The Role Of Isolation In Richard Matheson's I Am Legend

From start to finish the author uses pathos to capture the reader’s attention. Kaplan paints a fearful, gruesome, scary picture of how throughout history people have viewed vampires and zombies. The author shows this with his word choice, metaphors, and the stories he chooses to explain. From the start, the author uses words such as fear, scared, morbid, evil, and terror throughout his entire story. In just the first page of the text he uses the word fear three times accompanied by terror when writing about vampires in ancient times. Kaplan uses metaphors throughout the story, but especially in his introduction to capture the reader’s attention. Examples of this include when he states, “they are predators like lions and play upon the terror

The idea of what a monster is and how it pertains to modern day society has fascinated readers and writers for decades. Before taking this class, I was aware of what a monster is and the function it served in today’s society. Furthermore, after taking this class, I am now aware of what a monster truly is, and what really separates a monster from a regular person. The piece of text that I mainly chose to focus on and elaborate closely to demonstrate the aspects of a monster is appropriately named, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. The reason I chose this piece of literature is because, Monster thoroughly elaborates what a monster is in todays society and how it functions in the modern day world. In this essay I will elaborate on

Introduction: Haunting Boundaries is the entry to the reader “Monsters” by the editors Brandy Ball Blake and L. Andrew Cooper. In the introduction, they talked about origins of monsters, Western and modern era to be more specific. Their origin reflect on the culture and the time being that they are in. These monsters were warnings, used to scared children and adults off dangerous area. Nowadays, monsters blend in among human, closely resemble a normal person to either further boost their fear factor or give them the foundation to have emotions, depth of character. Example of this given by the authors is vampire. Dracula is an iconic character for modern day literature overall and movie specifically. He is the vampire that uses his charm to

Monsters are challenges that the human race must overcome. In Jeffrey Cohen’s essay “Monster Culture,” Cohen reasserts the presence of the monstrous within society, and its relation to different cultures in a specific time period. All of Cohen’s seven thesis makes sensible arguments that gives the audience a glimpse on what his purpose is. Each thesis are presented differently, but Cohen correlates his ideas to explain the monster’s true existence. The convergence of intellectualism makes a strong connection between Cohen’s appeal to pathos. Cohen utilizes emotion in his writing to mainly appeal to his audience, and give them an idea on what goes on behind the monster’s identity. The final thesis “The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming”

Richard Matheson, the most prominent American author in the horror genre, who published the preeminent horror novel, I Am Legend in 1954, renders Robert Neville as the hero of the novel as he struggles to overcome a constant battle against the vampires and his subconscious mind. At the end of the novel, Robert Neville can be interpreted to finally have the ability to see the world through the perspective of the vampires which, ultimately, leads him to be able to understand them. Matheson reveals the true monster to be not the vampires nor Robert Neville, but prejudice. However, Matheson first establishes a connection between Robert Neville and the audience. This connection allows the message, that prejudice is capable of being the darkest

Monstrous desires are not as exclusive as one might think, and in Karen Russell’s short story “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” we come to recognize that, despite the fact that the two main characters, Clyde and Magreb, are actual vampires, their “monstrous” urges are all too familiar- perhaps even quintessentially human. In fact, with careful analysis, specifically through psychological criticism, we, as readers of “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” can see that by understanding psychological urges of the subconscious (in accordance to Freud’s theories), that the “monsters” are just as vulnerably human as the rest of us. We come to understand specific psychological needs such as desire, hunger, and the psychological need for hope and

The image the vampire is being used in horror movies and novels to portray the fear of disease and infection. For example, in the novel I Am Legend, Richard Matheson states: “The worry had started a few hours before, while Ruth was sleeping. Now, he couldn't rid himself of the fear. No matter how he reasoned, it didn’t help” (126). This quote demonstrates the fear that Robert Neville, the main character, was experiencing. He was afraid that Ruth, the girl he brought home, is infected. The quote shows the fear of losing a companion from Neville while illustrating the general theme which is the horror of contagion. Furthermore, Matheson also states: “He was surrounded now by people, hundreds of them,

A key element of the fantasy / horror / gothic genres is to fascinate and intrigue readers through stories that pose the “what if” questions, thereby teaching us something new about the society we live in. Sometimes these stories are helpful in explaining difficult concepts of good and evil, science and religion. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the mythical horror creatures, the vampires, have many differences in their mythical abilities, functionality and origin; however, they both serve to underline themes that remind the reader of what makes us human and what defines us as ultimately good or evil. Stoker’s Count Dracula is the product of a religious strike against the antagonist whereas the vampires in I Am

