would be too much to handle sometimes and they would break down eventually.
DeleteThe point you made about the story proving that it is not enough to live off of only food, water, and shelter is interesting. While that may be all you need to physically survive, in order to mentally survive you need companionship. Living life alone can literally make you go crazy, as we see in Neville's case. While the whole situation is scary, I do agree with you when that people can handle fear when they have someone with them. I think that it is always better to have a least one other person with you in a scary situation that way you can talk to them and figure out the best way to approach it. As we see in "The Walking Dead," we see this with Rick and Shane when they were deciding whether or not to stay or go further into the woods. They had more than one idea and the group could decide which one is best. It is also always helpful to have someone to talk to and someone to be scared with you so you do not have to go through it alone.
DeleteI like your point that simple food, water, and shelter is not enough. and that the monster within is worse than without. the lonliness is the greatest fear of all is the a great point.
DeleteFacing something horrible alone, such as vampires in Robert Neville's case in I Am Legend, is something many individuals do not want to experience. It is usually a comfort knowing we do not have to face our fears by ourselves. However, Neville does not necessarily have this luxury throughout most of the story. Because of this, I think he had a greater sense of independent thinking, especially when compared to the groups in Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, etc. In those movies, they tend to rely more on each other for planning and solutions. Being in a group allowed each person to have feedback and constructive criticism on what they thought they should do. In a way, this could have been one of their downfalls. With a lot of different opinions, there is a better chance of these thoughts clashing, and this could cause more confusion, chaos, and self-doubt. Robert Neville's independence allowed him to think things through for himself, and this could help him become more confident in his own decisions. No one but he could make himself doubt his own choices. Though at times it could have been helpful to have another individual around to plan methods of survival, I think being alone, in a way, made Neville stronger than those who were in groups. His independence also gave him a chance to understand his own situation. He was able to come to terms with how he must survive, and in the end, we see that he also seems at peace with his fate. This is due to the fact that no one else, other than Ruth, could influence his opinions on the monsters. Nobody was there to continuously tell him how doomed he was and how evil and horrible the vampires are. He was able to make up his mind by himself about what he should do and how he should feel, again, making him stronger as an individual.
ReplyDeleteNeville's solitude did come with many cons as well. Without human contact, he was driven wild and was losing his mind. His saving hope was a dog, the only truly living creature left to which he was able to feel a true sense of attachment and desire. Once the dog dies, Neville's hope dies as well. We learned in Sociology that humans are naturally social, so losing the natural ability to socialize with someone else was one of Neville's downfalls. To escape his reality of solitude, we see that he turns to drinking. "He sat down and sipped. Let the jagged edge of sobriety be now dulled, he thought. Let the crumby balance of clear vision be expunged, but post haste. I hate 'em" (Matheson 14). He has definitely lost hope at this point, and it is clear that intoxication allows him to forget, temporarily, the troubles that await him right outside his home. As previously stated, Neville's solitude contributes to his understanding of his situation. As he is on his deathbed, he realizes that he is actually the monster. The vampires, like him, were only doing what they needed to do in order to survive. Now that he is the only one left of his kind, he has become the bad guy, killing those who were part of the majority. Neville's solitude causes him to see what has truly become of him, and for this according to the vampires, he must pay with his life.
With I Am Legend there is the real question of who the monster is. While Neville is the only human left he believes that he is the good guy and all the vampires are the monsters. The vampires see him as the only real threat, as a monster that comes out to kill them. In a story like this one where there is only one human left in the world, the threat of the monsters outside is greater than in the other novels that have a group of humans left. When there is only one human left the ability to talk situations through with another person is lost. Neville is surrounded by a world of solitude, which can lead a person to make rash decisions because there is no one there to talk him out of it. This is an easy place where the monsters inside of him can come out. If he lost hope that he could cure the vampires he could decide to let his internal monster take over and just walk outside to be killed. At his breaking point at the end of the novel he realizes that his internal monster has won. The vampires view him as the monster and he states that “[he is the] legend”(Matheson). In Clasen’s essay he talks about “What-if’s”. It causes the reader to think about how they would act in the situation that Neville was in. If vampires really were taking over the world would I allow myself to become the monster or would I stick it out and work for the cure no matter what?
