A central idea to the novel is the idea of otherness and alienation, but not in a way that many would think. It is easy to see the alienation and isolation that Neville is feeling upon being the only person left, but it is also the way that the vampires view Neville. He is killing them for what seems to be no reason and seems like an other being to the vampires, but on the other hand the vampires are very foreign to Neville. They killed everyone around him and turned them into unnatural beings. They fear each other for the simple fact that they are unable to understand the other. Neville is alienated because he is nothing like the beings around him, so it can be seen that at least the vampires have companions that are like them around them.
As the other fascinates us today, the other is something that fascinates Nevile, albeit sometimes it is a more horrified fascination. He is both aroused by and terrified by his reaction to the female vampires that he sees in the novel and eventually finds himself "jerking off the crossbar from the door. Coming, girls, I'm coming" (Matheson 22). The other of the women attracts him because they have familiar bodies to the human woman he was attracted to when they were there. But, upon hearing their screams of delight and anticipation for the feeding and change that is to come he realizes the situation and how different they are from him. He feels the loneliness, isolation, and difference and this is showcased by the attraction and shame that he feels.
This otherness seen by the new vampire society is due to the killings that he has done towards the other vampires. He has an epiphany when he is being taken to his death by the vampire society because they are intelligent and show human characteristics that the other vampires did not. There is no true monster from the book because they are both others who have killed people of the other race. They see each other as a monster due to their differences, but this is due to the otherness that cannot be understood. This novel is an important message towards the viewpoint that we have as a society towards other groups that are different or foreign to your own. We treat people unlike ourselves, and this can lead to hate and crimes done to a group we are unable to understand. It is something that speaks for the horror of the novel as well as speaks on important issues that many face even today. We are frightened of the other, and by using Neville's viewpoints and understanding by the end of the novel we can see that even people set in their ways can change. There may be more common ground than many people realize, and that can be seen with Neville and the humanistic vampire society.
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