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How Does Candide Counter Optimism

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Voltaire’s Candide is a far-fetched humorous tale satirizing the theory of optimism as promoted by Rousseau and other philosophers of the Enlightenment age. The tale follows the adventures of Candide throughout the world where he witnesses disaster and evil. Throughout his adventures, the young man followed his tutor’s teachings believing that all is for the best (Voltaire, 1991). Voltaire uses the character Candide to counter optimism that he considered as an absurd ideology. Throughout the book, Voltaire attacks the philosophical optimism and all the systems that falsely justify the presence of disasters and evil in the world (Wootton 2000). Even though he was not a pessimist, Voltaire refused to acknowledge that the evil in the world is …show more content…

He opposes optimism by illustrating the disparities that are apparent among races. For instance, the army commandant dismisses the Paraguayans and the Negro slaves serving wine to them. The Grand Inquisitor also comments that Cunegonde’s social class will decline if an Israelite owned her.
Candide becomes aware of the hopelessness of the optimism philosophy proposed by Dr. Pangloss and decides to “cultivate their garden.” Eventually, Candide learns to attain happiness despite his misadventures. The only way to achieve contentment is to work collectively as a community. Through labor, individuals can eliminate vices, boredom, and want. To create this kind of society, the people must be just, love each other, keep from theorizing and know how to retrieve good from bad situations as Voltaire says, “’ work without speculating” (Voltaire 1991).
As a theorist of the Enlightenment period, Voltaire uses his book, Candide, to criticize the ideas expressed by his fellow philosophers about optimism. The satirical tone he employs proves to be a potent tool in bringing out the injustices, bigotry, and cruelty and helps the reader picture it as an intolerable state. Behind the laughter, Voltaire intends to express serious

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Along these lines, Candide's dissatisfaction with the universe of Optimism is, in reality, reflected in his failure with Cunegonde. Voltaire has relevance to our time period; During his lifetime, trenchant writings attacking church or government were often attributed to him whether he had written them or not.  he wrote against tyranny and religious persecution with unmatched audacity. Despite his relentless criticism. Voltaire also believed that as perfect as we try to make the world we live in be a better place there's always something destroying

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Candide is sentenced to be wiped and shot and Pangloss to be hanged. Pangloss execution was successful; however, Candide is saved by an old lady who heals his wounds. Astonishingly enough, the old woman that healed Candide takes him to see Cunégonde, the young woman he kissed and was lead to believe was murdered. Cunégonde begins talking to Candide by going into detail as to how she is alive. Her whole family was killed but she was only raped and then captured and sold as a sex salve owned by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon.

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This shows irony because Candide expected that these great religious people would help him no matter who he is, but instead Candide’s distress was completely ignored and Candide was yelled at. Further in the book, where Candide finally reunites with his love, Cunegonde tells Candide about what she have went through after she was separated from Candide. After Candide left the castle, the Bunglers raided the castle and raped women and killed the people of the castle. The leader of the Bunglers took Cunegonde as a prisoner, but after some times the Bungler leader sold Cunegonde to Don Issachar. When the Inquisitor, who is a religious leader, met Cunegonde instead of helping Cunegonde he wanted to get Cunegonde for himself.

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In the city of El Dorado the people are at peace and living with all of their needs accounted for, it is the definition of a utopia. The people are not greedy, and no one is fighting for power. The secret of the city, and the way they maintain their peace is through their isolation. The old man of El Dorado tells Candide and Camcabo, “More wise by far were the princes of their family, who remained in their native country; and they ordained, with the consent of the whole nation, that none of the inhabitants should ever be permitted to quit this little kingdom; and this has preserved our innocence and happiness.” (Voltaire 43).

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Raised in Westphalia, Candide was surrounded by greed and his life was ultimately affected by strength and wealth. The phrase “everything is for the best,” taught by Master Pangloss, clouds Candide’s judgement and makes him careless. What Master Pangloss was trying to teach Candide was that with every cause there is an effect and that it is best of all possible worlds. For example, Candide stumbled upon a utopian society called El Dorado which was literally a city of gold. What seemed like pebbles to the residents who lived there were actually gems and bits of gold to Candide.

