Sophie's World
She carries on a correspondence with her anonymous teacher who directs her
through an entire history of western philosophy and also asks her to deliver
postcards and messages to Hilde, a girl she has never met.
The reader should come away from the book with more questions than answers and
this sense of wonder will allow him to embark on a new and philosophical way
of looking at life.
What is real? Is substance real? Are events real--or is it only our memory
and our vision and imagination that makes things real to our mind? What is
the human mind? What is the human soul? Is it recycled into the Great
Universal Soul or are we reincarnated wholly?
Since no one knows the answers to any of these questions, it is left up to
each of us to conjecture how we will live our own lives in conjunction with
the God, the earth, society, and ourselves. We must envision where we are
going, and fill it with substance and events that will create great memories.
For that is all we have, the Now, and memories and imagination.
In Sophie's World, Sophie Amundsen finds an anonymous note in her mailbox that
asks: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?"