Category: Candide

Although political satires do not withstand the test of time, and are quickly forgotten whenever there is change in political regime, the Candide story has defied the odd of time and continues to puzzle scholars and leaders. This is a story written down by Voltaire whose main motive of writing was to capture and ridicule the political inclinations of the time, illustrating the political and philosophical controversies of the eighteenth century.

This story brings out clearly the misery and political upheavals of the time, and thus to the general literature lover, this is book that demonstrates that we live in a much better and well-organized world. The contemporary modern world is probably the best possible world, taking into account as represented in the book, misery, strife, chaos, and betrayal that are witnessed.

The author, in writing the story of Candide, Voltaire was inspired by a number of actual historical events. For example the Seven Years War and the earthquake that hit the city of Lisbon in 1755. Candide is thus a story that has significant historical truth and importance (Ayer, 1986).

As a young man, Candide lives in a castle where he falls in love with the Barons daughter, Lady Cunegonde. When Cunegonde finds that Pangloss is romantically involved with Paquette, she is inspired to also get romantically involved with Candide. In so doing, Candide is thrown out of the castle and is unfortunately taken hostage to be recruited into military service by the Bulgers. From there the story of Candide unfolds as he travels from one place to the other.

He reunites with Pangloss, his tutor, who has now become a beggar and tells Candide how the castle was attacked, and everyone taken into slavery including his lover Cunegonde. In one of his travels he is arrested and as he is about to be executed, an earthquake emerges which avails him the chance to escape. Luckily, he comes across his lover. He, his lover and his tutor decide to escape Europe into the Americas.

In the South America the turmoil is the same as in Europe. The Europeans in the area oppress the local people, displacing them and physically abusing them. The Europeans are hated as they degrade the local inhabitants, terming them as barbaric and uncivilized. They subjugate the local people, as these Europeans possess superior weapons. In one of his outing, Candide comes across women being chased by monkeys.

Not knowing these women were lovers with the monkeys, he shoots the two monkeys. This is a sign of how Europeans degraded the people of the Americas. Having killed a Jesuit and worn his robes, Candide and Cacambo are captured by the native inhabitants of the said area. These local inhabitants are referred to as Oreillons. Although some Europeans had been harsh on the local people, these local people do not treat their captives harshly. In fact, they release them upon being convinced it was a case of mistaken identity.

This is similar to El Dorado. Candide and Cacambo are welcomed in this place and treated nicely by the king of the area. However, Candide does not wish to stay as he wishes to look for his lover who had gone missing. The king generously assists Candide; who is also given provisions and money to aid him in his quest. However, not all people are friendly towards visitors. This is illustrated as the two are occasionally raided on their way.

The European administrators who have caused havoc in Europe with their conservative and harsh rules have continued with this trend even in the Americas. After his sheep are stolen in Surinam, Candide find himself in trouble as the administrator heavily fines him after being accused for petulance. The administrator is of a Dutch origin (Aldridge, 1975).

Women in this story are portrayed as sexual objects and dont play a major role in the events of the society like politics. Critics of the topic have voiced the way the story is portrayed. The protagonists of the story are perceived as relying heavily on the optimism of Leibniz yet they are in pathetic state.

They are not realistic or pragmatic something that could not have been possible. This is because most of the time, they are involved in life threatening events yet they never see it that way. They are also involved in the turmoil as they kill other people, but do not consider themselves as villains.

The story is also criticized of being too fictitious for a historical story. The main character, Candide, escapes earthquake that destroys those who are around him. This is not possible as earthquakes leave devastating effects, with survival being next to impossible especially in the worst hard hit areas. Candide is able to travel the world yet he had no expertise or money to do so (Mason, 1992).

The story of Candide is of historical importance in that it depicts events that actually took place during the eighteenth century. The author uses the character to show the European colonialism and brutality in the Americas. The brutality is met to the local natives who were, in the contrary, peaceful and friendly people.

This story also shows the history of the various European nations, from Britain to Portugal to the Dutch, among many others. It also shows the story of man who is relentless in finding his love, thus a good peace of literature even to the general reader.

Reference List

Aldridge, A. (1975). Voltaire and the Century of Light. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Ayer, A.J. (1986). Voltaire. New York: Random House

Mason, H (1992). Candide: Optimism Demolished. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Put in print in 1759, Candide has been considered as one of the most Voltaires masterpiece. In Candide, Voltaire sharply criticized the corruptible power of the nobility, futile speculations of philosophy, religious hypocrisy, cruelty and the folly of optimism. Even though Candide in many instances have been considered as representative manuscript of enlightenment, the book satirizes many philosophies of the enlightenment and makes it obvious that enlightenment was far distance from huge movement it purports to be.

The book is a reflection of the Voltaires enduring dislike of the powerful religious regimes and the superciliousness of the French nobility. In contrast, Candide leveled Voltaires criticism against the enlightenment philosophical movement. Candid attacked the optimistic school of thought assertion that rational thinking was capable of ending the tribulations committed by humans.

Voltaire examined in depth the folly of optimism and his attack can be seen in Pangloss optimistic philosophy. Pangloss granted teaching in the metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He splendidly attested that there cannot perhaps be a consequence with no cause and that in this probably best world the castle that belonged to the baron was the most stunning amongst every castle and of all baronesses, his wife was ideally the best.

Pangloss alleged that, Most things might not appear beyond what they currently look like given that all things became into being to manifestly serve the preeminent end. In fact, we have spectacles owing to the fact that noses were created to support the spectacles (Voltaire, 8).

Pangloss philosophy as quoted is one of the most important targets of Voltaires sardonic poke. Pangloss and his student Candide believed that individuals subsist in the best of every probable world (Voltaire, 8). However, the appalling life they were going through was in total contrast to the belief.

In fact, their belief was similar to the beliefs of most famous philosophers during Voltaires epoch. Basically, Leibniz affirmed that given that the caring Lord made the universe out of imagination, the universe ought to be best possible. The human perception under such systems is that evils exist because people do not understand the underlying forces which control the world. Thus, they are not aware that evils exist for the larger betterment.

