I Am Legend Analysis

Improved Essays
The movie “I Am Legend,” a post-apocalyptic science fiction film, directed by Francis Lawrence in 2007, is regarded as one of the most popular modern vampire-like creature films. It is also credited as the main influence to portray vampires as the characters we know nowadays. Of course, it is not the first time that the concept of a ‘living vampire’ is used in the film industry, and this is actually the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend in 1954, which was published after the Cold War when people viewed the world as a duality of pure good and evil. In this case, the latest I Am Legend movie, constructs a representation of a zombie-vampire like world that resembles more than just monsters, it resembles society’s biggest …show more content…
Which concludes that for members of a social species, such as the human species, the horrors of being alone is very real and very rational. Moreover, the approach of isolation in I Am Legend not only resembles society’s biggest fears, but it also becomes very similar to a system that we have in the United States today and that has become a concerned issue; solitary confinement. The article “Torture: The Use of Solitary Confinement in U.S Prisons,” talks about prolonged solitary confinement in the U.S Prisons and how they have become torture for prisoners, causing “devastating psychological and physical effects such as chronic depression, hallucinations, emotional flatness, irrational anger, etc” (CCR). Ever since solitary confinement came into existence, it has been used as a tool for repression, but the results have been disastrous. As Cohen argues in his essay, “monsters can illuminate the secrets of its time” (Cohen). Besides the movie displaying the desire to hate monsters, it reflects upon society’s fear of being dominated by another species, and the severe consequences of isolation. Humans fear this idea because it is practiced in our culture today and we are aware of the disastrous …show more content…
He divides his analysis according to the film genre and states that genre determines how a text is received by its audience. In I Am Legend, given its titular identification as a horror film, we know from the start that it will present a world in chaos; there is no sense in which the apocalypse is anything other than a catastrophe. Also, some of his principal arguments are that many horror films contain political references contemporary to its production. In the movie, for example, the role of an African American as the hero, in a time where racial equality is still evolving in the United States. Neville is considered a hero to its audience because he found a cure to the virus that costs the life of many people and also for saving the lives of the mom and the little boy. In a world, where racial equality is still a work in progress, the author wanted to remind our world that anyone can be a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In Paul Barber’s Vampires, Burial, and Death, he discusses the very early sightings or cases of vampirism, like Andre Paole and Peter Pologojowitz, and, we,as readers get a sense of the core features that make a vampire so interesting. Characteristics such as reanimation, state after death, epidemics and prevention, as described many testimonials, including the two in Barber’s book, are the most fascinating to me. The idea of death epidemics that surrounds the town in each vampire sighting is really thought-provoking. Although this isn’t a direct feature of a vampire, it is something that often is seen in vampire cases.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary: In “(Un)safe Sex: Romancing the Vampire,” professional copywriter Karen Backstein, explores the interest of vampire movies in the 21st century and changes made to keep the genre relevant. Backstein believes society and humankind are evolving and rapidly changing, vampires are also evolving so that they can survive and continue to interest people in popular culture. Modern vampires, Backstein notes, work to control their impulses so as not to harm the ‘heroine’, who is strong, resourceful, and smart (38). In her essay, Backstein begins by explaining what exactly vampires in popular culture have become.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The text urges readers to look deeper into an individual and confront the unknown. This book has great significance and relevance, especially in the trying times that we are now experiencing with race relations in our country. This book is a must…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Solitary confinement is defined as a form of imprisonment where an inmate is separated from other inmates and/ or human contact for over 20 hours a day for days, weeks, months, or even years. This practice has been used widely throughout the United States for many decades in an effort to separate highly dangerous inmates from causing harm to other inmates or themselves. Whether or not solitary confinement is useful in the prison system is up for debate but the effects it leaves on the inmates is a concern for many states. By taking a look at what solitary confinement is, examining the phycological effects of the imprisonment, and discussing the legality of the punishment we may be able to draw a better conclusion on whether or not this practice should still be used in the modern day prison system. Solitary confinement can be described as a form of punishment in a prison system where inmates are sent to a private room with no windows and no outside contact with other humans or inmates except prison guards.…

