We were required to read Sophie’s World since we are to make a book review about it in our philosophy subject. The book managed to be a comprehensive medium in introducing the basic knowledge about Philosophy. It tries to simplify concepts, because it was intended to reach a wide range of readers in terms of age bracket. As such, there were minimal details mentioned about the philosophers in the book.
With modern technology, it is now possible to store an e-book file in one’s phone. So, I managed to try reading the story in between classes. It is essentially unfair in terms of intellectual property rights, of course, because I just downloaded the file in a certain website. But I was quite desperate, and I tried justifying that action to myself by thinking that I do not intend to use that file for my own profit anyway.
There were parts that I found to be loaded with too much information, and I found myself dozing off or taking a break from all the reading. However, the progress of Sophie’s story is enough to make me resume reading at the next convenient moment. Gaarder is really good in keeping the readers looking forward to certain situations in the story. For example, I was curious how Alberto Know would look like, and that made me keep a relatively rapid pace in my reading with the regular communications between Sophie and Knox. An entertaining development I followed in the story was the various ways Sophie used what she learned in certain conversations with her mother, which made the latter suspect if her daughter was taking drugs.
It was also very informative that the Gaarder efficiently connected historical developments with the progress in philosophical thought and studies. In a way, it helped me clarify some information discussed in another subject. It was also entertaining to read about Sophie and Alberto Knox meeting various characters from literature, like Red Riding Hood and Ebenezer Scrooge.
But I was quite surprised that Sophie’s realm is actually just a story written by Hilde’s father. It was just like a story-within-a-story genre of literature with a different twist to it. This time entire realities are involved, and not just merely a narration of someone telling a separate story.
Then, right now I am wondering if my whole existence is also a story made by some other entity. I do not know how to react if my situation is actually similar to Sophie’s. Am I really a master of my own fate, or am I just a figment of someone else’s imagination?
Footsteps and Sighs 