Sophie's World Essay

“I am Sophie Amundsen,” Sophie tells herself the first time she receives a letter from the philosopher. Before that day that’s who she could confidently tell anyone that asked. She was Sophie, just an ordinary fourteen year old girl. But as we later learn Sophie is only a product of Albert Knag’s imagination. Sophie is unaware of this fact and believes she has free will but later with the help of the philosophy course she begins to understand how little free will she really has.

Knowledge plays a huge factor in Sophie’s understanding of her world and herself. Everything she has ever known had been fed to her by Albert Knag. Without the aid of knowledge she may never have stumbled upon the truth and tried to get freedom.

She could have easily lived her life oblivious to what was really going on and it probably wouldn’t have made a difference, but knowledge helped her recognize that there was more to her world then she had once believed. This is similar to the book 1984, by George Orwell. Winston, the main character, could have easily accepted his life the way it was and that there was nothing he could do to change it, which he probably would have if he hadn’t worked at the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth was responsible for making sure that anything unfavorable toward the government was erased. By working there Winston gained knowledge that he might never have otherwise and because of that he knows that there is a possibility of a better world.

Knowledge is also a major theme in another book, The Giver by Lois Lowry. The main character, Jonas, becomes the Receiver of Memory. Because of his job he gets to see and experience things that everyone else around him does not. This knowledge is what fuels his desire for freedom. Sophie, Winston and Jonas have that in common, they all have knowledge that the other characters in their stories lack. With this knowledge they decide that it is no longer possible for them to go back to their old life. Knowledge is what guides them in their search for freedom.

As Francis Bacon said, “knowledge is power.” Knowledge gave Sophie control over her situation and power to overcome it. Most people could live the rest of their lives blissfully unaware that all their actions are controlled by a higher being but Sophie is different. She and Alberto use the knowledge they’ve gained from philosophy to turn the tables on Albert, to the point where they know about his and Hilde’s reality, but Sophie’s and Alberto’s is now hidden. Gaarder illustrates, using Sophie’s World, the value of knowledge. Philosophy is nothing without knowledge and without knowledge a human being is no different from any other specie in the world. 

Heraclitus

According Heraclitus, the material substance (the water in the river) is constantly changing. This applies to humans too. Even if you are a human being and will always be a human being you are never the same person you were the day before. Something is always changing whether it's physically or mentally.  Even the things that appear not to be changing actually are. According to the atom theory, even though the atoms themselves are unchanged they change in other ways as they shed and gain valence electrons. Even though you cannot see an atom with the naked eye you know a change has occurred due to the fact that a type of reaction has occurred, for example, a piece of wood becoming ash. Change is an inevitable part of life.

“Wisest is she who knows she does not know.”

 "All mortals are born at the very tip of the rabbit's fine hairs, where they are in position to wonder at the impossibility of the trick. But as they grow older they work themselves deeper into the fur," (pg 18). That alone, I feel sums up Gaarder's definition of people. Those who have decided that the world should only be one way and refuse to believe any other possibilities and those who continue to ponder over philosophical issues. Sophie would fall into both categorize because though she isn't as narrow minded as the ones at the roots she too is beginning her downward climb. "Watch out! You are on thin ice," Gaarder warns her.
Though, I agree with Gaarder I think that it would be hard for anyone to be completely at the tip. Once you've figured something out,  like Copernicus figured out that the sun is at the center of the universe and not the earth, he had of settled into this belief and therefore was beginning to climb down the rabbit's hair.  Once he had figured out the heliocentric theory he was satisfied with it and didn't question there being another possibility.If all of a sudden, another planet were to take the sun's place at the center I'm sure Copernicus would be quite confused. This is similar to Gaarder's example of the mother freaking out over the fact that her husband had just floated out of his seat. If she hadn't been accustomed to the fact that people do not float she wouldn't have been so shocked. Just like most philosophers after coming up with a theory they believe to be right that becomes their truth. Because Copernicus had questioned the geocentric theory, unlike most adults who wouldn't have given much thought to it since that is what they were always taught, he isn't at the bottom of the fur but once he had found his theory and decided it to be right he was knocked off the tip.