Three years of systematic killing have turned Neville into an insensitive, emotionless wreck. Indeed, insofar as she’s capable of expressing sympathy and concern for others, Ruth comes across as far more “human” than Neville in this scene, despite the fact that she’s really a vampire. He explains to Ruth how he kills vampires, and becomes genuinely puzzled when Ruth points out that what he’s doing is barbaric and cruel. Toward the end of the novel, when Neville meets Ruth, Matheson makes it clear how much of a toll killing has taken on Neville. As the years go by, however, Neville seems to become totally desensitized to the violence. Later, he seems to get an almost sexual pleasure out of killing vampires. In the earliest chapters, he feels pain and regret for his killings, and compensates by drinking heavily. Over the course of the book, Neville becomes increasingly numb to the act of killing vampires. Strictly based on these scenes, the novel seems to imply that survival is the most basic, fundamental value put another way, nothing Neville does is more important than surviving.Įven if survival is the most important part of Neville’s life, I Am Legend shows some of the moral challenges of using survival to justify one’s violent deeds. However, whenever this happens, he convinces himself that he’s doing the right thing: he refuses to be on the losing side of a “kill or be killed” situation. At several points in the novel, he feels guilt or regret while killing sleeping vampires with a wooden stake. Because he sees himself in a purely defensive role, Neville can always justify his own acts of killing. In general, Neville sees himself as playing a defensive role: he sees the vampires as an aggressive force and a threat to his survival. Indeed, he converts his house into a fortress, so that the vampires won’t be able to attack him in his sleep. Thus, survival becomes the dominant theme of his life. In particular, Matheson is interested in the way that people use “survival” as a justification for their acts of violence-to what extent is there a valid reason to kill?Īfter he survives the vampire plague, Neville is forced to face a simple fact: if he doesn’t protect himself, vampires will kill him. In general, the novel studies the lengths to which ordinary people will go to survive in a time of crisis. Neville is sometimes sympathetic to the vampires (see Otherness theme), yet he continues to kill them, reasoning that if he doesn’t, they’ll kill him at night. In I Am Legend, Robert Neville spends his days traveling around Los Angeles, driving stakes into the hearts of vampires-in effect, murdering them in their sleep.
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