In the excerpt, Voltaire (8) did not merely disparage the ensuing philosophical sanguinity but equally the philosophical eccentricity of Enlightenment. Many philosophers of enlightenment such as Leibniz emphasized more on the interactions of causal-effect.

The spectacle and breeches argument by Pangloss clearly shows a ridiculous incapacity in distinguishing causal-effect. According to Voltaire (8) assertions, the almighty Lord had no intentions of creating noses to suit spectacles but He planned for the reverse. Basically, Voltaire had the intentions of clarifying eminent defects witnessed in the philosophy of enlightenment.

It is apparent in Candide that uphill struggles serve as the supreme therapy for any kind of boredom. Nevertheless, just as Pangloss pointed out in the novel, the cure brings to mind the days of mankind in the Edens Garden (Voltaire, 83), where man was the controller of everything.

It similarly emerged that the characters providence were ideally controlled in their respective petite plots, and this has not been amicably realized until this moment (Voltaire, 86). Indeed, their lives in the mercy of circumstances have now been literally replaced. They are now reaping what they had sowed. Surprisingly, the fictional argument in opposition to optimism can be given a happy ending and the reader might thus be left wondering whether Pangloss was right in claiming to be living in the probably best worlds.

The allegations and the arguments against it are however confined by the way of life the characters have found out. In the concluding phrase, Candide asserted that there was no ample room in gardening which would permit rational speculation and this implied that human beings are bound to be fruitful and glad as a consequence.

Works Cited

Voltaire. Candide. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/candide_librivox

Put in print in 1759, Candide has been considered as one of the most Voltaires masterpiece. In Candide, Voltaire sharply criticized the corruptible power of the nobility, futile speculations of philosophy, religious hypocrisy, cruelty and the folly of optimism. Even though Candide in many instances have been considered as representative manuscript of enlightenment, the book satirizes many philosophies of the enlightenment and makes it obvious that enlightenment was far distance from huge movement it purports to be.

The book is a reflection of the Voltaires enduring dislike of the powerful religious regimes and the superciliousness of the French nobility. In contrast, Candide leveled Voltaires criticism against the enlightenment philosophical movement. Candid attacked the optimistic school of thought assertion that rational thinking was capable of ending the tribulations committed by humans.

Voltaire examined in depth the folly of optimism and his attack can be seen in Pangloss optimistic philosophy. Pangloss granted teaching in the metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He splendidly attested that there cannot perhaps be a consequence with no cause and that in this probably best world the castle that belonged to the baron was the most stunning amongst every castle and of all baronesses, his wife was ideally the best.

Pangloss alleged that, Most things might not appear beyond what they currently look like given that all things became into being to manifestly serve the preeminent end. In fact, we have spectacles owing to the fact that noses were created to support the spectacles (Voltaire, 8).

Pangloss philosophy as quoted is one of the most important targets of Voltaires sardonic poke. Pangloss and his student Candide believed that individuals subsist in the best of every probable world (Voltaire, 8). However, the appalling life they were going through was in total contrast to the belief.

In fact, their belief was similar to the beliefs of most famous philosophers during Voltaires epoch. Basically, Leibniz affirmed that given that the caring Lord made the universe out of imagination, the universe ought to be best possible. The human perception under such systems is that evils exist because people do not understand the underlying forces which control the world. Thus, they are not aware that evils exist for the larger betterment.

In the excerpt, Voltaire (8) did not merely disparage the ensuing philosophical sanguinity but equally the philosophical eccentricity of Enlightenment. Many philosophers of enlightenment such as Leibniz emphasized more on the interactions of causal-effect.

The spectacle and breeches argument by Pangloss clearly shows a ridiculous incapacity in distinguishing causal-effect. According to Voltaire (8) assertions, the almighty Lord had no intentions of creating noses to suit spectacles but He planned for the reverse. Basically, Voltaire had the intentions of clarifying eminent defects witnessed in the philosophy of enlightenment.

It is apparent in Candide that uphill struggles serve as the supreme therapy for any kind of boredom. Nevertheless, just as Pangloss pointed out in the novel, the cure brings to mind the days of mankind in the Edens Garden (Voltaire, 83), where man was the controller of everything.

It similarly emerged that the characters providence were ideally controlled in their respective petite plots, and this has not been amicably realized until this moment (Voltaire, 86). Indeed, their lives in the mercy of circumstances have now been literally replaced. They are now reaping what they had sowed. Surprisingly, the fictional argument in opposition to optimism can be given a happy ending and the reader might thus be left wondering whether Pangloss was right in claiming to be living in the probably best worlds.

The allegations and the arguments against it are however confined by the way of life the characters have found out. In the concluding phrase, Candide asserted that there was no ample room in gardening which would permit rational speculation and this implied that human beings are bound to be fruitful and glad as a consequence.

Works Cited

Voltaire. Candide. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/candide_librivox

Candide is the ill-conceived nephew of a German nobleman. He experiences childhood in the noble’s manor under the tutelage of the researcher Pangloss, who instructs him that this world is ‘the most ideal all things considered.’ Candide goes gaga for the nobleman’s young little girl, Cunégonde. The aristocrat discovers the two kissing and ousts Candide from his home. All alone just because, Candide is before long recruited into the military of the Bulgars. He meanders from camp for a concise walk, and is fiercely flagellated as a miscreant. Subsequent to seeing a horrendous fight, he figures out how to escape and goes to Holland.

In Holland, a benevolent Anabaptist named James takes Candide in. Candide keeps running into a Pangloss. Pangloss clarifies that he has contracted syphilis and that Cunégonde and her family have all been severely killed by the Bulgar armed force. In any case, he keeps up his idealistic viewpoint. James takes Pangloss in also. The three travel to Lisbon together, however before they show up their ship keeps running into a tempest and Jacques is suffocated. Candide and Pangloss land in Lisbon to think that its annihilated by a tremor and under the influence of the Inquisition. Pangloss is soon hanged as an apostate, and Candide is flagellated for tuning in with endorsement to Pangloss’ way of thinking. After his beating, an elderly person dresses Candide’s injuries and afterward, to his bewilderment, takes him to Cunégonde. Cunégonde clarifies that however the Bulgars murdered the remainder of her family, she was simply assaulted and after that caught by a skipper, who offered her to a Jew named Don Isaachar. At present, she is a slave together possessed by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon. Every one of Cunégonde’s two proprietors land thusly as she and Candide are talking, and Candide slaughters them both. Scared, Candide, the elderly person, and Cunégonde escape and board a ship destined for South America. During their adventure, the elderly person relates her very own story. She was brought into the world the Pope’s girl however has endured a reiteration of hardships that incorporate assault, oppression, and barbarianism.

