Sophie’s World
by Jostein Gaarder
Fourteen year old Sophie lived a perfectly ordinary life until one day when she found two notes in her mailbox containing these questions: Who are you? Where does the world come from? Sophie tries to find the answers to these questions, but she finds her thoughts going around in circles. She also finds a postcard addressed to “Hilde Møller Kang, c/o Sophie Amundsen” wishing Hilde a happy fifteenth birthday. Sophie was at a loss because she knew no one named Hilde Møller Kang, and couldn’t find anyone of that name in the phone book.
The next day after a disappointing day at school where she began to question the worth of what she was being taught Sophie found a big brown envelope in her mailbox. In it were three pages that described what philosophy was and compares the world to a white rabbit being pulled out of a top hat. Everyone is born on the tips of the rabbit’s hair, but as time goes on and people grow up they begin to lose the wonder of the world and they move down the rabbit’s hairs. Philosophers try to climb back up the hair to see the magician that is performing the trick. Sophie is entranced by the letter and runs to the mailbox to find another. This one talks about how grownups stop letting the world amaze them and gradually lose their wonder. When Sophie’s mother returns from work Sophie questions her about the world and finds out that the mysterious philosopher is right, and her mother has lost her wonder of the world.
Over the next couple of days Sophie reads about mythology and the natural philosophers. After a late night where Sophie writes a letter to her mysterious philosophy teacher and reads about Fate she finds a scarf under her bed that wasn’t hers. On the corner it has “Hilde” written on it.
That morning she finds a letter in her secret den in the hedge that was wet around the edges and addressed to her. It was a letter responding to the one she had sent her teacher and it was signed “Alberto Knox”. He mentioned a messenger who would deliver all her letters now to the secret den. Sophie decides to get the messenger to tell her about Alberto Knox, but when he does arrive she finds out that his messenger is a golden Labrador named Hermes. He delivered a big envelope containing the Philosophy of Athens and Socrates. Later in the day when her mother left for work Sophie find a videocassette and starts to watch it. She sees her philosophy teacher for the first time, a short middle-aged man wearing a beret; he was in the ruined city of Athens and talking straight to her. He spoke of how great the city once was, then from nowhere he watches while the ruins rose up and were as grand as they once were. There were people in Athenian garb walking around and it looked like the city had come back to life. Alberto Knox walked over to two men in the square, and said something to them in Greek. He explained to Sophie that there were Socrates and Plato; Plato turned to the camera and asked Sophie to think about some questions.
She woke up early the next morning and went out to the den to think, soon along came Hermes who gave her another envelope. She tried to follow him back into the woods but he barked so viscously at her she decided to stop, so she swat down and read about Plato. When she was done she got up and began to explore farther into the woods. She came across a small cabin in the woods that had smoke rising from the chimney, she snuck in to have a look around and became pretty sure that it was where Alberto Knox and Hermes lived. She was intrigued by two pictures on the wall; one was of a man labeled “Berkeley” and the other was of a little house on a bay with a large garden titled “Bjerkely”. Sophie also looked into a big brass mirror and was sure she saw her reflection wink at her with both eyes, but before she could figure it out she heard barking and realized that Alberto Knox was on his way home. As she dashed out the door she saw a letter with her name on it and took it before she could think about it. When Sophie got home she wrote him a letter of apology. That afternoon she got letter from Alberto saying that he didn’t really mind, but he was going to move out off the cabin in the woods and a letter on Aristotle.
Sophie finds a postcard on the ground near her house addressed to “Hilde Møller Kang, c/o Sophie Amundsen…” and dated June 15th, Sophie’s birthday and not for another month. It was Hilde’s father in the UN wishing Hilde a happy birthday just like the last one.
Sophie receives letters on Hellenism, then there is a break in the letters and Sophie was able to concentrate on her school work and able to spend time with her best friend, Joanna. The girls decide to go camping on a national holiday. After they set up camp Sophie shows Joanna the now abandoned cabin in the woods. They look around and Joanna finds a box of postcards from Lebanon and Hilde’s father, Major Albert Kang and to Hilde Møller Kang. All of them were dated in the past few months, except for the last one that was dated that day, May 16th. It said: “…Some day you will meet a girl called Sophie…I suspect she will soon begin to catch on, Hilde. As of yet she knows no more than you. She has a girlfriend called Joanna. Maybe she can be of help?” Joanna and Sophie want to get out of the cabin as soon as possible, but Sophie insists that they must bring the mirror, claiming that it was magic. She also believed that the letters came out of there.
Sophie got letters on the beginning of Christianity and Jesus; she also got another postcard from Major Albert Knag addressed to Hilde. Then she got a phone call from Alberto Knox, telling her that now they would begin to met in person, Hilde’s father was closing in and to him the next morning at eight in St. Mary’s Church. Sophie quickly arranged to stay at Joanna’s and snuck out in the morning to met Alberto at the church. He was there dressed like a monk and he told her about the philosophy of the Middle Ages.
Sophie found Hermes in her garden sniffing around and followed him across town to an old apartment building. At the top of it she found a postcard and Alberto Knox living there and dressed in Renaissance clothing. He told her all about the break away from traditional thought and the beginning of a new and wonderful era after the Middle Ages, the Renaissance. Later that week Sophie had to break down and tell her mother all that was going on because she had gotten so worried and suspicious about what Sophie was doing.
