The School For Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani, is this fictional story about two best friends. One by the name of Sophie and the other Agatha, in this small village called Gavaldon. In this village laid a mythical (or known to be) story of The School For Good and Evil. Sophie dreamt of going to The School For Good and Evil (S.G.E.), meanwhile Agatha thought of it being as real as Cinderella or Snow White. People around them had a pretty… interesting perspective about them. They believed that Agatha is a witch since she lives near a cemetery, she wears black, and is weird (in addition to that her mom is a ‘witch’). Agatha knows she is weird, but she doesn’t really mind what others have to say about her. Though, at times she did want to be ‘normal.’
Agatha said nothing for a while. Then she touched Sophie’s hand. “Why do you want to leave here so badly? That you’d believe stories that aren’t true?”
Sophie met Agatha’s big sincere eyes. For the first time, she let in the tides of doubt.
“Because I can’t live here,” Sophie said, voice catching. “I can’t live an ordinary life.”
“Funny,” said Agatha. “That’s why I like you.”
Sophie smiled. “Because you can’t either?”
“Because you make me feel ordinary,” Agatha said. “And that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.” (Soman Chainani 16-18)
This scene in the book truly describes and shows us that the two girls really just wanted to feel whole. Like a completed puzzle and not feel as if there was a piece missing. If they weren’t enough. Little did they know they already did. When they were with each other. In my opinion, Sophie in the beginning of the story treats Agatha like a charity case just so she can somehow manage to get into the School For Good. At times I found Sophie being the most ignorant person on this planet and that really made me feel like slapping her. Other times I could feel some what empathy for her and could actually see where she was coming from. Many would disagree with me when I say she wasn’t all bad. She was just dedicated and wanted to reach her goal. Like any one of us. She just wanted to reach it no matter what, even if the cost was big. She really wanted her mother to be right about her being special. She lost her mother, the only person who truly got her, so she tried to patch it up in a way by trying to find The School For Good and Evil and have her happily ever after. At least that’s the way I saw it. In the end she found herself once more and that helped me humanize her better.
The moment Agatha was introduced I found her very relatable. I had a quite similar background to her. Being weird and an outcast. The quote above just really tied the knot. Everyone in the story differentiated the word ‘good’ and the word ‘evil.’ So much so that it became their reality. She didn’t believe that everyone’s perspective was right. She doesn’t believe that anyone is truly good or truly evil. The moment that she put that in my head, the moment my point of view began to change. Sometimes we tend to get distracted by everything and everyone around us that we start believing the act and lose sight of where we are or who we are. Agatha was backstabbed, used, and even felt disincluded at times along with being dumbfounded because of Sophie. Yet she still remained loyal to her. That makes me really look up to her character.