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the vampires are a large threats to Neville, due to the fact he is by himself opposed to being in a group, I would also agree that isolation poses as an even larger threat to Neville because he is unable to escape the loneliness he is experiencing. The monsters are only a distraction compared to the mental breakdown he has to overcome. Neville fights suicidal thoughts, drinking, and the silence of solitude to keep himself sane. Maintaining his sanity seems to be more of a long-term job than defending himself against the vampires.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn ‘I Am Legend,’ the readers can see what happens when there is only one human left on earth, and we can also see how it affects that one person. In the case of Robert Neville, he becomes delusional, suicidal, and crazy. In the other works that we have looked a, those like ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ and ‘The Walking Dead,’ we see the same kind of situation (zombies attacking survivors), but a different setting. In all of these works we see groups being isolated from the monster on the other side. While they are isolated, they still have those within the group, so they still have social interaction and they can all help each other, which gives them hope. In ‘I Am Legend,’ Neville has no one, he is all alone and it starts to get the best of him. Neville has no one around to talk to and no one around to help him – he has to do it all on his own. This leads to him being “…sexually frustrated and preyed upon” (Clasen 319). In the story we see that he is sexually frustrated when the he realizes that he only ‘experiments’ on women and when he realizes that the women at night are taunting him and hoping that he would decide to come out. We see in the story where Neville is preyed on, because he is the only human left, and these vampires know it. We see this when his co-worker, Ben Cortman, comes over every night to terrorize him because he is the only one left. We also see the delusion that is brought on by being isolated. When Neville see’s a woman walking in the sun, he thinks that he is imagining it, because he knew he was the only one left. Clasen points out the quote from the book where Neville says that he is imagining it because he is thirsting for companionship.
ReplyDeleteThe monsters outside the house are clearly the vampires that prey on the last survivor, but the monster within the house is more interesting. When the vampires take over the world and Neville is the only one left of his kind, he becomes the out-group and the vampire’s become the in-group, and therefor when Neville starts killing the vampires, he becomes the bad guy, even if he is protecting himself. We see this at the end when Neville is put up for execution because he is believed to be the bad guy in the new society that was built. Neville was the only one of his kind, and he was going around killing the majority group—the vampires. The new society of the infected then decided that the only way to save their kind was to kill the one who was out to destroy them all.
I agree with you on how interesting it is that the bad guy role was switched between Robert and the vampires. Once he became the minority he was immediately considered a threat and the vampires feared him. Just as the humans did to the vampires in the beginning, the vampires want to kill of ant threat of their's and so Robert becomes their main target to eliminate. Right before Robert takes the pills, he has a moment where he is humored by the fact that all the killing was all due to fear and how we continue to make this mistake over and over in history.
DeleteIn "I Am Legend", Robert Neville has isolated himself from the outside world and locks himself in a house. As a reader," I Am Legend" displays how Robert fears the vampires and how he is the last of his kind. "I Am Legend" explores this fear of being alone and isolated. The vampires also fear him in return, and the story eventually shows it at the end.They look at Robert as the monster inside the house. In Mathias Clasen's article he states that during the time Richard Matheson wrote "I Am Legend",there were fears of nuclear holocaust. Richard had to isolate himself and his family because of the fear and because of not having a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteBecause Robert had to deal with both the vampires outside trying to get in and his own tortured mind, he definitely had the worst situation as compared to other monster apocalyptic movies and novels. The vampires are not the most forefront threat for Neville. His own mind and isolation is one the main antagonists. Matheson describes all his works as being centered around "the individual isolated in a threatening world, attempting to survive." The fact that Neville not only has to keep his physical body safe and healthy, but also has to worry about his own mental health makes the story so much more scary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that claim. It is a difficult issue especially in Neville's state of mind, when it comes to staying alive and clean of the vampire virus, and putting up with the vampires that stalk him everyday. It's almost like if someone was in the same situation as Neville, he or she would probably have a straining decision of either adapting to the new society or look down on it scornfully like an only living spectator.
