Appearance and Acceptance in Frankenstein and the Modern WorldOne of the main themes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the importance of appearance and acceptance in society modern. In today's society, and also in Frankenstein's society, people often judge themselves solely on their appearance. Social biases are often based on appearance, whether it's the color of a person's skin, the clothes they wear, their facial features, or even the way they hold themselves. People make snap judgments based on these and other considerations and they affect how they present themselves to someone, as well as how they treat the person being judged. In Frankenstein, the society of that era looks a lot like ours today. This is a society based on appearance, and this is highlighted by the extreme ugliness of Victor Frankenstein's monster to an ordinary human being. One of the most glaring parallels between Frankenstein and today's modern world is that of racism. These parallels appear from the first moments of the life of Frankenstein's creature. One of the first things Victor says about his newly living creation is that "its yellow skin barely covered the working muscles and arteries beneath"; (Shelley 42) and he viewed his creation with “breathtaking horror and disgust…” (Shelley 42). Here we see that, like the vast majority of people past and present, Victor first notices the color of his creature's skin and judges it horrible. Also in this novel, the example of racism is brought to our attention again with the story of the vacationers. Safie's father, a Turkish merchant living in Paris, was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. The reason for this injustice is clear, the reason is "... that he...... middle of paper... myself and another. Indeed, acceptance is a major motivation in life of any person. Life. These fundamental principles are intertwined in societies, even if they are good or bad, they have always been evident to some extent in our daily lives, racism, prejudice, appearance and the strong desire for acceptance throughout history until today we are moved by these things, and perhaps nowhere is this nature of humans present and brought to attention like. in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Works Cited Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird, Boston, Mass., Chelsea House Publishers, 1998 Lynch, David Los Angles, California, Paramount Home Video, 1980Shelley, Mary Frankenstein, New York, New York, Bantam Books, 1991National Geographic, September 1994, Washington, DC, National Geographic Society., 1994