A Book Review of Sophie's World

A Book review of Sophie’s World

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder and published by HarpercollinsCanada is an instructive and interesting book. The reason that why this is so is because the book is trying to teach you the history of philosophy with description that is easy to be understood and attractive plot. The story is mainly about a girl named Sophie continuously received the letter which taught her the knowledge about philosophy. At the beginning of the book Sophie received a strange letter, which said: who are you and where are you from? At the same time she also got some strange presents and letters that should be sent to another girl named Hilde. Then she fell in love with philosophy and during the philosophy courses, she was trying to find out it was who that sent her the letters and what is the truth behind these mysterious letters. The turning point comes when Hilde’s father shown up. The story concludes with a unpredictable ending when we are informed that Sophie and her philosophy teacher live in a virtual world.
The book is set in 1990, Norway; during the period of the beginning of computers’ prevail. The author paints a vivid picture of that time period. This makes it easy for me to visualize the setting of the story. Examples of sentences that show the time are “The postmark was stamped 6/15/1990.” found on page 173.Another description “No, look…5/30/1990, it says.” found on page 171 reinforces the picture of routine. Hence, the book is set in a period very similar to us.
The main theme in the novel is the history of philosophy. The message the author seems to be trying to convey are we should try our best to find out something more important than triviality of everyday life, such as “Who we are, where are we from?” Children own this curious faculty, while the adults lose it and take everything for granted. The message is expressed in very obvious way. I tend to agree with the author’s view because in my own experience, I thought a lot of unimaginable things and thought a lot about just like the questions the philosophy teacher sets for Sophie, but as time goes on, I leave them behind and never think about them any more.
The most interesting character is the philosophy teacher Alberto. This is because Alberto teaches Sophie philosophy in a special way. Furthermore, he is very mysterious; we can just follow the book to know more about him. I can not help but nod in agreement every time the character answers the questions he sets to Sophie in a rational way. For example, on page 72, Alberto says, so that was Plato, Sophie. His astonishing theories have been discussed-and criticized-for more than two thousand years. The first man to do so was one of the pupils from his own Academy. His name is Aristotle, and he was the third great philosopher from Athens. Hence, showing how interesting and wisdom he is in term of the method he teaches Sophie.
This author writes in a style that is simple and clear. The words he uses are just right. Words like pillars, demonstrated, infinity, ripple, synagogue, perspective are familiar to me. The author uses literary language such as; all mortals are born at the very tip of the rabbit’s fine hair, where they are in a position to wonder at the impossibility of the trick. But as they grow older they work themselves ever deeper into the fur. These show how skilful Jostein Gaader is. The dialogue is used in the novel is realistic. For example, on page 80, Sophie and her mother are talking about how to celebrate Sophie’s 15 birthdays.
“Aren’t you going to invite anyone? I mean, don’t you want to have a party?”
“Maybe.”
This dialogue could have been a taped conversation between two people in family members, because Mum will arrange a birthday party for her daughter in reality. Hence, I like the writer’s style and would like to imitate his writing techniques.
I would recommend this novel to people who enjoy reading instructive and meaningful stories because it teaches you lot knowledge about philosophy and teaches you how to perceive the world around you. I simply could not put the book down and eagerly look forward to reading the next novel by this author.