Deletei also agree with your assesment. Neville's battle with sexual frustration, lack of companionship, and struggle with alchoholism were all just as compeling as his battle with the vampires/zombies.
DeleteThe difference in manner between the zombie apocalypse films and the vampire apocalypse in I Am Legend is that in the zombie apocalypse genre, nobody is alone in the in the whole apocalypse; there are suvival groups. In the vampire apocalypse, it has a completely sense of style in manner in contrast with zombies. The feeling of living alongside vampires seems to be a bit more worse than dealing with zombies. The reason for this is because of how Neville was feeling constantly stalked by the people who are living but are dead (the undead), as opposed to being stalked by zombies that are actually dead but are just reanimated corpses of dead people. The vampires shouting at Neville is like a bunch of ghosts shouting at him. Unlike zombies, they're more like animals that can't be reasoned with; they're like animals that won't give up on their prey, that they will keep stalking until they find the perfect opportunity to strike and feed (i.e. zombies are of course not really intelligent, they just mindlessly go in for the kill). In I Am Legend, both the vampires and Neville think the same thing of each other. That Neville sees them as monsters because thats how they are literally depicted, as opposed to the vampires perceiving Neville as the real monster because of his monstrous actions towards them.
ReplyDeleteClasen addresses the issue of solitude and uses it as the rational behind Neville's sobering decision at the end of the story. One of the points that was touched on in both the novel and assesment by Clasen was that solitude does not nessasarily imply that one is physicaly alone but rather emotionaly and mentaly alone as witht eh case of Neville in the revival scene. For Matheson the vampiritic creatures surved as a backdrop to illustrate the true fear; solitude and the depressed (and often dameging) phyche.
ReplyDeleteIn "I am Legend" the monsters are much smarter then in the other movies where they have no brains. This made Neville have to make smarter decisions because he was alone. We also saw two different groups of monsters. A group that had the disease and was dead and a group that had the disease and was alive still. So we had three groups trying to kill each other rather than just two.
DeleteI find your point of the vampires serving as backdrops for other issues rather interesting. You say that you think the represent solitude and the depressed. I am curious as to how you would relate these two things to the vampires themselves and how they represent them. I personally think the smart vampires represent humanity at its core without and adulterations of the mind.
DeleteIn I Am Legend, Robert Neville is left all alone in his house to fend for himself. He has food, water, shelter, and tasks around the house to keep him occupied. The key component that he lacks, however, is companionship. As humans, we have a need to socialize and be with others or we start to lose our sanity. He says at one point, "A man could get used to anything if he had to." I disagree with this. Though he may seem alright in the sense that he gets up everyday and does what is necessary to survive, he is definitely not alright. He is always searching for company and finds it in the dog, the vampire Ben Cortman, and the more advanced vampire, Ruth. He could never get used to living in isolation, and this is apparent when he speaks about his suicidal thoughts throughout the story. In the other stories like Dawn, Night, and the Walking Dead the people always isolate themselves as groups. This allows them to keep somewhat sane whereas Robert has no one to talk to, share his thoughts, or to comfort him when he is afraid. He is totally alone and could not triumph over the monsters like the groups of people in the other stories did. Mentally surviving is just as important as physically surviving and for Robert this was a challenge.
ReplyDeleteYou mention Robert's suicidal thoughts but we also know some of the characters in the movies also had those thoughts. In the end Robert does die but in the movies the suicidal thoughts are actually over come. Do you think maybe that fact has something to do with the number of other survivors? Maybe Robert knew his fate already and gave up while the man in Dawn of the Dead realized he still had a chance. If there was nobody else in the world, what would be the point of living any longer? On the other hand if you know that there's other humans left, you would fight to the very end because you know, even if it's small, there's a chance the remaining humans could repopulate society eventually.
