These are the final chapters. Matheson does a great job of continuing to create change in Neville. He’s encountered another human who is apparently immune as well, Ruth. He’s cold and distrustful at first, now having been in isolation for about 3 years. He suddenly realized that he had …

This vignette by Richard Matheson presents an interesting technique for escalation. It’s brief story of an odd man who plays a game at the fair, the one where you chuck ping-pong balls into a fishbowl, and never misses. The escalation is just that - the man never misses. It is, by nature of …

Here we find Neville hitting another brick wall. He thinks he’s figured out what’s causing the vampires - a Bacilli (germ) - but he can’t attribute all the vampire behaviors to it. So, what does he do? Well, by this point we know Neville pretty well - a man who, although he’s …