Candide and Cunégonde plan to wed, however when they land in Buenos Aires, the senator, Don Fernando, proposes to Cunégonde. Thinking about her own budgetary welfare, she acknowledges. Specialists searching for the killer of the Grand Inquisitor touch base from Portugal in quest for Candide. Alongside a recently procured valet named Cacambo, Candide escapes to an area constrained by Jesuits who are rebelling against the Spanish government. Subsequent to requesting a group of people with a Jesuit authority, Candide finds that the officer is Cunégonde’s sibling, the nobleman, who additionally figured out how to escape from the Bulgars. Candide reports that he intends to wed Cunégonde, however the nobleman demands that his sister will never wed an ordinary person. Rankled, Candide runs the noble through with his sword. He and Cacambo escape into the wild, where they barely abstain from being eaten by a local clan called the Biglugs.

Subsequent to going for quite a long time, Candide and Cacambo wind up in the place that is known for Eldorado, where gold and gems litter the avenues. This idealistic nation has progressed logical information, no religious clash, no court framework, and places no an incentive on its ample gold and gems. Yet, Candide aches to come back to Cunégonde, and following a month in Eldorado he and Cacambo withdraw with endless significant gems stacked onto quick pack sheep. When they arrive at the domain of Surinam, Candide sends Cacambo to Buenos Aires with directions to utilize some portion of the fortune to buy Cunégonde from Don Fernando and after that to meet him in Venice. A deceitful shipper named Vanderdendur takes quite a bit of Candide’s fortune, hosing his idealism to some degree. Baffled, Candide sails off to France with a uniquely picked friend, an unrepentantly skeptical researcher named Martin. In transit there, he recuperates some portion of his fortune when a Spanish chief sinks Vanderdendur’s ship. Candide accepts this as confirmation that there is equity on the planet, however Martin staunchly opposes this idea.

In Paris, Candide and Martin blend with the social tip top. Candide’s fortune draws in various holders on, a few of whom prevail with regards to filching gems from him. Candide and Martin continue to Venice, where, regrettably, Cunégonde and Cacambo are mysteriously gone. In any case, they do experience other brilliant people there, including Paquette, the servant turned-prostitute who gave Pangloss syphilis, and Count Pococurante, a well off Venetian who is pitifully exhausted with the social fortunes that encompass him. In the long run, Cacambo, presently a captive of a dismissed Turkish ruler, surfaces. He clarifies that Cunégonde is in Constantinople, having herself been subjugated alongside the elderly person. Martin, Cacambo, and Candide withdraw for Turkey, where Candide buys Cacambo’s opportunity.

Candide finds Pangloss and the noble in a Turkish bunch of convicts. Both have really endure their clear passings and, in the wake of enduring different incidents, touched base in Turkey. Regardless of everything, Pangloss stays a hopeful person. A thrilled Candide buys their opportunity, and he and his developing entourage proceed to discover Cunégonde and the elderly person. Cunégonde has become revolting since Candide last observed her, yet he buys her opportunity in any case. He likewise purchases the elderly person’s opportunity and buys a ranch outside of Constantinople. He keeps his longstanding guarantee to wed Cunégonde, yet simply in the wake of being compelled to send the nobleman, who still can’t withstand his sister wedding an ordinary citizen, back to the group of convicts. Candide, Cunégonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, and the elderly person subside into an agreeable life on the homestead however before long end up becoming exhausted and contentious. At long last, Candide experiences a rancher who carries on with a straightforward life, buckles down, and dodges bad habit and relaxation. Motivated, Candide and his companions take to developing a nursery vigorously. All their time and vitality goes into the work, and none is left over for philosophical hypothesis. Finally everybody is satisfied and cheerful.

Topics

The Folly of Optimism

Pangloss and his understudy Candide keep up that ‘everything is for the best in this most ideal all things considered.’ This thought is a reductively streamlined adaptation of the methods of reasoning of various Enlightenment masterminds, most quite Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. To these masterminds, the presence of any malevolence on the planet would need to be an indication that God is either not so much good or not almighty, and the possibility of a blemished God is unreasonable. These scholars underestimated that God exists, and reasoned that since God must be flawless, the world he made must be immaculate moreover. As indicated by these rationalists, individuals see blemishes on the planet simply because they don’t comprehend God’s amazing arrangement. Since Voltaire doesn’t acknowledge that an ideal God (or any God) needs to exist, he can bear to taunt the possibility that the world must be totally great, and he stacks coldblooded parody on this thought all through the novel. The positive thinkers, Pangloss and Candide, endure and witness a wide assortment of abhorrences—floggings, assaults, burglaries, uncalled for executions, sickness, a tremor, double-crossings, and pulverizing boredom. These revulsions don’t serve any obvious more prominent great, however direct just toward the brutality and indiscretion of humankind and the impassion of the characteristic world. Pangloss battles to discover defense for the horrible things on the planet, however his contentions are basically ludicrous, as, when he asserts that syphilis should have been transmitted from the Americas to Europe with the goal that Europeans could appreciate New World delights, for example, chocolate. Progressively clever and experienced characters, for example, the elderly person, Martin, and Cacambo, have all arrived at skeptical decisions about mankind and the world. By the novel’s end, even Pangloss is compelled to concede that he doesn’t ‘accept an expression of’ his own past idealistic ends.