DeleteAs you said, Neville was definitely not alright even when he said that a man could get used to anything. This is apparent when he turns to the bottle for comfort. Then again, if Neville is the last human on Earth, what does his health, or even his life, matter? As humans, we need contact with others in order to survive. It has been scientifically proven. Neville considers leaving his house to search for others, but he already has everything he needs to keep him going physically. But unlike the survivors of "The Walking Dead", "Night", and "Dawn", Neville knows that he cannot repopulate society. He knows that he can only wait for his life to come to an end.
DeleteThe solitude expressed in I Am Legend really emphasizes the monster within as opposed to the monsters on the outside. Although the whole story is him trying to keep safe and protect himself from the vampires that he considers the "others" in this situation, it is really him that is all alone. Along with him being the only one of his kind, he is alone in the social aspect as well. He is left alone with his thoughts every single day and tries to keep himself busy because of it. During the whole story, he is obsessed with getting rid of these monsters, trying to be the superior in the situation. In reality, he is outnumbered and can't withstand in a society that hates him. His solitude takes a toll on his mental state because of his obsession. He is constantly revisiting memories of his wife and always wishing he could go back and this becomes a normal thing to him. It is not until the end that he realizes that he was the outside the whole time. "He knew he did not belong to
ReplyDeletethem; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And,
abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain."
I agree with your perspective as to how solitude has helped us grasp the concept that Neville is battling his loneliness. This problem being one within himself rather than the masses. I wonder what Neville would have done once all of the vampires were defeated and whether or not somewhere internally did he like and grow accustomed to the presence of the vampires? Because although they weren't like him they present disruption to the solitude. I know I couldn't live on a planet by myself no matter how many times I deeply wish I could I would go crazy a lot sooner than he did. This makes me wonder whether or not they served as a distraction to his self-destruction that was already occurring?
DeleteNeville’s solitude in I Am Legend brings a lot of different conflicts to the novel. Psychologically, Neville is fighting his own sanity. He makes lists for himself and goes through the same actions each day. I believe this solitude in his house without another soul to talk to is very psychologically straining, and that strain threatens his life. He excessively drinks to cover up this insanity that the story leads the reader to believe will ultimately happen. The monster that is becoming of Neville is due to the aloneness he must cope with each and every day. That is why a character like the dog is so necessary to him – though he may not be able to converse with it, the dog is another living being that he can interact with somewhat. In addition to the solitude he is already fighting within himself, he also is alone in fighting the outside monsters. Fighting a cause alone is one of the scariest feats in life. Not only must you come up with your own supplies and ideas, you have to make all the decisions and teach yourself everything that is necessary for survival. In a large group, it is possible to have a doctor, a scientist, and other occupations – when fighting alone, you must obtain all of these qualifications in order to survive. We understand the matter of Neville’s solitude to be a threat to himself in a psychological matter as well as physical.
ReplyDeleteI thought you hit the nail on the head with this statement about his solitude. I do feel he was not able to live with himself because he was never independent in his own mind. Most of his thoughts were either about his wife, or the vampire. Robert could not handle his psychological state, so he searched for outlets. Whether it be with find a cure or drinking, Robert was never happy with himself in the first place. I think what you are saying is good because Robert did have to solely rely on himself to survive. Robert did not handle the pressure, which drove him to attempt to escape his own head.
DeleteWith movies like "dawn of the dead" and other movies where there are multiple characters surviving an Apocalypse, people always try to keep a sense of "order". The remaining living people in those movies cannot always agree on things. They all have different opinions and find it hard along at times. Their differences may have resulted in death or survival. I feel In "I am Legend", Robert had no one to tell him otherwise but himself. Robert was to become his own law. Robert had his own sense of order, that only he could question(until the rise of a new society in the end). One thing about Robert is that he couldn't handle the solitude. He argued with himself. "Some things could go to pot, but not his health, he thought.
