I have mixed feelings about this ending. In a literary
sense, I love the irony in that Neville has become a legend amongst a
population that he originally viewed as the outsiders. This population has
shifted from the strangers into a new society, one in which Neville has become
the sole outsider. However, a part of me, the 21st century
brainwashed by Hollywood movies side of me, was a little disappointed by the
ending. Neville seems defeated; after many years of fighting the vampires, he
gives up with hardly a fight and then takes an easy death. I wanted so badly
for Neville to either find a cure and live out the rest of his days peacefully
or go down in a flurry of Hollywood explosions and gunshots. Either way he
would have been the legend he talks about at the end of the novel. However, the
way he cops out, taking a pill that a vampire, whom he should not be trusting
after the way she treats him, gives him.
On another note, Ruth is an interesting character that
brings a whole new dynamic to Neville’s repetitive life. Not only is she
another “person” that breaks the monologue and allows for dialogue between two
characters, but she also becomes a hybrid between human and vampire. This makes
the transition from humanity to a half-human/half-vampire society more
seamless. The government of the new society is more functional than Neville
could ever be, suggesting that with Neville’s death a new era is forming, free
from humanity’s fragility.
Because I am legend is a tale about a white male, it is deeply interesting to examine the women in the text. At the beginning of the story women are nothing but a material annoyance to the protagonist. The lewd behavior of the female vampires seems weak and feeble. It is an admission of physical and mental weakness. Discounting Roberts’s wife, these are the only women in the story until Ruth arrives. As the portrayal of women in the story turns from weak and helpless to intelligent and powerful, similarly changes the portrayal of the vampires. It seems that Matheson has made similar the relationships to Neville of both women and vampires to reinforce his loneliness.
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