I Am Legend

“For he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him.”

Robert Neville struggles to manage his sobriety and loneliness during his initial months alone, the Undead raging outside his house. He has begun to let clutter pile up around the house, as he doesn’t care enough to clean; this hints at both his depression and thoughts on femininity. Women are traditionally charged with domestic work, so in the absence of his deceased wife, he succumbs to lethargy.

“That was what the situation had been. Something black and of the night had come crawling out of the Middles Ages. Something with no framework or credulity, something that had been consigned, fact and figure, to the pages of imaginative literature.”

This quote introduces the theme of Science Versus Legend by describing the infectious spread of the vampiris bacteria as a threat that belongs to folklore or literature. Partially inspired by his scientist father, Neville wishes to better understand the Undead and begins searching for scientific explanations.

“Why do through all this complexity when a flung-open door and a few steps would end it all?”

Neville’s suicidal thoughts correspond to his alcoholic binges. He questions why he should continue living without purpose or companionship, deeming it easier to die at the hands of the Undead. This contemplation only lasts as long as his inebriation, so it becomes a familiar cycle for him.