Sophie Neveu

At first her appearance came off as rather arrogant to me. She had that confident air around her that made her seem almost snobbish to a point. It was as if she was saying to the world “Look! I’m better than you are!” And it’s mostly because she had seemed so sure of herself and her actions in the first few chapters. Sophie knew how to handle people and she definitely knew how to handle Robert Langdon. She didn’t hesitate to tell Robert Langdon what he should do and shouldn’t do. She pretty much just ordered him around when they were trapped in the Louvre and trying to escape. She had to have everything her way. She had to be the one in power. It was like she needed that dominance over other people. Right then and there I decided that she was just another brat.

But after a few chapters, I finally begin to understand her as a deeper character than I had previously thought. She wasn’t arrogant. She was just a strong woman who disliked showing her weakness to the world. She desperately tried to hide being weak in front of other people especially males that she seemed so confidant while in fact she was truly fragile. She had been so mentally disturbed by her grandfather’s action a few years back in the book that she (to me) seems to have developed a mental block against all males. She doesn’t want to trust them since she was afraid they would go and do something that she would deem as inappropriate. She was afraid of being hurt by them that she had tried to show to everyone that she was strong. She tried to put up an illusion of always being sure of her self, of always being confident. That she didn’t need any male’s help. She could do it on her own. She didn’t want to be hurt.
However, that makes her the person she is. Without being strong she isn’t Sophie Neveu. It was thanks to those traits that the book even went on like it did. And I have to say I really liked those traits in her. It made her the unique woman in the book. And she had on numerous of occasions been the leader and the one to solve the mystery which would even perplex the great Robert Langdon. She had been the one to solve find the clue hidden in “The Madonna of the Rocks”. She even figured out the combination of her grandfather’s safe box.

Also I felt that she had changed as well. In the beginning of the book, Sophie had seemed distant. She was cold to everyone and had acted in that professional manner that was polite but never friendly. She was the type of person you can talk to but would never be friends with. And that was what she portrays to everybody. However during the course of the book, she begins to be more open. She loses her “professionalism” and drops whatever façade she had put up to save her self from getting hurt. She wasn’t just the Strong Woman she was before. She had fiannly begin to open up. She starts revealing herself more to Robert Langdon and even begins to trust him as a close friend. She tells him of her past and even the events that led to her estrangement with her grandfather. A fact of detail she had never told anybody else before she proves to the readers how close to he two has become and how much Sophie truly trusts Robert. And due to that bond and whatever else that made Sophie more open she even forgives her grandfather, something she hasn’t been able to do for ten long years.

Overall, I really fell in love with her character. She was a type of person who I can look up to as an idol. She was strong. She was smart. And she is friendly as well. She wasn’t just a brat, she was like a “Princess”.

Holy Grail, First Impressions

Religion is always a touchy subject for me. I feel as though in any stance or position that I take, I will always undoubtedly offend someone- of course I don’t absolutely mean to. It’s just that religion is one of those topics where attaining perfect harmony with anybody is unfeasible. It’s like trying to sing in unison but there’s always one person 3 beats ahead. Or somebody who is just horribly off tune. However, the topic of the Holy Grail is too provoking for me to resist.

Before I had ever discovered this novel, I had only known the Holy Grail as a chalice. Nothing more, nothing less. Although the reason behind this attitude of mine towards one of the world’s most intriguing artifact was mainly because I had no real fancy for it. It was interesting but that was all. It was nothing more to me than a cup. I probably cared more about my own ice cream cup than I did for the “chalice”. I couldn’t understand the addicting power it had possessed on so many. However now I can’t help but wonder if there is any more to this myth.

The Da Vinci Code (in my perspective) points to the assumption that the Holy Grail was truly the blood line of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. And not as the cup that Jesus had drank from at the Last Supper as many would have liked to believe. Even though I have heard of these speculations before on numerous of occasions, this time there was just so much facts that I couldn’t ignore. There were too many coincidences that the idea became credible in my mind. It was plausible, likely, feasible. So why not? I couldn’t help but think: Why not? And so there the seed was lodged deep into my conscience. The idea stuck to me like flies to fly paper. But of course I had doubts. A lot of them to be exact. Nevertheless, as I dug deeper into the book, the more I came to firmly believe in the bloodline. Too many coincidences. Still...

Is it just a cup? Or is it more? Is it really Jesus’ bloodline? Or just the chalice that held his blood? So many questions rage war inside my head as I desperately try to pin together the pieces of the puzzle. But with a blindfold on and some pieces missing. It seemed like a task even more strenuous than labor. And so I spent many endless nights, with a fervent fever, my mind in hysteria for the knowledge I craved to know yet cursed to be ignorant. (I wonder do all Histologists feel this way too).The idea of a conspiracy was just so addicting, the theories like a siren’s song seducing me into its realm, constantly teasing me with soothing whispers of cures to the disease. I can’t wait but to find out more...

First Impressions

To be honest, I absolutely adore mystery and adventure novels where the main characters go on some sort of “quest” so I was initially thrilled with the prospect of The Da Vinci Code where, the main characters Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu would go on a hunt for the lost Holy Grail, rumored to be the chalice that Christ had drank from at the Last Supper, the night before his Crucifixion. Although I do tend to stay away from books that deal with religion since there always seem to be too much propaganda or what I call “religion marketing”, the idea of the quest seemed too intriguing that I felt a need to read that book to satisfied my thirsty curiosity- that coupled with the fact that I had heard a great many number of good reviews pertaining to the novel as well- I decided to go ahead and relieved myself from the parched land of inquisitiveness. Upon examining the first few chapters, I immediately fell into the hypnotic spell that seemed to be cast on any and all who choose to open the volume. I was immersed in such a well crafted world, that I could almost feel the cold Paris air, hear the sirens in the distant, and I was entranced to say the least. The details are above average, not really amazingly spectacular but it was vivid and well developed enough for me to be possibly enthralled. And I must say that Dan Brown has a wonderful ability to paint a scene into his reader’s mind so ingeniously that it pulls the reader from their reality into the one Brown had expertly sculpted. But what kept me most entertained was my own inquisitive nature. There were infinitely too many questions I had to have the answers to that it was all but impossible to put the book down. My mind was always repeating the same excuse: “Just one more page”. I always felt pressed that I didn’t know solution and that kept me awake for so long beneath the covers of my bed, too angered at my own ignorance. Even though I had only gotten through the first few chapters, it was an excitingly thrilling experience that had me beseeching into the late hours of midnight for more