ReplyDeleteThen why don’t you stop pouring alcohol into yourself? he thought. Why don’t you shut the hell
up? he thought."
I felt Robert was dependent on society and other peoples thoughts other than his own because he would argue with himself. Robert would drink himself into despair and lacked control over his emotions. I felt Robert being alone was his ultimate downfall, for he could not find any type of peace being himself. I think Robert had always been a sort of a monster even before the virus had spread. Because of he was not happy solitude, he chose to stay in his house, and coexist with vampires. Robert never once tried to reason with the vampire, he viewed them as monsters. Roberts' own thoughts created the monster inside of himself. He always approached them with force, intending to kill. Unlike having someone to help you reason with the situation, Robert was alone. Since he was poor in the field of solitude, he treated all existence around him with violence and hatred
In I am Legend there seems to be a view of a monster that is created in us as a human while being alone with no such interaction of other humans. Neville all he had was himself some whiskey and a friend that he met that was a dog. There were some people who came in and out of the story which isnt an exact look at him being completely alone but to the sort of which he was the only "normal" human left. While everyone else was either a vampire or apart of the new league of justice which was formed and seemed to have a vacine to save everyone from the so called virus in which was infecting everyone. But seen from the walking dead, dawn of the dead and etc. Those have groups of people working together depending on each other for a outlook and to make it through everything that they were going through as in this there was only 1 person with a few side characters who would warn him and never really help him out.
ReplyDeleteIn I Am Legend Robert Neville's solitude explores the ways in which the external battle has consumed him becoming an internal battle that he has presented for himself. This solitude changes our view point from the beginning to the end of the movie. The vampires just like Neville are trying to defend the society they have worked so hard to form however Neville lacks realization and now becomes inferior. We no longer look at the vampires as the issue but Neville and his fear "to die...never knowing the fierce joy and attendant comfort of a loved one's embrace" (I Am Legend). The silence speaks volumes with respects to Neville's life he has always been alone searching for companionship. This is a struggle many can relate to, everyone wants to be loved and to love without that connection with one other person many feel empty. In I Am Legend, Ruth represents hope for Neville communication, love, and most of all not having to die alone. When Ruth reveals herself Neville's dreams that he felt were just within reach have been pulled right from under his nose. When this occurred his purpose went as well with nothing left to live for the solitude sanctioning him off from everyone else there was nothing left to do but die.
ReplyDeleteIn “I Am Legend” Robert Neville is by himself trying to find a way to save what was once called a society of people. In the other movies that we watched, the characters had each other which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. If one of the members of the group got lost or some crazy thing then the group would have to risk their lives in order to find that person vs. Robert all he had was himself to worry about. One thing that Robert did a lot of was drinking. Being alone and drinking can make a person go crazy in no time.Robert was being truant into a monster, not beceasue he was infected but because he had no one to make him feel human.
ReplyDeleteNeville being alone makes the monsters outside feel tamed to the monsters he is facing within himself. We see in pieces such as "The Walking Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" a group of people that are able to rely on each other to keep sane. This is not the case in "I an Legend". We see Neville having to rely on himself to keep sane and this proves to be difficult. Neville uses tactics as listening to music and drinking to keep himself sane. Although these tactics take some of the edge off at night it hardly is able to help keep him positive through his life. We see the tactics become monsters themselves as certain points. We see him fight bouts with alcoholism. The monster outside are not the problem, Neville seems to have a pretty good hand on them. The problem is himself. He is the real monster.
ReplyDeleteIn "I am Legend", it is much different because he is alone and the last man standing. Because he is the last man, he is now perceived as the monster himself. To all the vampires he is a crazy monster running around killing everyone. When we have multiple survivors like in "The Walking Dead" and Dawn of the Dead", it helps give us hope that they will survive and they will find a cure. There was also a lot of debate on whether or not they should stay where they were or try and find somewhere else to stay. This is not the case when there is only one man left though. Neville has to make all of this own decisions on his own. In both movies the survivors become the real monsters by the end. Fighting each other and eventually shooting each other.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he is a monster to himself in a psychological sense. It is easy for Robert to talk himself into the fact that death would be easier because there is no one by his side convincing him that it is worth living and they will make it through. It is also apparent that Neville is now the monster because he is killing the vampires and he is the only one of his kind. The vampires have created their own culture, therefore Neville is the outcast.
