She has a scientific and above very empathic approach to the topic as she claims to be an introvert herself which I find fascinating and admiring as well. The story begins with an unremarkable suitcase full of books. What’s it all about I will reveal you now.
Sophie introduces herself in the story as a nerdy, outcasted teenage girl, “I always thought of myself as a free-floating one-celled amoeba, minding my own business. The other kids at school were all parts of a larger organism. . . Not particularly noticed, definitely not appreciated, just an amoeba swimming around aimlessly” (9). Sophie feels as if she does not belong where she grew up, she has always felt like she was on the outside. Her father, a drug dealer and felon, left her mother when she was first born. Because of her extreme self-esteem issues, Sophie blames herself for her father leaving. She recalls what she believes happened when she was born, “When Mom was a teenager, I started making her belly fat. And then my dad left. And then I was born too soon. And he came back to get us.
But, for the first time, her daughter stares into her eyes, and her response is astounding as well as startling, considering her age. She says, “Mommy, there's a world in your eye. Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?", and for the first time since the beginning of the piece, we experience Alice’s confidence once again (6). She realizes her self-worth, and that it is not determined by her appearance, she says, “Yes indeed, I realized, looking into the mirror. There was a world in my eye” and although she went through a good portion of her life believing that she wasn’t beautiful, or sufficient, it was all worth it because it taught her to love herself even more now (6). To end the piece, she illustrates a dream she had: it’s her old self-doubting self and another her, confident and radiating, coming together. She is once again able to speak of herself in a positive way, she states that the latter self is “beautiful, whole, and free. And she is also [her]”, which, in a way, exhibits that same attitude she had as a two-year-old (6). Twenty-seven-year-old Alice completely contradicts twelve-year-old Alice, who would “abuse [her] eye” and who did “not pray for sight” but “for beauty” (4); she now speaks of herself
Sophie’s World Essay #1 One of the most basic philosophical questions, as well as at the same time being the most complicated, in the novel Sophie’s World is the question, who are we? This question alone is what embarks Sophie, the main character in the novel, on a never ending journey of questions and through the world of philosophy. As it is shown in Sophie’s World, the concepts of philosophy have been in constant change all throughout history, philosophers contradicting one another in a constant battle to achieve greatness, and proceeding in a constant never ending cycle of philosopher contradicting philosopher. Because of this non-stop constant change in philosophy, Democritus, one of the earliest philosophers, would have a
Growing up was not as simple for sophie as it was for other children. After her mother abandoned Sophie and her father, it was only them two left in the family. Sophie was a very lonely girl and spent most of her time reading books which relieved her of her problems. Later, she found solace in daydreaming for the most part
December 14, 1924 was a bright, beautiful winter morning, the sky a vibrant blue without a cloud roaming around. The previous night, a heavy snowfall had powdered and blanketed the ground. Children all around town were enjoying playing, skipping, and laughing in the city of Paris, France. Ever since Alma was
Journal entries Fahrenheit 451 I encountered a peculiar individual on the sidewalks this evening. I can recall that “ The girl stopped and looked as if she might pull back in surprise (Page 4)”. Nervousness shook my body as this mysterious girl applied a sense of mystery to herself. She asked me a variety of questions that i firmly responded too as I soon realized that she was our new neighbor. She was an odd one, she even described herself as crazy, the young ones these days.
In between Ann Petry’s short stories “Miss Muriel” and “The New Mirror”, the narrator ages from twelve to fifteen. Besides growing older, the narrator’s life appears relatively consistent: her family continues to run the same pharmacy in a small New England town. Yet, as a result of the lessons learned in both coming-of-age stories, the narrator experiences important racial awakenings. Petry expresses this transformation through the narrator’s changing relationship towards her family, an expanding perspective on private versus public space, and a deepening understanding of racial dynamics. Ultimately, the narrator realizes how her community’s oppressiveness towards African-Americans influence her personal identity, both internally and externally.
One small act in this world, whether it is significant or not, can change the life of someone forever. Miep Gies, a woman who once went unknown to the world, once said, “But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.” (Goodreads 1). The woman who went unheard of by the world around her, turned on this light during the dark experiences of World War II. From being a small business secretary to saving the lives of people around her, Miep Gies made a name for herself, and that name is now well known by many. All it took was one simple action of kindness for the world to remember her name, and now we celebrate the actions Miep made and the lives she changed.
Galileo Galilei once said, ‘All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.’ Discovery has the concipient potential to change our perception about the world through unlearnt experiences and epiphanies. This process can be often triggered by unexpected discoveries which explores ideas such as transformation, challenging beliefs and realisation about the world. This help individuals to gain deepened knowledge about societal issues and their worlds. Both text composed by Robert Grey, ‘Meatworks’ and ‘Flames and Dangling Wires’ explore the key elements of discovery through concepts of reassessment. This is also reflected in Justin Giddings & Ryan Patrick Welsh’s short film, ‘This is normal’. These
This story is not one of exclusive pertinence, to be understood and appreciated restrictively by those who have experienced similar hardships, or who hail from the same geographical setting. I believe this story is marked by a unifying sense of universality; a testament to the relentlessness that resides at the farthest reaches of the human condition, far beneath the superficiality of everyday consciousness. The letters on this page before you are meaningless in their own right; simply symbols strung together with some phonetic sense about them. Their value is exclusively contingent upon you; on your experiences and insights, tools with which this story can take form, and manifest into a unique and intimate appeal to that individualized relentlessness
From Francesca Woodman and the Mirror Stage In Douglas Crimp’s article the Photographic Activity of Postmodernism there are several terms that have been brought up over and over again. Presence is one of them, “presence that is only through the absence that we know to be
In a way, they are all connected through Sophie's life experiences. There are forces behind all of the philosophy lessons, as well as in Sophie's life. These forces are able to influence and adjust how you view the world around you.
Having read Lolita before this one, I was in a divided mind whether to bring the book home. Not that Lolita was “bad”, no chance of that, but it exerted an impression which I would love to liken to a massive dose of LSD: lovely exasperating, trippy to the max, to a certain extent very similar to a case of migraine. Unfortunately, the black butterfly on its cover knew my dilemma and blinked with me. I brought the book, and soon envisioned myself getting stuck in the same vein of chaos of words, metaphors, excessively equivocal language and bizzare monologues once again. However, to my utmost bewilderment, Laughter turned out not very elusive as I had expected. I made hardly any endeavor to finish it all in one light read, and even had time for reflective pauses during and after reading. Wow, is it me or the tale monster really that easy to tame this time?
“Who are you? Where does the world come from?” (Gaarder 7). For Sophie Amundsen, these two questions would lead her onto a philosophy course with her teacher Alberto Knox. Throughout the course, Sophie receives mysterious cards to Hilde Møller Knag from her father who is a UN major. Sophie’s lessons in philosophy and her quest to find Hilde made Jostein Gaarder’s novel Sophie’s World. This book teaches its readers about the history of philosophy, which is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. After reading this book, my perspective has changed and I now realize the beauty in every individual thing, and have become more curious about the world surrounding me. The philosophers from the text whom I agree and appreciate the most are Locke, Kant, and Hegel.