The Ending of Sophie's World

        The novel Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, begins as a plausible story. By the ending, fantasy and the supernatural have made appearances. Throughout the novel, the history of philosophy is explained in a way that is easy to understand. There are little chapters on different philosophers from antiquity to post-modern philosophy. The story of the main character and her philosophy teacher is weaved in with these little “biographies” of the philosophers. The ending to this book was not predictable in the beginning because there was not really a plot. As the story progressed and began to be supernatural, the ending was very predictable. The story ends as Sophie, the main character, and her philosophy teacher Alberto, realize they do not really exist but are merely part of a book that someone else wrote. About halfway through the book, Hilde’s   (the girl who is reading the book about Sophie and Alberto written by her father)  story is told. It becomes a story within a story within a story. The purpose of the book being written was for Hilde’s father to teach her about philosophy and inspire her as a birthday gift.

        The ending is hard to understand because it requires philosophical thought and forces the reader to think in the way that the philosophers of the book had done. In this way, the ending is clever because it requires the reader to use the open minded thinking that they have read about. The philosophy teacher in the story tells Sophie that, as a philosopher, one must never jump to conclusions and most importantly never say never. This never say never mindset is necessary for the reader because the ending is so implausible in comparison with what society knows to be true about life. The philosophy teacher also tells Sophie that philosophers must accept that they know nothing or they will never learn anything. This mindset also applies to the ending because nothing that Sophie knew was real because she really did not exist. When she accepted that nothing she knew was real, she was able to realize what was really happening. 

        The story does what is sets out to do which is provoke philosophical thought in people. With its throughly implausible ending, the story leaves the reader confused and unsatisfied but, according to the book, that is what pondering philosophy should do to people.