The ending of I am Legend reminded me of a literary term I had to learn for a
literature class ages ago: peripeteia. Peripeteia is a Greek word meaning
something along the lines of “a reversal of fortunes.” The reversal of fortunes
in I am Legend is impossible to
ignore. Robert Neville starts off being a strong male hero in the majority,
fighting against the infected minority. By the end of the novel, he is
seemingly the villain, because he is the minority killing off the majority.
During his final moments, he looks upon an infected society that is the
opposite of what he had expected. The peripeteia is chilling—the creatures he
had been trying to exterminate ultimately became superior to him.
Neville’s death is sad but
inevitable. I want to reference our discussions about savings humans vs.
humanity, because the end of I am Legend definitely
appeals to the humanity side. We have gotten to know our protagonist to an
extent that it is difficult to say goodbye to him, but the idea of a new
infected society is the only realistic outcome of the situation. After a while,
Neville could not be the hero anymore… because there was simply no one to save.
He had to die for the new version of ‘humanity’ to create a society and start
over. The book seems to say somewhat pessimistically that you cannot always
have a hero. That fact is what makes I am
Legend scary—that man without a companion is redundant, and the world can
still go on without him.
I agree with your stance on humanity vs. humans. Robert’s realization that the new society must move on and start with a clean slate reaffirms his decision to die on his own terms. He knows his death is inevitable so once he realizes that this new society is fully functional and ready to take over, he is okay to die so as not to stand in their way. I find it interesting as well that the more evolved vampires become the leaders of the new society (as opposed to the “regular” vampires), ushering in a new world along with this transition.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with how Neville couldn’t emerge as a hero because his efforts would have been futile, I think his a great deal of his choice to throw in the towel depended on his final impressions of the vampire race. I think he didn’t heed Ruth’s warning and stayed in his home partly because he felt he had a duty to protect whatever semblance of the past he had left. When the vampires finally came to his home and maliciously killed the others, Neville was struck with fear and began to fire his gun in self defense. The nature of the vampires, as demonstrated in this scene, shows that they lack humility, but it wasn't until Neville began staring out the window at the very end that he understood how similar vampires and humans really are. When Neville saw the look of fear in the eyes of the vampires outside he understood that humanity would still continue, just not like it had before and he saw what impression he had as an individual and was glad his efforts meant something in the end.
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