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James Yu
Professor Greg McClure
Writing 39B
24 October 2015
Minority Does Not Mean Abnormal
Although the majority is still running a significant role in decision making in our
society, they do not always present the most suitable solution to every situation. Since the
majority does not necessarily represent the most logical, truthful group, their decision
becomes highly controversial. Particularly when the people meet the wrong consensus, such
kind of consensus becomes extremely controlling. This bandwagon effects, meaning that
people are affected by the decisions of the majority, can greatly influence their perspectives
that they lose their ability to evaluate individually, and thus has the power to alter peoples
common sense over time. In I Am Legend, written by the American author Richard Matheson,
the definition of humanity has also changed entirely when the world is dominated by another
newborn race. Robert Neville, the protagonist in the story, becomes the minority and loses the
power to live in new society formed by the vampire. While the minority is seeking to express
their perspectives in various forms in the world, the majority treats them as abnormal and
insignificant, consequently lead to an unbalanced society ruled by the majority.
Many believe that whichever group becomes the majority gets to decide everything,
regardless of their identities. The phrase tyranny of the majority, according to the
definition, comes into discussion that the decision made by the majority is much more
important than those of an individual or minority group. The majority often sees themselves
as the authority that they believe the other groups can only obey their determination. Not only
that, their ideas can become manipulating and the meaning can twist over time; yet the power
can still make the people reluctant to think individually and become the minority who

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questions the authority. Such scenario has also applied to the background setting of I Am
Legend. Vampires become the majority group who gets to decide the existence of other races
despite the fact that they may seem to be inhumane and immoral. In particular, Ruth has
confessed in her letter to Neville that, we are infected, and weve found a way to do that
and were going to set up society again slowly but surely (Matheson 143). The letter has
provided a lot of information to the protagonist in the story and, besides the literal meaning,
has also revealed to the readers that mutant vampires have the ability to behave like humans.
Almost as if the vampires are the new generation of human race, they have feelings of love
and being threatened, they think for the future, and most importantly they decide as a group.
Their group decision on killing the protagonist is clearly written in the letter too that it
becomes unchangeable even with the help of Ruth. At this point the readers recognize the
vampires as a new majority group who denies the existence of human rather than a bunch of
monstrous creatures who seek for violence.
On the other hand, it is nature that people express their feelings, perspectives to the
surroundings in their own manners, but their thoughts soon become meaningless once they
question the existence of the group. Being one of the members of the minority group,
individuals can hardly change their fates and labels in society no matter how much they do. It
is common that the individuals are belittled and even judged harshly when their thoughts
stand out in society. Neville, as the last human who still withholds the traditional thoughts
that the vampires are never going to dominate the world as long as he is still alive, places
himself into the position of the savior of mankind. By doing so he not only gives himself a lot
of pressure that slowly crashes his mentality throughout the story, but also threatens the
majority and therefore leads himself to an unsolvable situation. He believes that he is
destined to defeat the vampires or to find a way to cure the disease, and later to reclaim the
humanity. However, no matter how much he does to fight against them, his actions seem so

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pointless and his effort vanishes quickly with no positive result. In the story Neville tells
himself, But the vampires didnt breathe; not the dead ones, anyway. That meant, roughly,
that half of their lymph flow was cut off (Matheson 69). The use of language that Matheson
does here shows that the protagonist tries to remain confident to what he is doing after
making a conclusion on a relatively insignificant point of the smell of vampire. Though the
vampire only satisfies one of Nevilles two concluding points, he applies half of it anyways.
His effort on changing his fate at this point has not yet faded, so his tone does not show much
depression and hopelessness. Rather, it shows a sense of faithful in himself that contradicts
with the readers understanding of his future.