Rebel Hilde and Romanticism

Sophie’s World Reaction:

I’m just so confused on what to think and what to believe while reading this book. I’m so inclined to believe that Sophie and Alberto and everyone in the book are just characters and every single thing they say is completely and undoubtedly what Knag intentionally writes for them to say. Having said so, I in turn think everything Alberto and Sophie said towards Hilde directly was known by Knag. Knag knew what he was typing, even if he could have been typing while very drowsy. Alberto said that he thought Knag was falling asleep while writing a part in the book and so they took the opportunity to warn Hilde and try to turn her against her father. I don’t think that’s possible though. For characters that were written in a book and created by an author to start having a mind of their own to me is impossible. We might envision Sophie and Alberto as people and we may think we know how they look and sound and live but in reality they are made of ink and paper, not flesh and bone. Thoughts turned into ink and paper can’t talk or walk or think, never mind rebel against their author. I see this correlating strongly with how I don’t think it’s possible for us to also be someone’s creation or a hologram in a video game etc. I want to say that Knag knew how his daughter would think and knew how she would react and wanted her to believe Sophie and Alberto exits somewhere in Hilde’s world.

Real World Connection:

I absolutely loved reading about the Romantics and their passions. I felt as if the definition of myself was written in those pages. The characteristics that Romantics held, the love for twilight, the night, bygone eras, their emphasis on love, the supernatural, and fairytales are all things I love so much I feel like they make up every bit of who I am. I was surprised to read of how they loved ancient things and the paranormal and supernatural because not a lot of people like them now. I’ve always been the outsider from my friends with my love for ancient religions and cultures and history, as well as ghost and vamps and folklore. I even read the passage that told about the interest Romantics held, to a few who are close to me and they agreed whole heartedly it was as if it were a definition of myself. I can see today how much Romantic concepts have prevailed and continued, especially in adolescent teen girls. Even though Twilight can barely be called a good supernatural book (in my opinion), it held many qualities that Romantics would love that many girls did. Aside from Twilight, I can see how people went crazy for Harry Potter and the hunger games and Divergent, all movies I would consider Romantic. However, even in people my age, I see the passion people have or had for romanticism dwindling. I hope the passion revives itself because I would hate to live in a world that no longer yearned with deep emotions as the Romantics did.