DeleteIn Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, The Walking Dead, and 28 Days Later their is a us against them factor, where there is a group of monsters fighting against a group of humans. The people are a united force against evil, whereas in I am Legend it is just him against the monsters alone, making him the odd one. While one will read this and think that the monsters were the evil ones, in truth Neville was the evil one. He took monsters and did experiments on them, which instilled fear into the monsters. He himself became the monster and the odd one, because he was the minority fighting against the new society that was being formed.
ReplyDeleteWhen Neville experiments on the monsters, it makes you consider both sides of the story. Is Neville the good guy, trying to survive the monsters who thirst for his blood, or are the vampires the victims, who just want to survive in their new society and kill the enemy most dangerous to them (Neville)? It makes us sympathize for the monsters, which is usually rare in horror stories which is why Matheson is so praised for his work.
DeleteBeing alone is any situation is often scary. We, as humans, surround ourselves with other people for comfort. The fact that Robert Neville is literally the last man on earth really adds something to the story. Not only does he have to fight of the vampires on his own but he also has his sanity to deal with. Having so much time shacked up in his house alone gets Neville's mind turning. He will often recall memories and try to figure out how everything happened so quickly. Once he gets started thinking he can't seem to stop and he occasionally talks back to himself. He knows he's crazy. To help cope with all he's going through, he turns to alcohol and later finds great company in a dog. Having Neville completely alone with himself makes the apocalyptic sense even stronger. We're no longer dealing with possibly the last few people on earth but the last man. One person. With only one person out there, we just know there's no chance for saving humanity, even with a cure.
ReplyDeleteIn the movies we've watched, including a few apocalyptic ones we haven't, there is a group of people left. They can watch each other's backs, discuss tactics and even repopulate if it came to that. They have one another to not only keep them safe but also keep them sane. Some might say having others to worry about would just be troublesome but I think it gives them something to fight for. If there was only one person left, like in I Am Legend, what would be the point of fighting back? There is NOBODY else left so even if you outlive the vampires, then what will you do? There is no point in a world where you are the only being in existence.
Robert Neville in Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" is presumably the last man on Earth. He is a lone individual in a world full of vampire monsters, struggling to stay alive and to find a cure for the disease that had plagued the entire population. Having a sole survivor as opposed to a group of survivors in stories like "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" call for a much different feel to the sense or survival and the struggle of isolation. When you are the last human on Earth, surrounded by masses of monsters, the sense of who the monster really is becomes a gray area. As humans we would like to think that Robert Neville is that good guy in this story because he is the human, but that may not be the case. Even though he is human and the vampires are diseased monsters, the vampires have begun to form societies of their own. They aren't completely brain-dead zombies like in other popular monster films. They still have a sense of humanity and they are the majority of the world, Neville is the outcast. In ways, Neville is a monster to the vampires. He is a strange creature that kidnaps the vampires in order to run cruel experiments on them. He is a monster to them, and they are monsters to him, so who is the real monster in this story? This is the question that gets raised when the story employs a single survivor instead of a group. In Clasen's article he talks about the effects of isolation on people and explains how this might have caused Neville to do the monstrous things he did in the story.
ReplyDeleteIn "I Am Legend" Robert Neville is the only human being alive on Earth, and he is left completely isolated within his small suburban city. In most cases, the main character would be with a relatively small group of people traveling to different areas, seeking shelter. In "I Am Legend", Neville longs for companionship and only wonders what life outside of his shelter house would be like. This take on the story shows the readers a slightly different perspective of the monstrosity that has taken over. The monsters cannot be defeated and there is no hope for humanity. Neville is waiting out his life, and when he dies humanity will be gone forever. In similar movies like "Night of the Living Dead", the survivors still believe there is hope for humanity to bounce back.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, without companionship and loss of all human contact, Robert Neville becomes a monster in more ways than one. His lonliness leaves him cold and bitter, turning to alcohol as an escape. When he comes in contact with who he at first believes to be human, he hits her thoughtlessly. His social norms slowly distort over time. In "I Am Legend", the vampires become not what society fears, but society itself. When Neville protects himself against them and uses them as specimens, the vampires view him as the threat. Neville is no longer a part of society, he is the monster.