The Uselessness of Philosophical Speculation

One of the most glaring blemishes of Pangloss’ positive thinking is that it depends on dynamic philosophical contention as opposed to true confirm. In the confused universe of the novel, philosophical theory over and again demonstrates to be futile and even dangerous. On numerous occasions, it keeps characters from making sensible appraisals of their general surroundings and from making positive move to change unfriendly circumstances. Pangloss is the character most vulnerable to this kind of imprudence. While Jacques suffocates, Pangloss prevents Candide from sparing him ‘by demonstrating that the straight of Lisbon had been framed explicitly for this Anabaptist to suffocate in.’ While Candide lies under rubble after the Lisbon tremor, Pangloss disregards his solicitations for oil and wine and rather battles to demonstrate the reasons for the seismic tremor. At the novel’s decision, Candide rejects Pangloss’ ways of thinking for an ethic of hard, functional work. With no time or relaxation for inert theory, he and different characters discover the bliss that has so since quite a while ago escaped them. This judgment against reasoning that infests Candide is all the all the more amazing and sensational given Voltaire’s status as a regarded rationalist of the Enlightenment.

The Hypocrisy of Religion

Voltaire ridicules sorted out religion by methods for a progression of degenerate, fraudulent religious pioneers who show up all through the novel. The peruser experiences the little girl of a Pope, a man who as a Catholic cleric ought to have been abstinent; a firm stance Catholic Inquisitor who deceptively keeps a special lady; and a Franciscan minister who works as a gem criminal, in spite of the pledge of destitution taken by individuals from the Franciscan request. At long last, Voltaire presents a Jesuit colonel with stamped gay inclinations. Religious pioneers in the novel likewise do harsh crusades of religious abuse against the individuals who can’t help contradicting them on even the littlest of philosophical issues. For instance, the Inquisition aggrieves Pangloss for communicating his thoughts, and Candide for only tuning in to them. Despite the fact that Voltaire gives these various instances of pietism and corruption in religious pioneers, he doesn’t denounce the regular religious adherent. For instance, Jacques, an individual from an extreme Protestant faction called the Anabaptists, is seemingly the most liberal and accommodating character in the novel.

The Corrupting Power of Money

At the point when Candide procures a fortune in Eldorado, it looks as though the most noticeably awful of his issues may be finished. Capture and substantial damage are never again dangers, since he can influence out of generally circumstances. However, in the event that anything, Candide is progressively despondent as a well off man. The experience of watching his cash stream away under the control of deceitful traders and authorities tests his idealism such that no measure of flagellating could. Truth be told, Candide’s positive thinking appears to hit an unequaled low after Vanderdendur swindles him; it is now that he makes the doubter Martin his voyaging partner. Candide’s cash always draws in false companions. Check Pococurante’s cash drives him to such world-fatigued weariness that he can’t value incredible workmanship. The money blessing that Candide gives Brother Giroflée and Paquette drives them rapidly to ‘the last phases of hopelessness.’ As horrendous as the persecution and destitution that plague poor people and frail might be, plainly cash—and the influence that goes with it—makes at any rate the same number of issues as it illuminates.

Candide, a novel written by French Philosopher Voltaire, takes place in Europe throughout the 1800’s. Women in the 1750’s did not have many privileges and were taken advantage by the men. Voltaire portrays this through the very limited female characters of Cunegonde, Paquette and the Old Woman. These women all coming from different origins, still suffer from the same hate, cruelty, and sexual abuse that women went through in the 18th century. As the book follows Candide through his journey to find love, he realizes the hardships that the women face.

In the beginning off the story Voltaire introduces the audience to Cunegonde daughter of a German baron and her mother’s chambermaid, Paquette. This is just the beginning where we can see how Voltaire expresses the differences between the men and the women. When describing the two female characters he uses only physical features to do so. The two women do not get described as being brave, hardworking, resilient females instead he used “plump, appetizing and extremely beautiful” to describe Cunegonde, and pretty brunette as Paquette. By Voltaire using only these ways to characterize the very few females throughout the novel, he is showing how unimportant they were in that time. They were seen to men only as beautiful, helpless little prizes that they could claim. We especially see this as the novel goes on. After Candide is kicked out of the Barons castle for having a sexual encounter with Cunegonde, he later comes in contact with a woman who is referred to only as “the old woman”. The daughter of Pope Urban and Princess of Palestrina, who was brought up in great wealth. She begins to tell Candide her story, at the age of 14 she set sail to mourn over the death of her fiancé, and her ship got attacked. The men raped all the women and sailed to Morocco to sell them as salves. She saw her mother and other women getting fought over by all of the men. She then was awoken to a man attempting to rape her. As her story continues, she was sold for slavery many times and lastly ended up in the hands of a Muslim military commander, who planned to kill her and other women for food. This is just one of the females in the book who suffered physical and sexual abuse. When Candide finally reached Cunegonde, he finds out that the soldiers attacked the attacked and killed her whole family. Cunegonde was found being raped by a soldier and was then captured by a Bulgar Captain. There she spent her time as his mistress’s and was then sold off to two men who then shared throughout the week. Throughout the whole novel we see that the women are looked at as nothing more than a prize for the men to play around with. Regardless of the wealth or background of the women’s families, they were all treated disrespectfully by men.

Throughout this novel it is noticeable that mainly all of the characters that are introduced are men, specifically military men or men of great wealth. These men in this novel live a more gracious but jealous and selfish lifestyle. Throughout the book there is lots of violence and killing men of other men, mainly for women. All the men want is to have not one but many women throughout their lives. We first see this in the beginning of the novel when Pangloss, is having an affair with the main Paquette. Later it is found out that the Old Woman had a fiancé who was then killed by his mistress. The novel is a sequence of events that all relate back to women. The men get along by bonding over the slavery and sexual abuse of these women. They sell them from one to another and strip the women of what they have. However, the men who do not come from wealth or authority experience life a bit different.

The lifestyle that the men who were characterized as having power or wealth in this novel differed from the men who did not have this. Candide is a prime example of this, when being kicked out of the baron castle he is found half dead by two men. These men then convince him to join the army where he experiences much abuse. The men give him an ultimatum of either being executed or run through two line of men who will be attacking him with weapons. He was left nearly butchered after that experience. Since Candide was a man who did not want to engage in war, and had nothing else left, he was taken advantage of and physically abused.