A postcard drops out of her exercise book dated the day before. And she finds another one dated June 15th on her way to Alberto’s with Hermes. This time Alberto is dressed in a powered wig, ruffled shirt with a big red cape, and tells Sophie about the ironic Baroque period.
On another trip to Alberto’s Sophie finds a note from the Major to Hilde, and Hermes, the dog says “Happy Birthday, Hilde!” Sophie, very much enraged runs to Alberto’s where he tries to calm her down and tell her about John Locke, David Hume and finally George Berkeley. Berkeley questioned the reality of the world, and maybe “We exist only in the mind of God.” This amazes Sophie and Alberto suggests that maybe they exist only in Major Albert Knag’s mind, and he is writing about them for his daughter Hilde, as a birthday present to teach her about philosophy. Sophie leaves Alberto’s house in a daze, and runs out into a storm, she meets her mother halfway home and breaks down crying.
Hilde Møller Knag wakes up on her 15th birthday to find a present on her bedside table from her dad, who is away in Lebanon. It is a book called “Sophie’s World”, and Hilde immediately starts reading, she is so taken with the boo that she forgets about school and almost ignores her mother. That evening Hilde reads about Berkeley and Sophie and Alberto’s discovery.
The next day was Sophie’s birthday, and she got through the day at school uneventfully and went straight to the cabin in the woods to meet Alberto, who told her about the French Enlightenment and Kant. That night, after an encounter with Winnie-the-Pooh and Little Red Riding Hood, Sophie had Joanna over and they began their plans for Sophie’s birthday party on midsummer’s night eve. They decide that the theme should be “A philosophical garden party”, and Alberto would be the guest of honor.
Alberto called her a few days later, saying that he too was planning something for Midsummer’s night eve, the same day the Major was arriving home. Alberto was searching for a loophole in the Major’s mind. Sophie went again to the cabin in the woods and Alberto proceeded to tell her about Romanticism, between the interruptions of Aladdin and his lamp.
Hilde was getting annoyed with her father’s way of toying with Sophie and Alberto, she was almost sure that they were real. She started to devise a plan that would make her father see how it felt lie to be toyed with in such a way.
Back at the cabin Alberto told Sophie about Hegel and Kieregaard, before Sophie had to go home. Two days before Midsummer’s Eve Alberto called up Sophie asking her to come over right away. On her way to the cabin Sophie runs into Ebenezer Scrooge and the Little Match Girl, who sets a clump of grass on fire, exclaiming that she was a communist. When Sophie arrived at the cabin Alberto began lecturing about Karl Marx, Darwin and Freud. After he was done he instructed Sophie to make sure she had the Major’s attention as she went home, so that he could concoct his plan without the major knowing. So Sophie made faces, waved her arms, and stop to talk, ride and be shrunk by an oversized goose.
The next day when Sophie was about to go shopping for last minute party things Alberto called and arranged for them to meet in a café in town. He deliberately arrived late and told Sophie about the philosophy of their own time, before they took a walk. Alberto led Sophie to a bookstore and bought her a book called “Sophie’s World”. The book was about Sophie herself, along with Joanna, her mom and Alberto.
Alberto was late for the Garden party as well, and after that things started to get out of control. Joanna and a boy disappeared into the bushes and boys started to throw chicken bones around. After Alberto had a talk with Sophie’s mother to assure her that Sophie was going to be alright, he pulled Sophie away from her tearful mother and they hid in Sophie’s secret spot just as a car smashed into an apple tree.
They ended up by the side of a sidewalk somewhere, but Sophie could get no response from anybody, they just looked right through her. Alberto explained that they had escaped from the book and that no one could see or hear them. They found a car, one that “belonged to them” that no one could see or hear and headed off toward Hilde’s house.
Major Albert Knag landed at an airport with some time to spare until his next flight. As he walked around he found letters from Hilde, asking him to buy this or that, having him paged over the loudspeaker and a note by his gate just before he got onto the plane. The Major didn’t like being ordered around like that at all, and was determined to find Hilde if she was there, but no luck. At the airport at home there were a group of kids Hilde’s age (from her class) that were holding up signs from Hilde saying things like “Welcome home, Dad!” and “Irony lives”. A chuffer awaited him and on the ride home there were signs everywhere from Hilde, like “The turkey is ready” and “I can see you, Dad!”
Sophie and Alberto arrived at Hilde’s, and saw Hilde sitting on the dock. Sophie sat down next to her and tried desperately to get Hilde to listen to her. Hilde was sure she heard something, but then her dad came home and she ran to greet him. After dinner Hilde and the Major sat on the glider and Albert told his daughter about the universe. Sophie did all she could to get them to notice her, she tried pushing the glider – which moved about an inch – and hit Hilde and her father atop the head with a wrench, only Hilde noticed. She told her dad that she knew that Sophie and Alberto where real, and that they had somehow escaped the book at the end, but Albert still thought that they were nothing but characters in a book. Sophie remembered that she would never see her family and friends again, but Alberto explained to her that they still could go back home, and that it wasn’t gone. Sophie and Alberto managed to loosen the rowboat by the dock, which Hilde and the Major noticed and they went to go retrieve it.