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Darrius Jackson Professor Origill Western Civilization 11/19/2014 Voltaire's wrote Candide to show his view on how society and class, religion, warfare, and the idea of progress. Voltaire was a deist and he believed in religious equality, he wrote Candide to attack all aspects of its social structure by satirizing religion, society and social order by showing his hypocrisy. Voltaire was a prominent figure during the enlightenment era. Although he was not a typical enlightenment writer at his time because he wrote about issues including social freedom, religious inequality and civil liberty that other philosophers did not at the time. Voltaire's outspoken opinions made him very unpopular and landed him in jail but that did not stop him from

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Voltaire’s Candide takes us through the life and development of Candide, the protagonist. Throughout his adventures, he witnesses many travesties and sufferings. Like many Enlightenment philosophers, Pangloss, Candide’s tutor, is an optimist; this philosophy was adopted by many to help mask the horrors of the eightieth century. Pangloss teaches Candide that everything happens for a reason. Voltaire uses satire, irony and extreme exaggerations to poke fun at many aspects; such as optimism, religion, corruption, and social structures within Europe.

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In Candide Voltaire discusses the exploitation of the female race in the eighteenth century through the women in the novel. Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman suffer through rape and sexual exploitation regardless of wealth or political connections. These characters possess very little complexity or importance in Candide. With his characterization of Cunegonde, Paquette, and the Old Woman Voltaire satirizes gender roles and highlights the impotence of women in the 1800s. Cunegonde is the daughter of a wealthy German lord.

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Moreover, situations these forces create, and how they are beyond and within the control of Candide. Leading to Candide’s final beliefs, and how they illustrate the follies of optimistic determinism. At the beginning of Voltaire epic Candide is a naive scholar. He strongly adheres to the beliefs laid out for him by his mentor Pangloss.

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One key facet of living in the world today is the ability for people to have free will over their own lives. In Voltaire’s story “Candide,” it is clear to observe that although Candide is free to form his own decisions, he allows himself to be strongly determined by his surroundings as well as everyone who he encounters. This story proposes that Candide is trying to find a balance between submitting completely to the speculations and actions of others while also taking control of his life through blind faith. Throughout the story, Candide encounters frequent hardships along his voyage to prosperity. These obstacles include, but are not limited to becoming a bulwark, being beaten and forced to watch his beloved Pangloss having been hanged, leaving such an amazing place as Eldorado, being lied to and tricked out of diamonds by the abb`e, killing Cunegonde’s two lovers, almost being boiled alive for killing the monkey lovers, and being persuaded to be promiscuous on Cunegonde.

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The introduction: In life, there are the cheerful people (optimistic) and there the frown faced ones (pessimistic). Taking one side remains illogic in the course of life, as it is better to strike a balance between these two extremes. Candide is torn between being naïve and a kind of lamb in the herd led by an optimistic Shepard, and his famous saying’ in this best of all possible worlds’. (Voltaire, 1761, p.4). And the shocking discoveries that he makes later on his journey to meet his beloved baroness.

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When he is forced to leave this life behind him, one follows Candide’s slow, painful disillusionment as he experiences and witnesses the great injustices and hardships of the world. This text is a satire in which Voltaire satirises Leibniz’s Optimism “not only by the illogical travesty of it which Pangloss parrots throughout the story, but also by juxtaposing it with various atrocities and disasters which the story provides…” (Pearson xx). Voltaire rejects this system of thought, as Enlightenment ideologies try to use “logic and reason [to] somehow explain away the chaotic wretchedness of existence by grandly ignoring the facts” (Pearson xxi). It is in these lines that one can discern the disillusionment that Voltaire was feeling with the world after the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Pearson xix).

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This criticism is closely tied to the criticism of optimism in the story. Many religions believe that God is benevolent and has a higher purpose for the things that happen. However, Candide sees the worst in the world through his travels, showing that it is foolish to believe that a benevolent God exists. Religious irony is also used in showing the moral standard of religious officials and making them look foolish. A friar steals, a monk buys a prostitute, and a Jew buys a woman for a sex slave.

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Voltaire satirizes this philosophy by showing its absurdity through hyperbole (Magher). For example, the exaggeration of floggings, sexual assaults, hangings, corruption, and death, allow him to poke fun at the fact that it all ends up alright in the end and their life seems to have a happy ending. Even though Candide has given up on Optimism, Pangloss maintains his doctrine “while believing nothing of the kind” and Martin is convinced “that people are equally miserable wherever they are” (Thomas) Voltaire concludes Candide with a simple yet ironic realization made by Candide himself, that gardening is a busy task and it leaves no time for philosophical thinking, and that everyone is happier when they are merely working and stop thinking about the true meanings of life or the reason behind

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Living standards In The U.S, the living conditions are very stable! It’s a standard to own a car, a house and to have food every day. The standards of living in The United States is on the top 20 in the world! From the 1930s up until 1980, the average American income tripled which translated into higher living standards for the American population.

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