Essay Questions

Why does Robert conclude that “I am Legend” at the ending of the book?

Close to the ending of the book, Robert clearly changes his though process. Instead of thinking that he is protecting the only remains of the human race, which is himself, he understands that the world has moved on. Earth doesn’t belong to humans anymore, and a new race is taking over. That makes his conclusion change as well, because as he has grown accustomed to killing vampires, he has become the predator instead of the victim. The vampire race looks at him as the villain, the same way he looked upon them as the evil ones. He realizes that there is no hope, and as he is the last human left on earth, he is legend.

Why did Robert kill his wife?

Robert was initially a person who didn’t want to let his wife succumb to the plague. He was devastated when he realized that she had started catching the symptoms of the plague, and he refused to burn her, though he knew that that was the only way she wouldn’t turn into a vampire. Instead of fire, he buried her, but when she changed, she came back after him. When he saw that she had become a completely different person than who he married, he finally killed her himself using fire.

How does Robert realize that Ruth is a vampire?

Robert sees Ruth one day as he is out hunting his neighbor, Ben. As he is waiting for him, he sees a woman walking around, and she is clearly not a vampire the way the other vampires he has met looks. She seems normal, but when she notices him, she tries running away. Robert manages to catch her, and she agrees to stay with him. To make sure that she wasn’t a vampire, Robert started running tests on her. All in which she passed, but when he was going to test her blood, she knocks him out and flees. Robert never gets a confirmation of Ruth’s race, though it is revealed though a letter she wrote him, that she is a part of a new race where the human parts are stronger than the vampire parts of her.