Throughout this Novel we see the different experiences that the men and women in the 18th century Europe went through. The women were treated as nothing more than a toy for the men to play around with and then sell to another man. They underwent, physical, mental and sexual abuse throughout their lives. They also experienced slavery where they were taken advantage of being mistresses for many men. Women in 18th century Europe were considered to be of no importance to the community. The men of wealth and power experienced a life not too short of what would be considered luxury in that time. For the men like Candide, who did not enjoy the acts of killing and abusing women and other men, he was stuck being the one abused. Although he did not go through the brutal acts that the women did, he still did suffer from abuse.

Back in the days the female population in France wasn’t treated equally as the male population and there were a lot of inequalities which disadvantaged women in front the mans. In the book Candide, wrote by Voltaire, during the whole story women are getting treated like objects and have no rights. The book shows Voltaire’s point of view towards the situation at that time and many people think that Voltaire was trying with this book to criticize the society and make people understand why it was wrong to treat women like this.

First of all, the reader can notice that the book describes how women in the 18th century played a really small role and had very few rights in society. During the whole book there are only very few female characters. The only main female characters who interact with Candide are “the old lady” and “Cunegonde”. Voltaire describes women with only weak and degrading adjectives which makes them look like objects. During the entire story women never get the right to do something to defend themselves and are treated like animals. And even when something good finally happens to Cunegonde she experiences rape and other horrific events. One example is when she escaped the Bulgarian man and still got raped and abused a lot.

Secondly, the novel describes women in a special way. In the opening chapters of the book, Voltaire insinuates the lack of importance of women. He describes Cunegonde as “appetizing” which would basically mean that he compares her to a piece of beef. He doesn’t say that she’s beautiful as a person instead he describes her body to make the reader understand society’s view of women as purely physical rather than an accumulation of her traits as person such as intelligence and personality.

Cunégonde is a name that comes from the Latin and the Latin word is a degrading term to describe a woman. Voltaire’s description of women focuses on the physical appearance of women to describe them as a human so basically it means that the mental part of a women didn’t matter at that time. The fact that he uses a degrading name for one of his main characters is a way to tell the reader that she is just a sexual object to satisfy the wants of the male population.

At one moment in the story another female character appears and she’s describes as old and not attractive but the only name Voltaire gives to her is “the old lady”.

Voltaire describes a lot of crimes committed by male characters during the whole story. But all of these crimes are described as insignificant and they are almost normal for everyone else in the story. Cunegonde gets described at the end of the story and it says that she got raped several times and got hit, abused, etc… which in the 21st century would be something horrible and everyone would take it extremely seriously. In the novel the rape of women isn’t describe as horrible and even worse it is described as natural.

Candide has the ideology that everything happens for the best so he doesn’t even really care about the rape of anyone because he thinks it had to happen. Which brings it back to Voltaire that describes the objectification of women as a normal thing.

Even though Voltaire doesn’t give much attention to women, he kind of gives the impression that they survive to everything even though they went through horrible crimes. But as he describes them as survivors he details the suffering entailed to become one. One example is when the Bulgar attacks the baron’s castle and Cunégonde gets raped several times until she dies. And Voltaire actually doesn’t say that she dies but readers just think she’s dead because of the horrible way this crime is described… But later in the story Cunégonde comes back and the reader understands she survived.

During the whole story when Cunégonde finds a way to get out of a difficult situation it’s always linked to how she looks like. She takes advantage of her physical appearance and gets secured by trying to attract important man . But during the story the reader understands that the fact of seducing people was the only way for girls to survive and find their way out of those situations and that’s probably why Voltaire qualify those crimes as “normal” because they didn’t really have the choice.

During the story, Voltaire shows that women are just objects and that they’re not really important but more than that they don’t get the chance to control their life and are basically undergoing men’s decisions.

Cunegonde, the old women and the baron all come from really good families with a lot of money and were really happy but because of a series of divers event that happened in their life they all end up being abused in different ways. Voltaire insist on women’s position in society by their confrontation with men’s and how they are treated and most important how they handle it and find a way to get out of that situation.

Although the whole story criticizes women and treats them like animals he tries to cover to story with a positive way of thinking. Despite the misfortune of those characters, Voltaire sees women’s future in society as improving. Voltaire describes the female characters from desirable in the beginning of the story to ugly and not desirable at all. But by the end they all acquire jobs and obligations with responsibilities etc… For example Cunegonde, Volatiare describes her as becoming ugly day after day but end up being a successful pastry chef. Maybe this would represent Voltaire’s ideology and perception of women’s role in society. Which would probably reflect to his ideal position of women in society, women who aren’t linked to their appearance all the time but more to their ability of doing things and intelligence.

In Conclusion, Voltaire wrote a book which through his story describes women in the 18th century. The book seems really hard on women and some scenes are pretty violent. Voltaire uses this novel to criticize society at that time and tries to show how ridiculous it was. By describing crimes as normal and under qualifying women in his novel Voltaire tries to make people understand his vision of the society and how it should be. At the beginning of the book the reader might think that Voltaire must not be feminist at all and that he treats women like he describes it in the story but by the end of the novel the reader understands that Voltaire is in fact a feminist that defends women’s right.

The theme of slavery arises many times throughout the stories Gulliver’s Travels and Candide. In these two stories, slavery is a reoccurring topic in which the slaves are unknowingly naive about their role as a slave and how some characters are optimistic on their views of slavery. Both differing in how slavery ties them together, however, still relating to the same theme.

In Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift, the main character Gulliver travels to many faraway lands in which he comes across the land of the Houyhynmn’s, inhabited by intelligent horse people and their servants, the Yahoo’s. Similar to Gulliver, the Yahoo’s share his looks, seeming to be of the same species. Although their looks are the same, there is are big differences in the intellectual aspects of the Yahoo’s. The Houyhynmn’s take Gulliver in, but unknowingly Gulliver is indeed a slave to his new-found friends, alongside the Yahoo’s. In the process of learning their ways Gulliver begins to worship them and ultimately starts to despise the Yahoo’s and the English people. He begins to believe they are better than the English people and like what they think of themselves, a superior species, or race. However, blinded by his perfect view of the Houyhynmn’s, he fails to realize that they are in fact, vile. Keeping up with the idea that they are superior to the Yahoo’s, this makes it easy for everyone, including Gulliver, to look upon the Yahoo’s as their “servants” or slaves. Disregarding all human rights, it also makes the act of genocide easier to come to terms with. In relation to the real world, the theme of slavery in Gulliver’s Travels, has various examples.

