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Voltaire's Candide As A Dystopian Novel

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Candide for many years had been categorized under more than one group. This novel fist published in the enlightenment age which sometimes called the age of reason. This age refers to the period of intellectual movements and the time of advocating mind as a tool to identify reality. To avoid the censorship and authorities, the book was hand out each in Amsterdam, Paris and Geneva. Additionally, these kinds of books could be classified as travelling writings because of its events take place in more than one place. Philosophers also argued that the importance of Candide lays in its philosophical message which is ‘Optimism’. Voltaire who wrote this novel was not believed of the philosophy of Optimism and strongly attacked the supporters …show more content…

If we keep going on reading, we will find many inhuman scenes exemplified in the novel. We found killing, violence, intolerance and sufferings in life.Candide’s misfortune made him passed through many natural disasters. Candide passed by a stream of earthquakes, kidnappings, piracy and deaths. Candide saw the dystopian features were implicated in several situations throughout his adventures such as violation directed to women and tendency to racism. Candide’s misfortune starts when the bulgur army had attacked the castle. Hence he was going to encounter the whole world and start to make his own fortune. His beloved Cunegonde as well suffered a lot either from violence guided to her or her suffers from misfortune. Every step he took he discovered a horrible problem that affect his outlook for the world. So Candide and Cunegonde blamed Pangloss a lot for his meaningless philosophy about the optimism. Pangloss committed to the view that the good always choose the best for the world and God could not do nothing wrong. He also witnessed the story of the old women and how she had been attacked as well when she was

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The old man clearly states that the way to maintain peace and happiness is to stay isolated from the world that is filled with dark-hearted men. He also says that the man who can do that is wise. This was the seed that was planted into Candide’s heart that to survive the world he lived in he would need to preserve his happiness through

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1. In Chapter 22, Candide and Martin encounter a scholar at the dinner hosted by the Marchioness of Parolignac. What is Voltaire up to in designing this conversation?

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The novel Candide, written by Voltaire, portrays the adventures and experiences of the main character named Candide. Being a very honest man, a character like Candide can be easily swayed and convinced to do and believe anything. From carelessness to greed, the reader can clearly understand that Voltaire ridicules many decisions and situations that occur in the novel. One of many themes Voltaire mocks in the novel would be how greed can result from wealth. What Voltaire is ultimately conveying to the reader is that money cannot buy happiness.

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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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Voltaire is well known for his suggestive satirical work, especially his masterpiece Candide. Candide is a timeless piece still relevant today, that was written to warn the public about the consequences of radical optimism (Online-Literature 1). The main character, Candide, is a naïve and trusting young man who is banished from his home. Despite his life being filled with a series of bizarre disasters, Candide holds fast to his optimism – which serves as an example to readers. Voltaire emphasizes the dangers of radical optimism by incorporating tone, themes and utilizing satire in Candide.

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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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The portrayal of gender norms in Candide is indicative of how women were treated at the time of its

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Candide is satirizing the idea that we live in “the best of all possible worlds.” (Means, n.d.). Voltaire had a message to deliver behind creating the characterization of Cunegonde, Paquette and the Old woman in his book Candide. He wanted to review that females at that time were

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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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Through the protagonist Candide one can deduce Voltaire’s negative outlook on human nature. He believes every word that Pangloss says, in the same way that people of the day believed everything that the Church would say. At the beginning of the text he blindly worships Optimism and by the end of it he worships the Turk’s philosophy of labour. “I also know… that we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 99). However it does appear that Candide has gained more knowledge and wisdom and has therefore made a more informed decision.

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A gun, like almost every object, has the power to kill. Yet the gun is merely the instrument of death and destruction, only human beings are capable of pulling the trigger. Michael Moore is an inspirational documentarian that created Bowling for Columbine (2002) a contentious documentary that comments on the violence surrounding school shootings and gun laws that devastated America. Documentaries do not simply record the truth in a purely neutral, objectively disinterest manner” (Nowlan R 2010), but provide inspiration for social change by creating world-wide awareness of the gun laws in America and the way the American media creates fear in its people, however, his biased editing and use of film techniques did not reveal the ‘truth’, which is what you are expecting when you sit down to watch a documentary right?

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Voltaire’s Candide is a story of a young man’s adventure and how his experiences change his philosophy on life. Although Candide’s adventures begin with a rather positive confidence that he lives in “the best of all possible worlds” his attitude is quickly transformed when he realizes the world is in fact full of evil. In

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