I like what you said about his social norms changing over time. People in society create these specified norms over time and everyone is expected to follow them. Without other people to judge him for "breaking the rules," these once important expectations of society are forgotten and replaced by ones he sees fit. Towards the end he stops caring about his appearance, and like you said, doesn't treat Ruth in the way that society would normally expect of him. It's interesting to see how humans can change. How without other people to keep us inline, once important values fall to the wayside and are replaced by more primal, animalistic instincts.
DeleteNeville could be considered his own worst enemy. He suffers from solitude, and has massive drinking problems. He has to talk himself out of suicide many times. Also he has to avoid the temptation of the female vampires. He could be his own destruction, and I feel like if the small inkling of hope (the dog) had not given him some motivation, he would have easily drank himself stupid and committed suicide. The monsters outside pose a more dominant threat to him but deep down he could be his own worst enemy.
ReplyDeleteHumans cannot survive without the presence of other humans. Whether the person is an introvert that loves nothing more than solitude or an extravert that is constantly in the presence of others, they need other people around. The movies like 28 Days Later or Dawn of the Dead create a level of comfort but surrounding the protagonist with supporting characters. The group has to fight for survival and for the continued existence of the human race together. They are comforted by the “it’s US or THEM” mentality which most would argue is the biggest reason for fighting a large army of zombies. Robert Neville doesn’t have the comfort of fighting to save the human race because he is the human race. The story gives no hope of repopulating the earth or any functional necessity of having a human race. Robert is forced to go through his monotonous day to day life knowing that he lost the fight and basically has nothing left. Not only is he faced with all of these depressing thoughts all day and every day, he has no hope of ever seeing another human being’s face. With nothing to fight for and having no group members to reinforce the us against the others mentality, it is a wonder how he didn’t lose his mind. Matheson writes “The silence of the library was complete save for the thudding of his shoes as he walked along the second-floor hallway. Outside, there were birds sometimes and, even lacking that, there seemed to be a sort of sound outside. Inexplicable, perhaps, but it never seemed as deathly still in the open as it did inside a building” to illustrate how it feels to be Robert. We have brain functions that shut out all unnecessary interference from the outside world so we only give conscious thought to what we focus on. In Robert’s case, all those filters no longer have anything to filter so every little footstep reminds him of how he is the only one making them.
ReplyDeleteI am Legend is the story of Robert Neville, a lone human in a world overcome by a vampire apocalypse. The novel spans over three years of Robert’s struggles- struggles with sexual frustration, depression, survival, and most of all, loneliness. Robert is the last human, the germ took his entire family, and he is stuck being the one person immune to it. Neville tries to keep himself as busy as possible- he even makes himself an amateur scientist in order to try to figure out the cause of the vampires. Unfortunately, even though he fills his days with vampire hunting and household chores, at night, he is still wrought with the overbearing despair of his solitude. Almost every night, in the beginning, he relied on alcohol to wash his feelings away, numbing him, if only for a little while. Towards the end though, he has a breakthrough. Neville focuses all of his energy on learning everything possible about vampires and turns his emotions off. After three years of abstinence he says that his sex drive has all but died, that he now can go day-by-day, living only in the present and not dwelling on the past. This feeling of numbed acceptance is completely demolished once he meets Ruth. Even though he has convinced himself that he doesn’t need anyone else, he is still desperate for human company. He even thinks that she is a mirage when he first sees her, comparing it to when a man in a desert envisions water. He is untrusting at first, having had the bad experience with the dog, but with his desperate need for human contact, he lets her in. This ends up being his downfall, in the end. She was a spy for the living infected and even though she warns him, Neville stays and is taken by them. Fortunately, he finds peace at the end, with terms with the fact that he has been made the outsider, the monster, and the knowledge that he is dying a legend.