Much like the idea of racial supremacy in the Houyhynmn’s, the Nazi’s used similar means to control Jews and many others during the holocaust. Forced labor and overall, slavery in holocaust camps played a big part in the mistreatment of the Jews. Nazi labor camps worked prisoners to death and subjected them to labor. In Gulliver’s world, the Houyhnmn’s failed to keep up with the breeding of donkeys therefore, started to herd the savages in their land to do pull heavy loads and do basic tasks. Much like the Jews, Yahoo’s were treated like animals, violating their human rights. The act of genocide playing a parallel part in our world and theirs, is done to rid the earth of a race or species they look down upon.

In Candide, written by Voltaire, the topic of slavery occurs some times throughout the story. Both Candide and Pangloss’ philosophy seems to follow the belief that good and evil play a part in the greater good. Overall, balancing each other out so, it must make evil inevitable and likewise, acceptable. As Candide comes across a young slave, sold by his mother, he proceeds to tell him how she believed it was an honor to serve the white man. Did his mother really believe this, or does she use this to excuse her actions? While her optimism does shine through with her apparent beliefs, it was in fact, not the reality for this young slave. Candide, ready to dispose himself of his profound philosophical views, decides to remain true to his original beliefs. If Candide, Pangloss’ and the slave’s mother are all morally correct in their view to slavery as their view to optimism, then they are all accepting the fact that the terrible life this slave forcibly lived for the greater good.

Much like Gulliver’s Travels, the idea of slavery seems to be accepted in Candide. Optimism plays a big part in keeping the world the way it is, maintaining the greater good. However, Gulliver is okay with the idea of enslaving the Yahoo’s because he despises them, seen as a disgusting and horrific creature, it makes it okay for this to happen. In both stories, the acceptance of violating one’s rights is important. Readers can see the naive outlook Gulliver has on the Houyhnmn’s and their similar traits to Nazi’s and even as far as slave masters. He turns a blind eye and is brainwashed in his own thinking of the supremacy of these horses, he allows for the violation of human rights in the mistreatment and idea of genocide against the Yahoo’s and even himself. In Candide, slavery is brought up, while not a focus how it is in Gulliver’s Travels, it still resonates a dark feeling within Candide. So much so, he considers abandoning his philosophical beliefs. After reading the two stories the reader can see how different the characters views are towards slavery. One, oblivious to what is happening in front of him and the others believing in reasons why it’s happening.

The satire Candide, a slightly humorous, overly optimistic story about the journey of a German man, was written by Voltaire, a renowned philosopher and author of literature who subtly critiques society and government. Candide was published in January of 1759 and translated by William F. Flemming. The second most important part of this text, the introduction, was written by Philip Littell. This mocking illustration provides a platform where people can find error and flaw within a society in a way that allows them to experience a sense of amusement throughout the process. As an overarching theme when studying world history, the concept of nationalism, a sense of pride for one’s country, is studied in careful detail. The book of Candide would pair nicely with the study of history across the globe because it offers two perspectives regarding a single topic. As a useful depiction of two opposing societal views, Voltaire poses his own view; a criticism of society, through the character Candide who demonstrates a different ideal. These two viewpoints show the presence of bias and prejudice between two men of different origins. Though one fictional and one historical, the theme of nationalism is evident within their beliefs, both of which connect to a greater lesson, the idea that a person’s upbringing often contributes to how they view the world and see others.

As a way to share his own criticism and discontent of society, Voltaire created Candide. In order to express his views on over optimism, bias and prejudice as a result of nationalism, and religious intolerance, he uses certain humor and irony to critique social and political issues. As a way to inform, entertain, and persuade readers, the book was intended for those who were seeking change and enlightenment; the audience during the age of enlightenment saw reason as a way to promote freedom and equality. Knowing this, Voltaire became famous for his satire, writing it as a way to liberate society from prejudice, governmental influence, and religious bigotry; his intended message was to illustrate the idea that narrow-minded upbringing leads to such ideals:

It is thus that he fulfilled the role of philosopher and that his philosophy met the needs of his times, times characterized by a break with seventeenth-century dogmatism and an intensification of the critique of the political and religious spheres aiming to bring forth a morality on the human scale, centered on the values of tolerance and respect for others.

The message being displayed here, is that Voltaire wrote Candide to appeal to current issues, with the intent of inspiring humanity to treat others equally. After being arrested for writing the poem La Henriade in 1717 where he criticized the government, he went to prison in Bastille for almost a year. Even after being released from prison, he continued to share his ill feelings about the government and society as a whole. In a biography on his life, it is said that, “He dearly wished to have access to the noble classes (which accounts for his name change), while at the same time he despised the inequality inherent in the privilege of noble birth,” thus demonstrating his desire for change regarding inequality overall. Voltaire intended to use inequalities like this to make the readers critically analyze each theme in the book.