In Richard Matheson's “I am Legend” it says, “Robert Neville stood in the cold blackness of his house, listening to the vampires scream. (page 24)” This captures a sense of isolation and dread that was prevalent in the cultural consciousness of the time. During the 1950s, the post-war era was marked by a pervasive fear of nuclear annihilation, the Cold War, and social upheaval. This quote reflects the existential angst and alienation felt by many individuals during this period.

The stories of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio are an intersecting group of tales that emphasize the grotesque over a wide spectrum. While some of Anderson’s stories focus upon the physical grotesque, other characterizations demonstrate the ability of the human psyche to exemplify the grotesque. Such is the case with Anderson’s short story “Hands.” “Hands” is a story of society’s tendency to marginalize those who can be categorized as grotesque, or those who simply refuse categorization entirely. Anderson’s tale of social isolation utilizes the image of the hands to symbolize the emotional expression of Wing Biddlebaum in order to drive an implicit theme that emotional internalization and social isolation is a veritable prison.

The vampire is an embodiment of society 's deepest fears. Throughout literary history, the vampire has always been characterised as a vile figure of pure evil. However the depiction of the vampire is affected by the social, historical and political context of the time. As context shifts, so does the collective fear of society, with the portrayal of the vampire following suit. Dracula, I Am Legend and Twilight, three extremely popular books of vampire fiction created during vastly different periods in history, are representative of this shift. In Dracula, the titular character is depicted as an anti-christ figure by the author, Bram Stoker, who attempts to warn people about the dangers of straying from traditional Christian ideals. I Am Legend, a nineteen-fifties post-apocalyptic novel, emphasises the dangers of a world ravaged by environmental destruction. The wasteland, that was once earth, becomes populated by animalistic, brutal vampires that have been created as a result of an environmental plague. Finally, Twilight is a teen-angst novel written by Stephenie Meyer in 2005 and adapted into a movie of the same name in 2008. In a day and age where more people have begun to adopt humanitarian views, society has put a strong emphasis on rehabilitation and redemption. Contrary to this ideology, Edward Cullen, the main vampire, has a deeply ingrained fear that he is beyond saving thus reflecting society 's fears that one can inherently be beyond redemption.

All too often the gothic literature genre is reduced in its interpretation to gloomy weather and archaic haunted houses. These patterns do exist, but they do not define the genre. Gothic literature found its niche in the 18th and 19th centuries, and during the Victorian era it served a more nuanced purpose than simply to scare readers. Many gothic authors used a monster as a vessel to symbolize topics that the Victorian era sensibilities would label as “monstrous.” They are the incarnation of the taboo subjects society is trying to repress. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Tell-Tale Heart”, the authors use Freudian symbolism along with literary symbolism to demonstrate the repercussions of repressing “id” desires.

As Stoker recognized, classic horror is close to tragedy, and in a work of classic horror, there are elements of pity and fear, pity for the vampire's situation but fear of his menace. Careful readers of Dracula are at the same time sympathetic to and repelled by Dracula. Coppola, despite the best of intentions, creates a work in which there is far more pity than fear; the sympathy finally overwhelms the repulsion. (Holte 85)

Different depictions of vampires are commonly exhibited in vampire folklore in past and present literature and film. The diversity of different variations of vampire legends are prominently seen in most literature, but the main ideas and attributes are generally the same. This is not that case when focusing on specific novels discussed in class. The novels I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Fledgling by Octavia Butler are two contrasting works of vampire folklore. The novels are about different societies of vampires. They both emerged in different ways, the survive and feed in contrasting ways, and they both represent completely different forms of vampires. This essay will examine the characterizations of the contrasting the vampire species in both I Am Legend and Fledgling, as well as, investigating how these different species of vampires relate to human species.

As one of the most attractive and enduring figures in the Gothic literature, the vampires have moved from being a peripheral element with the genre to a place near the center and are capable of generating its own massive tradition now. In the recent literary history, they have already been adapted to play a role of a rebel against the moral, social, religious, and even sexual taboos. Put simply, the vampires are now a metaphor of human beings in the modern society and life.