ReplyDeleteNeville’s life of solitary confinement is vastly different than most other vampire stories. Movies such as Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead depict groups of people struggling to overcome their clashing personalities to work as a team to get through the zombies together. Matheson takes a much different approach. He chooses to use just one single protagonist, struggling to survive a world riddled with vampires, while also struggling with his solitary confinement. There is a reason Matheson chooses to go this route- he wanted to write a horror novel where the greatest monster isn’t the vampire. Don’t be mistaken, the vampires are a large part of the story and horrifying monsters in their own right, but there is something there much more disturbing. Matheson wrote this novel during the Cold War, a time where the threat of nuclear attack was a daily concern. For the people living through this, the idea of being bombed, losing loved ones, and being alone was a fear that everyone shared. This idea of confinement, without human contact, is a monumental fear that every person feels, even during peacetime. People need to socialize, even ones who view themselves as extreme introverts. This is why one of worst punishments a prison can instill is solitary confinement. This is a fear that not everyone might think of, but is extremely prevalent. Matheson wanted to write a horror novel that had more than just surface scary monsters; he wanted to hit the hearts of the people reading. He took a familiar topic of vampire horror and used it to portray the ultimate fear of society- being alone
The emotional challenges Robert Neville endures throughout the novel, I Am Legend, expresses the human response to long-term isolation and the toll it has on the human psyche. Unlike the other horror films seen/read in class, Robert Neville bears the apocalypse alone and not in a group. Neville must bide his time repairing his house and thinking of new ways to fend off the vampires. By keeping himself busy, Neville is not thinking about the fact that he may be the last man on earth, a thought that could make any human being tremble. Rather, Neville knows that if he does not keep his mind focused on other things, like preparing for the next vampire attack and what food needs to be replenished, he could very well go insane. When alone at night with the vampires nagging him to leave his house, Neville is cooped up with nowhere to go and not much to do. This is when Neville experiences the most loneliness -- left alone with his thoughts and with death literally knocking at the door, he waivers on whether or not to open it and end all the madness. Humans are social by nature and require interactions with other people to survive. Without human touch and communication humans cannot thrive and live normally. According to Mathias Clasen’s article “Vampire Apocalypse,” “We depend on other people not just for reproduction and survival, but for psychological and emotional growth and fulfillment.” (Clasen page 8) The fact that Neville is the only human being left on earth makes for a scarier idea than vampires roaming outside his window. This is because the negative effects isolation has on the human mind can cause more suffering than the knowledge that there are man-eating creatures that exist. Humans can escape a monster but they can never escape loneliness, especially if they happen to be the last man on earth. So, in a way, isolation serves as its own inner monster to human beings, eating us alive from the inside out. Not only does Robert Neville have to defeat the monsters outside his house, but he also has to overcome the damaging effects of isolation as much as possible, making Neville constantly fight for his sanity. It is a fulltime job to fight off the vampires and prepare or their coming but it is even more of a job to maintain his rational. Clasen continues his article, discussing the topic of loneliness in the novel by saying, “Matheson’s protagonist is caught simultaneously in the desert of isolation and the jungle of predation, and plot and situation and give compelling symbolic form to universal fears.” I Am Legend concludes that humans’ worst fear is isolation and may be a bigger anxiety with bigger repercussions than even the monster.
ReplyDeleteIn 'I Am Legend' Robert is completely alone. Every danger seems to be much more imminent and pressing because he has no one there to back him up or help carry out a plan. Everything is a lot more urgent. It is also easier to go crazy when there is no one else with you. There is no one with there to help keep you sane and make you want to stay alive. While in the other works we have read or watched, the groups are in danger and have their difficulties, they still have the strength of numbers
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