When starting off the book, the reader sees Candide being taught philosophical lessons by his mentor, Pangloss. Pangloss’ morals wear on to Candide throughout the novel, especially the idea of the ‘best of all possible worlds’, the core topic the story returns to after each event. The best of all possible worlds is the idea that everything in our world is created perfectly by god. What this means is, anything and everything was created for a reason. To elaborate further, any small inconvenience, every object, every life event, is the premise of yet another event to come, all of which happen for one reason or another, all planned in advance by a god of Voltaire’s understanding. This theory, believed to be a fact by Pangloss, is debated by Candide continuously throughout each and every chapter of the book. Throughout his continued debate, the theme of overoptimism comes to fruition. Overoptimism is the excessive belief that the world we live in is the best of all other potential universes. To summarize, this theme is so important because Pangloss taught Candide to live his life based upon this principle. Therefore, as he continues to ask himself the question, ‘is this the best of all possible worlds?’ it is obvious that Voltaire brings this moment/idea up again and again to solidify the theme and foreshadow the end of the novel, which is Candide’s confirmation that this world is, indeed, the best of all possible worlds. However, because this is a satire, a depiction of Voltaire’s criticism, he is actually truly showing that there are so many flaws in the world due to prejudice, religious intolerance, and bias decision making as a result of poor upbringing. Candide was in love with Pangloss’ sister, Cunegonde. Pangloss was against the idea and shunned him for such disrespect to love a friend’s sister. After great misfortune in westphalia Candide flees to later be encountered by the burglars, where he gets recruited to their army. He attempts to flee causing punishment of the Gauntlet, an event meant to torture the one being chased until death. Luckily the King of Burglars pardons him, allowing him to continue his journey. Candide meets multiple companions along the way to what now seemed to be a goal of reaching the new world. He meets an old lady with only one butt cheek, an anabaptist who later is killed after saving a sailor, and Cacambo, Candide’s loyal servant. Pangloss seems to die being hanged while Candide whipped for insulting an inquisitor, who the readers find out took claim to Cunegonde with a Jew. As a way to demonstrate his hated for organized religion, various sets of beliefs regarding how the world was made, life after death, and one’s conception of god(s) or lack thereof, Voltaire creates defective characters who commit various crimes as a way to show the imperfections and flaws in each of the religious groups found in the book. The following three character examples further confirm this “author’s purpose.” Voltaire includes the Friar who violates his vows to the Franciscan faith by being a thief, a Jew who claimed and enslaved Cunegonde, making her perform sexual acts, and lastly, a Catholic monk that hires a prostitute in venice. Voltaire clearly creates these characters to illustrate his ideas against organized religion. Candide was ashamed by the actions of these characters but did not connect their actions to a sense of betrayal towards their religion; he merely hated Jews without a reason. It is quite ironic that Candide found Jews to be inferior to Christians when later on, he says ‘Reverend Father, all the quarterings in the world signify nothing; I rescued your sister from the arms of a Jew and of an Inquisitor; she has great obligations to me, she wishes to marry me; Master Pangloss always told me that all men are equal, and certainly I will marry her’ but this contradicts the idea that all men are created equal, since he called the jew inferior. This brings back the idea that his philosophy that was taught to him from youth goes back to your upbringing gives bias and prejudice, even through that optimism.

Upon first reading Candide, one’s initial reaction might be rather confused due to the unfamiliar dialect and informal language only commonly known to those living during this time period. Throughout the second reading, a sense of deeper understanding is acquired. The themes of the novel come to light after analyzing the events in greater detail; overoptimism, nationalism, bias, and prejudice, all of which are a result of one’s upbringing. During the second runthrough, the reader is able to look back and immediately recognize that this idea is demonstrated on the second page of the book through pangloss’ teachings to Candide. It is clear that a second read is necessary to recognize this very important theme right from the very beginning. Pangloss tells Candide,

Observe that noses were made to wear spectacles; and so we have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches. Stones were formed to be quarried and to build castles; and My Lord has a very noble castle; the greatest Baron in the province should have the best house; and as pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all year round; consequently, those who have asserted all is well talk nonsense; they ought to have said that all is for the best.

Overoptimism is expressed here through the idea that various human like features were created by god to serve a purpose for certain objects, thus making it seem as if god created these features knowing that humans would invent objects. One would think that god invented features first, and man later made objects to serve the needs of such features. However, the opposite idea is depicted to show that humans were created perfectly by god, hence the above saying “the best of all possible worlds.”

Voltaire proved his purpose 300 years ago, and today the same themes can be applied, but through different messages. With that said, the most interesting element of Candide is its satirical nature itself coupled with Voltaire’s decision to push his beliefs onto society through the journey of an overly optimistic man, one who was traveling the globe in an attempt to seek a great life. On the other hand, Voltaire utilizes this character’s journey to subtly point out flaws in society, thus proving the major differences between Voltaire and Candide; an extremely intriguing element when looking at the text through an analytical lens. On the contrary, when looking at the text 300 years in the future, one may only find this text to be worthwhile if the reader particularly enjoys having to pick apart a text repeatedly to gain a decent understanding.

Candide may have had a large impact on the readers of his time period. However, as a literary work selected to enhance a students’ knowledge on world history, it is clearly not the best option to do so. This book would be better received in a literary study of satire and common novel themes. While the historical connection is relevant due to the setting and time period, the novel looks more into fiction rather than reality. The opportunity to study a satire enhances a scholar’s overall literary knowledge as it requires students to understand criticism of other views and perspectives through sarcasm and comedy. It is highly probable that students would not recommend this book to one another due to its unappealing language and lack of direct themes and messages. Looking into events in the book, the only historically accurate occurrence was the lisbon earthquake, which seemed to cause an inconvenience in the life of the character and did not disclose any deeper meaning regarding the devastation that the earthquake truly caused. Therefore, one’s perception of events in the novel would not be enhanced nor altered.

Bibliography

1. Charles, Sébastien. ‘Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet de (1694–1778).’ In Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed., edited by Donald M. Borchert, 708-714. Vol. 9. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints in Context (accessed January 12, 2019).
2. http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3446802100/OVIC?u=mapl68679&sid=OVIC&xid=3f0770f0.
3. Lewis, Avril S. 2010. “Voltaire.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition, January, 1–10. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331CSLF16300140000524&site=lrc-live.
4. Voltaire. Candide. New York: https://www.shmoop.com/Candide/Candide-character-timeline.html

Voltaire’s work portrays a profound admiration for social and political English models. As a young man, he met an exiled Tory statesman in 1722, Viscount Bolingbroke who represented a form of cultural pre-eminence that thrilled him. This encounter and Voltaire’s desire to make a name for himself propelled him to his work that advanced English literature in France. By the 1750s, Voltaire’s youthful enthusiasm waned giving way to a more critical approach of English literature. His response to English fiction, such as the works of Henry Fielding, rejects English literature as an unworthy art form. However, Voltaire felt the attraction of English fiction that inspired his final works. La Place’s translation of Fielding’s novel, A History of Tom Jones, shows striking contrasts to Voltaire’s Candide. The narrative, words choices, imagery and turn of phrases in the translation mirror those of Voltaire’s Candice eliciting a parody like adaptation. Candide is Voltaire’s most remarkable masterpiece and has notable similarities and distinctions in the film adaptation of Tom Jones in terms of both characters and thematic concepts.

