Ryan O.

Frankenstein as interpreted by Ryan O.

"Life at all Costs" is an important part of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Victor Frankenstein, as a young man, starts reading about natural philosophy in the works of Cornelius Agrippa and other ancient philosophers. When he gets to college he starts to pursuit what he thinks is his life's work, to create life. Once he starts working on the project he becomes completely obsessed with it and forgets about his well being. We see this in the novel when he thinks to himself, "Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose alone sustained me..."(Shelley 41). Frankenstein is finally able to create life, but it costs him everything. The monster he creates kills his closest loved ones and eventually he loses his life as well.

This theme is also very prominent today. Many athletes will risk hurting themselves and their reputations for the chance to become one of the greatest. One of the most known athletes for this is Sammy Sosa. He was on the list of the athletes in the MLB who used illegal-performance enhancing drugs. These drugs, although they can be extremely beneficial during use, can cause serious long term conditions. These conditions are widely known and it is common knowledge that they can hurt your body. Although Sosa denied the use of any drugs, his reputation was scarred from just being on the list and being tried for it. This caused him to lose many fans and may hurt his chances of becoming inducted into the Hall of Fame. He may have set records in the MLB but he lost most of his credit and fan-base do to his risking anything to do it.