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Alex Dupleich

Ms.Marcum

ERWC

05 December 2016

The Value of Life

The value of life does not lie in the length of days, but in the use we make of them. There

are people all over the world who face tragedies every day but the ones who value life most don't

make bad days into a bad life. Everybody is placed on this earth for a reason but it is what people

do with their lives that makes the true value stand out. Everybody is also taken off this earth at

some point for some reason but that does not mean one life means more than another because

everybody is human. All people's lives are valued in some way but, once they are gone no

amount of money or anything can heal the loss of a human. In contemporary American society,

people should value human life by living every moment to the fullest extent because, you never

know when something bad could happen and you should take advantage of every precious

second you have in this world.

Everybody in life faces hardships but depending on how you value your life will

determine how you go about the situation. Roger Ebert was an American film critic who was

diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands in 2002. This cancer required many

surgeries, one including removal of his lower jaw which went wrong causing him to lose ability

to talk, eat and drink on his own. In Roger Ebert: The Essential Man Chris Jones explains how

regardless of what ebert was going through he always saw the brighter side of things: And his
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wide and expressive eyes, despite everything, are almost always smiling (Jones 26). Roger

Ebert saw the true value of life and did not let one second slip because you never know what can

happen. Losing the ability to be able to talk and eat on your own is life changing, but his outlook

on life helped how he went about the situation and he turned all the negative things to be a bit

more positive. After Ebert lost his ability to talk and eat on his own Chris Jones says that one

afternoon Ebert wrote on a scrap of paper There is no need to pity me. Look how happy I am

(Jones 27). He did not base his life on his ability to eat or talk because he saw the bigger picture

of it all. Ebert found the true value of life, and because he was able to find this his life was great

and it is like he lived up to that every second. Although Roger Ebert saw the true value of life,

this does not mean everybody sees it as easily as he did.

Some people value life so highly that they put things out there, for example songs and

articles for people to try and see how valuable life really is regardless if you are black, white,

rich or poor. 2Pac Shakur was an African American music artist who was trying to make a

difference for non-whites and was shot doing it. He saw the true value of life and risked his own

life to try and make a change so that more colored people could find what their value in this

world is. 2Pacs song Changes says Take the evil out the people, theyll be acting right.We

gotta make a change (2Pac Shakur, Changes). There are so many negative people in the world

that are so oblivious to the fact that we aren't in this world forever and they take so much granted

and forget to see what really matters. 2Pac lost his life trying to show people that and make this

world a better place for everybody. Amanda Ripley also tries to emphasize this in the Time

magazine article WTC Victims: Whats A Life Worth? by showing the statistics of the amounts

of money that the 9/11 victims families were given after the tragedy from the government.
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People get so caught up over money, but the bigger picture is that no amount of money will ever

replace how valuable a person's life was. Whether you were rich or poor before you passed away,

yes money will help with things that families need to pay but no amount will fix the pain you

feel when you lose somebody. In the article Ripley states Some view the money as a halfhearted

apology for the breakdown in security and intelligence that made the attacks possible. Others

cant help seeing the award as a callous measure of their loved ones value (Ripley 3).

Thousands of people were given various amounts of money, the richer were given more and the

less fortunate were given less but what many people did not see throughout this tragedy was how

valuable life was. No matter how much money the government gave to these people, it would

never bring back the precious and such valuable lives that they lost.

The people who do not see the true value of life keep all the negative, negative. They get

into a bad spot in their journey of life and have such a negative mindset on everything so they

just give up and turn to things such as death and hate. For example, in Hamlet's Soliloquy

Hamlet's uncle murdered his father, them married his mother. This was a tragedy that Hamlet

faced and because he never saw the true value of life he turned to death. The Soliloquy states to

be, or not to be- that is the question (Hamlet). He asks him himself during this hard time, to be

alive or to not be alive. Death is not the answer when things get difficult because life has so

much value to just let yourself go when it is not yet your time. Although Hamlet faced something

probably nobody would ever want to face, you have to try and find the good in things like Roger

Ebert did when he lost his ability to eat and speak forever.

Overall, everybody in our society should value human life by living every moment to full

extent because you never know when something bad could happen and take your life away.
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Those who find the true value of life will make the bad days into good ones and try to make this

world more of a welcoming society so everybody is able to find their value in life. Ebert, 2pac,

and Ripley all turned negative situations into better ones by having a positive outlook on life. As

for Hamlet, he was a prime example of how not to go about things when they get negative. Life

is so valuable, dont let it slip away from you because you never know what could happen at any

second.
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Works Cited

1. Hamlets Soliloquy. By Shakespeare. Performance.

2. Jones, Chris. "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man." (2010): n. pag. Web.

3. Shakur, 2PAC. Changes. 1998. CD.

4. Ripley, manda. "What Is a Life Worth?" TIME 6 Feb. 2002: n. pag. Print.