I finished reading the story and it isn’t a horror story. It is also short, only about 160 pages. The book I have also has many short stories. They were pretty interesting. The following is my analysis of the story and it discusses the ending so if you haven’t read the story and want to don’t read any further.
About I Am Legend, though, it is more a psychological look at a man who must live with himself, and how he copes. Also, the ending is a surprise. My understanding is it isn’t anything like the movie ending, but I have not seen the movie yet. The story was the kind I like, it delves into the psyche of the character. I am always a little suspicious of novelists that use graphic descriptions in the their stories. Matheson doesn’t do that. This is more a look at a man who is living in isolation and the effects it has on him. He has to find something to keep his mind occupied so he doesn’t just give up. His solution is to learn science and try to find a cure for the plague. The ending though is a little short. It is almost like he realized he needed and ending and this one sounded good. I would have liked it if he had delved deeper into the processes of the new society that was on the rise and who Neville was such a threat to them. He only skims the surface though. There is only one character he introduces from the new society and she is only there to explain that some of the victims have found a way to contain the virus and they have to kill Neville because he is not like them. I think my problem is the new society is supposed to not be unthinking like those that have fully gotten the plague so they should have more enlightenment then to just indiscriminately kill Neville. They could have taught him their ways and how to spot a real plague victim and those that could be saved with the new drug. He would have been a powerful ally to them. Maybe Matheson is trying to go for a Frankenstein ending, society shuns and tries to destroy those that are too radically different from the norm. I don’t know.
p.s. I also noticed that Matheson wrote the classic Twilight episode Nightmare at 20,000 feet and also the stories that later became the movies Stir of Echoes and What Dreams May Come.
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