Sophie Chapter XXXIII--The Garden Party

I. HILDE KNAG AND SOPHIE: CAN THE MAJOR BE DISTRACTED?--Summary, p. 471-2, and recall the following flashbacks. This passage is essential:

II.WHAT ARE THE REALITIES?

A. ALBERTO KNOX--a philosophy teacher in a novel called SOPHIE'S WORLD

C. HILDE KNAG--the daughter of ALBERTO KNAG for whom SOPHIE'S WORLD is written

D. ALBERT KNAG--the Major who writes SOPHIE'S WORLD and who is in Lebanon, in a "completely different" reality.

III. NOTE THAT THE TIME OF THE PARTY IS ‘MIDSUMMER’ EVE’, so recall Shakespeare:

A. WHAT PLAY DID HE WRITE THAT CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING AS ACT V OPENS:

Theseus: More strange than true. I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear?

HOW WOULD A THESEUS-LIKE PERSPECTIVE AFFECT THE GARDEN PARTY, A PHILOSOPHICAL GARDEN PARTY? AS THE NOVEL CONCLUDES, WHAT IS NECESSARY TO BELIEVE? IF THIS IS YOUR INVITATION TO THE PARTY, WOULD YOU GO?

V. SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL’S INTENT, p. 479 ff.

A. WE ARE A FRAME IN THE FORM OF A NOVEL FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION OF THE MAJOR’ DAUGHTER

B. NOTE THAT THE GUESTS RESPOND THE WAY THE CHARACTERS ON THE DECK DO TO MARLOW IN HEART OF DARKNESS

VII. THE IDEA HAS BEEN TO DEVELOP A PHILOSOPHICAL FRAME OF MIND WHICH IS TO QUESTION EVERYTHING INCLUDING OUR REALITY

A. EXISTENTIALISM HAS GONE FULL CIRCLE BACK TO SOCRATES WHOSE DEMONSTRATION THAT THE IDEAL STATE CANNOT EXIST IS DESIGNED TO....

B. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN AND WHY MUST SOPHIE BE DRIVEN OUT--The Garden of Eden is gone.

C. OUT OF THE CAVE?--IS THE PARTY A DRAMATIZATION OF THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN WHICH WE....?

VIII. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE FINANCIAL ADVISOR?

IX. BUT WHERE ARE SOPHIE AND ALBERTO NOW THAT THE COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY HAS ENDED?

1-The philosophical dynamics of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness should be examined.

2-As the novel concludes, there is much that could be retrospectively reviewed.

The Book of Job
The Book of Genesis
The Apology of Socrates
The Republic of Plato
The Plays of Shakespeare
The empiricists and the rationalists
The existentialists--Kierkegaard
The philosophers of synthesis--Aquinas, Kant
The system builders--Hegel, Marx

3-Select a writer that would makes the most sense to you to review...Why did you select____?


	FINALLY, SOPHIE HAD BEEN GIVEN A BOOK ABOUT HERSELF. WAS IT THE SAME BOOK HILDE HAD? HOW COULD ONE FIND A BOOK ABOUT ONESELF IN A BOOK ABOUT ONESELF? WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SOPHIE BEGAN TO READ THAT BOOK? DOES THIS ANALOGY MAKE SENSE? GOD : BOOK (BIBLE / UNIVERSE) :: MAJOR : SOPHIE / HILDE NOTES: -WE ARE THE CHARACTERS IN A LARGE BOOK. -WE FIND INFORMATION ON US IN THE BIBLE AND IN THE UNIVERSE AT LARGE FROM ADAM AND EVEN TO DNA -ARE WE MEANT TO EVOLVE? WHAT DID PHILOSOPHERS FROM SOCRATES TO SARTRE CONTRIBUTE? SEE ALSO THE ROMANTIC POETS--KEATS' LETTERS FOR EXAMPLE SPEAK OF OUR POTENTIALS TO EVOLVE WHY ARE DARWIN AND FREUD AND JUNG SO IMPORTANT?


	Page-99--We learn of the existence of the Major's Cabin Page 320--The Major defines his omniscience Page 343--Sophie writes invitations to the "Philosophical Garden Party." Page 356--Sophie is called upon to rebel against the omniscience of her 'creator." Page 446 / 449--How aware is the Major of his dreams? page 450--Sophie climbs the tree and is rescued by Morten the Goose from Lebanon Page 453 ff.--Existentialism demands that we...?