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cohen, Andrew. " Creating Monsters: How Solitary Confinement Hurts the Rest of Us." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 18 Apr. 2014. Web.…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Where did our twenty-first century incarnations of the zombie come from, and how did they develop as time elapsed? James Parker’s “Our Zombies, Ourselves” discusses several of the past and present zombies, their stereotypical designs, and how different medias portray society’s definition of a zombie. One of the first subjects Parker covers is that of society’s preconception of the undead. We, and apparently everyone else dating back to the early 1900s, imagine the zombie as abysmally lethargic, with greyed skin, mutilated limbs, and an unending desire to consume living flesh. Parker regales the reader with a tale of the zombie’s evolution through poetry, books, movies, television, and even songs.…

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our prison systems in the United States seem to be under constant scrutiny and debate in some form or fashion. One specific topic that has been under quite a bit of heat is the discussion of solitary confinement. While many other countries have pulled the plug on this practice, American prison systems seem to be exploding in the opposite direction, increasing the number of inmates we maintain in solitary confinement at an alarming rate. This certainly leads to a rabbit hole of questions, but as we peer deeper into this form of imprisonment and break apart its layers, we can come to more educated opinions on whether or not solitary confinement is necessary, if change is needed, or if we should consider abolishing the practice as a whole.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gender Roles In Dracula

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Phenomenon of vampires is highly incorporated in today’s popular culture with a large number of books, films, and TV-series about them emerging every year. Still, many people cannot deny that Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is an exceptional literary creation that stood at the origins of the cult of vampires. Not only did this Victorian novel, written in 1897, become a landmark piece of gothic literature, but also it defined the contemporary form and image of vampires and paved the way for multiple interpretations in modern culture. Nevertheless, “Dracula” is not just an outstanding horror fiction book. It is also a profound insight into Victorian age – a defining time in the history of the Western world, when so many cornerstones of society began…

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The creation of monsters like vampires and zombies presents itself as an allegory the “day to day existence.” Articles like “Why Vampires Never Die” by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan and “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead “ by Chuck Klosterman emphasizes the correlation between folktale and reality. The difference between Folktale and reality is that folktale and reality is that folktale are variations of stories from many cultures, while reality is something that exist and can be proven. This creates room for the idea of death to be a significant aspect to the rise of monstrous beings, as listed prior. The idea of what happens after life, known as death varies amongst cultures and…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By making use of the cliché vampire tales and transforming them into a unique fictional novel, Octavia Butler’s Fledgling takes the reader into a different world in which pleasure, hatred and persistence are combined to solve the mysterious life-threatening puzzle of a genetically modified vampire. Fledgling is a novel that exposes the ignorance hatred can create and the strength survival can generate. Nonetheless, Fledgling, like many other books, has its downfalls and confusions. Butler’s last novel expresses everything she believed and stood for, and opens the eyes to those who cannot see our universal issues by placing them in a totally different world. To begin with, Butler gives the reader more than just a book filled with words,…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dracula Comparison Essay

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In his 1897 gothic novel, Dracula, Bram Stoker defined the modern form of the vampire. His character, Dracula remained popular through the ages, being one of the most popular adaptation source in history. Dracula has created an extraordinary vampire subculture, and an enormous amount of films have been made that feature Count Dracula as it’s main antagonist, or protagonist. However, most adaptations do not include the major characters from the novel, focusing only on the now traditional characteristics of a vampire, created by Stoker. In this essay I will focus on the novel and how different adaptations through the 20th and 21st century differ from it.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Religion, even today, is a notable force in driving society’s values, actions, and beliefs - the Victorian age, in which Bram Stoker’s Dracula takes place, is no exception. In Dracula, Christianity especially was the driving force in the Victorian age in Europe, where the tale takes place. When applying the Reader Response lens, it can be concluded that the role of religion is crucial to the idea of vampires, actions of the characters, and the plot of Dracula - religion is essential crucial to the entire work of Dracula.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    What happened to the classics? Over the years the world has come to see many different changes of the living dead. In literature one of the major changes that has been seen are the changes in vampires. The classic vampire novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has differences between the vampires when compared to Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the movie "I am Legend", the main character Sam does not have his social needs met. He is the last human alive in New York City inhabited by nocturnal mutants. They were created by a virus that was originally created to cure cancer, but everyone instead turned into mutants other than our main character. Our main character is a virologist who is currently working on a cure for the virus. The only social contact he gets is with his dog Sam, other than that he goes to the movie rental store and has conservations with…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I Am Legend Themes

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Can you imagine being in a world with no people? A world filled with only monsters. The only person left is you. You have nothing and no one to keep you company. This reality is displayed in the novel I Am Legend which was written by Richard Matheson in 1954.…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics