The 20th Annual Book Report Competition For

Secondary School Students

The Champion of English Senior Section

School: St. Joseph’s College

Student Name: Willie Pak

Title: Sophie’s World

Time to return to the Academy

The reviewer hails Jostein Gaarder’s attempt in Sophie’s World to introduce youngsters to the extensive field of philosophy and to provide for them a philosophical book at a time when nations are forgetting their roots.

‘Who are you?’ and ‘Where does the world come from?’ are two questions that we normally treat or dispose of as ‘dumb questions’, used almost only for the rare occasions when you have no idea who the guy phoning you on the mobile is, or when you are taught by the priest on the all-too-familiar Genesis. However, in the first chapter of Sophie’s World, beautifully named The Garden of Eden, they are analyzed in such a way that serves as an eloquent start of a dazzling journey through the history of Occidental philosophy, from myths to faith, from natural philosophers to existentialists.

Without surprise, this is a book full of metaphors and imagination. The concept of everything in reality is just a copy of the perfect ‘ideas’ in an eternal world is compared to fifty different yet identical gingerbread men with a same mould. Communism is animatedly described with the author’s cunning mingling of A Christmas Carol and The Little Match Girl, with the poor match girl finally lighting up her matches to burn the forest which the rich but selfish Scrooge was currently in since he refused to help her. Alice came all the way from Wonderland to that forest too, to give Sophie two philosophical bottles with liquids, not for enlargement or shrinking of the body, but for the drinker to see things as a romanticist who believes in the cosmic spirit, or an individualist who gives credit to the variety and unique features of each individual. Such displays of creativity are abundant but never redundant in this book, helping teenage readers to grasp concepts more easily, as well as to give the readers’ mind sufficient time to rest after long, serious letters or discussions on the subject.

If a modern book which constantly stays on the bestsellers’ list has achieved so much, it is already a godsend; but Sophie’s World does more than teaching on the history of philosophy. Here and there in the book it suggests that philosophy is based largely on common sense and most importantly, wonder and curiosity. To think philosophically is something that everyone can learn to do, it says. It encourages readers to think for themselves, not just being the receiver. It is therefore little wonder that the lectures on philosophy are in letter or dialogue formats, which allow more room for individual analysis and thinking.

What’s more, even the story itself is representing a multitude of worlds and expresses existential angst. The story starts with Sophie receiving strange letters and thus began an expedition of philosophy. However, there was one little problem: she kept on receiving postcards and strange items which were cryptic hints of the existence of a girl named Hilde. It seemed that the two girls were connected in some way. As the plot unfolds, when the experimentalist Berkeley’s view of life being only in the mind of a higher being, God, was explained, the philosophy teacher suddenly claimed that both him and Sophie only existed in a person’s (Hilde’s father in fact) mind, who fooled them with strange coincidences and astounding ways of receiving postcards. However, as the readers knew, even Hilde and her father are only characters in Jostein Gaarder’s story. It forces the readers to ponder whether we ourselves are only shadows. Are we in a similar situation? Are we only imaginary lifeless brain signals in a person whose name is God? And, is he himself a shadow of an even higher being? It makes the readers reflect on reality and our mind.

It also extends to our age and the different streams of thought in the twentieth century as well. One of the most spectacular points the author mentioned was against the so-called ‘new age’ items. He said that the current of ‘new age’ thoughts and ‘religions’ is actually a reprise of the pre-Socratic beliefs in fate and myths and warned youngsters to be on guard against them. In fact, when I myself later went to a book shop and looked for a ‘new age’ shelf, I found pretty much the same phenomenon: the shelf is stuffed with books on horoscopes, tarot, feng shui, or other similar supernatural topics. This is a worrying trend. It means that many people have forgotten their cultural roots, as well as the culture’s past efforts in dispelling such beliefs. Such ‘new age’ items are distracting people with their glossy appearance and deflect people from studying legitimate philosophy. This is in fact a cultural degeneration.

One of the most interesting thing about this book is that many people read it with different views on the writer’s attitude towards Christianity. Some claimed that the writer is too positive about God and seems to be a Christian (or Catholic), which is an odd feature of a philosophical teacher. Some even said that it is good that finally someone is introducing philosophy in a way that takes care not to intimidate God-believers. I personally hold an opposite view.

I think that the writer is not supportive of Christianity at all. While it is true that he mentions the beliefs of the religion here and there, without directly condemning it, he is really undermining it. For example, he stated that it is unjust for people to name those following Christ or Allah and so on as having ‘faith’, while those believing in fate and myths as being ‘superstitious’. He compared Jesus with Socrates and said that they were similar in a way that they left no written record, and the writings about them were written only by their students, which means they might put words into their mouths and we could never truly know how the ‘historical’ Jesus or Socrates is like. As a philosophy teacher, Jostein Gaarder has distanced himself from beliefs of the philosophers he named and his own views. He did not show any bias against or for any particular object. His book is always suggesting us to think philosophically and critically for ourselves regarding different issues. At one point, the philosophy teacher said to Sophie, ‘It is essential that you have a basic knowledge of different streams of philosophy, then you can orient yourself.’

It is under this statement that the book is written and indeed, the book has done more than enough to help teenagers on their ways. Critics may claim that this book is too brief on some philosophical issues and has left too many important philosophers untouched. Yet face it; with the book over 300 pages already and in this age when students are opting for computer games but not reading, it is more important to arouse their interest than to provide for them dry, dreary and detailed reports. All in all, I believe that Sophie’s World is a rare thoughtful book aiming for youth readership in the market.