Connection #7

I could easily relate to a lot of what the final chapter was saying to my life. First and foremost, I love learning about the entire universe and our solar system. I am currently in astronomy class and I find it very interesting. When Albert was telling Hilde about how incomprehensibly vast the universe really is, it reminded me of how a few days ago in Astronomy, we watched a video where a couple of friends went to the desert and created the first scale model of our solar system to demonstrate how large it really is, considering how images of our solar system never depict its true size.

I also loved when Alberto mentioned on page 512, “When we look up at the sky, we are trying to find the way back to ourselves. I loved when he said this, because I find myself a lot of the time not being the person that I want to see. I think that a lot of people also feel this way, and I believe that if we came from the Big Bang, it makes so much sense on how we seem to always be unconsciously fascinated with the sky and how people are always searching for meaning. To explain what I mean and also to summarize the end of the book, I think that there generally is no real meaning to anything, because life is just what you make of it. The quote, on page 511, “Yes, we too are stardust,” explains this notion, because for me, it is comforting to know that your life only has meaning when you give it meaning, but in reality, we are nothing, or stardust, compared to the entire universe. Our own world is so small compared to all that goes on in the other galaxies, just like Sophie’s world. Sophie’s world is so miniscule and nonexistent to Albert and Hilde in comparison to their own realities, but Hilde gave them meaning because she chose to. We each have our individual lives that we are so focused on, but it’s up to us to give our lives the meaning of our choosing, that they deserve.

Reflection #7

The events leading up to the end of the book did not really add up that well, however, I did enjoy reading the last chapter because I think the content did a good job at summing the book up. Some aspects were even left to the reader to interpret, which is something that I usually like, such as how the Big Bang discussion could essentially tie in with what happened to Sophie and Alberto. Although, before this chapter, I really didn’t like when Alberto and Sophie just disappeared from the Garden Party. The mother’s response was really unusual considering her daughter had just been taken away by some strange old man she just met, while Alberto could clearly have just disappeared with Sophie earlier to escape from the Major’s control.

One inconsistency I noticed in “Counterpoint” that made the whole plot feel pretty anticlimactic, was how Hilde could easily control the her father like he had been controlling Alberto and Sophie. Before reading “The Garden Party,” I had predicted that the Major was essentially god, which is how the book had been initially portraying the Major, but in the end, it would be Sophie who got to decide whether she wanted the Major to be in control of her life by some religious terms. Obviously I was way off, although I felt that the plot was inconsistent since they had been making it seem like the Major was god or the Evil Genius. Hilde had been given an easy ability to do exactly what the Major had been doing the entire book, when the author made the Major’s ability to control Sophie and Alberto seem like a really big deal.

Connection #6

An aspect of the book that relates to my life, is the different light that god is seen under, depending on the circumstance being discussed. In the Darwin chapter, I noticed how Sophie and Alberto seemed to be disapproving of those who didn’t agree with evolution. For example, on page 418, Alberto provides Sophie with quotes of people downgrading evolution from the 1800s, and Sophie responds by exclaiming, “That was almost proof that man is related to the ostrich!” The first issue I have with this, being a prevalent issue in society, is how the novel disrespects certain views on evolution. I fully support the beliefs of evolution, however, I feel that if the book was written to provide readers with a history of philosophy, then the characters should not be biased about the material in the text. In the other earlier instances in the novel where god is most heavily discussed, we can see how the characters are accepting of the numerous theories being presented about god, like one of the more extreme views, where Kierkegaard proposed that people should take a leap of faith and just assume that god exists. The characters of Sophie and Alberto were never sharing whether they thought that this proves or disapproves god’s existence. This continues to parallel the real world, on how people tend to fall into this routine of inconsistently respecting one another’s beliefs. I say this because I am guilty of this as well. I think the overall idea to this is that more conversations should be started in general about these sometimes controversial and opposing viewpoints, so that people can further understand and respect each other’s beliefs.

Reflection #6

I particularly liked the Darwin chapter because I find Darwin’s theory really compelling. I felt that the chapter enhanced my understanding of a lot of the general ideas I already knew about Darwinism, making this chapter a more interesting read. More specifically, I think Charles Lyell had some convincing theories. I thought his idea that the really small changes in nature leading to larger differentials in the future made a lot of sense, elaborating on the fact that one of the reasons evolution seemed improbable at the time of its breakthrough was because of how young everyone thought the Earth was. I also thought it was interesting that Lyell’s thoughts seemed like they would be comparable to what Darwin was thinking, when in reality, Darwin had basically borrowed what Lyell had said and had just turned everything into a more complicated theory.

Another aspect of the Darwin chapter that I found intriguing to read was the discussion on page 419 about mutations, and how not only did “survival of the fittest” support the theories of evolution, but how a random mutation in the DNA of an animal could have resulted in a more efficient gene that would later dominate the particular species. Alberto explains to Sophie how Darwin didn’t believe that the gene for a giraffe’s neck length could have been passed down that easily, and that it must have been a mutation. I find this to be extremely captivating, because I wonder if a slight mutation in a an individual’s DNA ended up creating a long lasting benefit on him or her, and then got passed on to future generations without anyone really realizing it.