Candide’s first chapters make explicit reference to Tom Jones. The audience can decipher that the inspiration of the characters: Candide, Cunegonde, and Pangloss comes from La Place’s characters: Tom Jones, Sophia Western, and the philosopher Square. Voltaire aims to reverse what he feels as Fielding’s primary purpose by creating the openly sexual Cunegonde, which is ironic since it undermines Candide’s symbolic quest of love from her. Tom’s life is adventurous; his encounter with a troop of soldiers on their way to fight rebels in Scotland reflects Candide’s early life. Candice gets expelled from his hometown, recruits for and joins the Bulgar army, then travels to Holland afterward. Tom’s eagerness for the Hanoverian cause against the Scotch insurgents finds its partner in Candide’s drive to serve the Kings of Spain and Portugal in their war against Jesuits.

The film and the novel have a shared narrative formula. Candide mirrors Fielding’s story of a benevolent, but weak and naïve orphan raised by a nobleman. In both narrations, sexual awakening of the protagonists leads to their cruel eviction from their childhood homes. As young adults, the protagonists traverse the land in search of female lovers. Tom exposes himself to evil and suffering thus familiarizing himself with the brutality and hypocrisy of the world. Both Tom and Candide predictably reach a level of maturity and objectivity when reunited with their darlings. Tom marries the charming Sophia whose name signifies wisdom, while Candide consents to marry Cunegonde despite his initial doubts. At the end of the story, Cunegonde becomes hopelessly ugly to the disappointment of Candide. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the narrative of these stories is similar, albeit with slight deviations.

Both Fielding’s and Voltaire’s novels follow an Aristotelian tripartite narrative design. Tom Jones has 18 books divided into six units: for the country, road, and city. Similarly, Candide has 30 chapters that constitute three allegorical guides. Chapters 1-10 are about the optimistic Pangloss, Chapters 11-20 are about the skeptical Cacambo, and the novel ends with the pessimistic Martin in the final Chapters 21-30. Each of these illustrative guides portrays a specific philosophical outlook, and each links to a certain geographical region. Voltaire’s borrowings in the initial chapters are easy to recognize. Set in the area of Westphalia, the audience speculates whether Voltaire’s choice was an inspiration by Fielding’s “the western division of this kingdom.” Voltaire knew Fielding on a personal level to the extent of making acquaintances with his relatives. Fielding molded the character Sophia Western after his wife. Looking at Cunegonde’s role, it partly mirrors that of Sophia. While Candide has different settings and characters, one cannot help but notice the similarities in the plot settings given Voltaire’s close relationship to Fielding.

Both stories have a tale within a tale. Tom and Partridge sojourn to find a group of soldiers in their quest to go to Scotland. They embark on a cold, bleak journey on foot. Peter’s thoughts of his love, Sophia initially keep him warm while Partridge complains about the cold weather. Romantic yearnings and wishes continue to preoccupy Tom while they both climb a steep hill. To Partridge’s joy, he spots a far-off light from a cottage where they go to seek shelter. Here, they meet the Man of the Hill who gives them a place by the fire. His is a story of how he lost his principles at college and eventually cast aside by family because of addiction to gambling and alcohol. The woman he loves abandons him and finally endures the pain of betrayal from his best friend.

On the other hand, the Old Woman in Candide is a different story but shares a thematic structure to the Man of the Hill. The Old Woman is a narration of how the engagement of an attractive princess to a handsome prince falls apart. The princess finds herself a victim of rape, war and, finally old age. Both tales are about young, good-looking, and fortunate individuals who undergo extreme disappointment through suffering and rejection. Abandoned by their loved ones, the Old Woman and Man of the Hill contemplate on the unusual theme of suicide. Tom challenges the Man of the Hill objecting that he still trusts in Sophia’s love, who in turn reminds him of how he used to have faith in such illusions. The tale within a tale in both stories is vividly similar as a way to show that Voltaire learned from Fielding’s work.

The protagonists’ melancholy is evident in both Candide and Tom Jones. The often-cheerful Candide arrives in Venice only to find that his love, Cunegonde, is not there to receive him. Despite this disappointment, Candide refrains from making merry in a city famous for pleasure. Conversely, Tom dresses up for the masked ball, only to find out that he mistakenly presumed that Sophia wanted to meet him at the ball. Both protagonists are eager to reunite with their beloved to their dismay.

The theme of society and class recurs in both accounts. Voltaire depicts hereditary power as corrupting and ultimately meaningless. Leading families own slaves and servants. Power is temporary, and even though the Baron clings to his family status, he works in a chain gang. Voltaire vividly portrays this temporary nature when Candide encounters six dethroned kings in the span of one night. The main characters’ fortunes change as the story develops. Tom contends that some individuals are naturally superior to others, and authority comes with birth. He lives with different British classes: the poor Seagrim family residing on Squire Allworthy’s land, and the wealthy Lord Fellamar who has numerous servants. Fielding’s work reveals the good and bad sides of the characters, whether high up or lower on the social ladder.

Sex is rampant in Candide and Voltaire never mentions it positively while Tom Jones is as raunchy as one can get. Sexual exploitation is prevalent in Candide, where Voltaire crushes the sexual expectations of women. Candide is aware of countless incidents of sexual abuse in his country and is startled to learn of the multiple assaults that his love interest, Cunegonde, goes through affecting her beauty and innocence. Tom lies with Molly Seagrim getting her pregnant, and they have an unwelcome shotgun wedding. However, marriage does not limit Tom as his love of sex lands him into trouble especially when he discovers that he may have inadvertently committed incest with his long-lost mother. After this close brush with incest, Tom decides to abandon his old ways and marries Sophia to live happily ever after. The recurrence of this theme shows the authors’ motive to emphasize the manipulative nature of sex.

One cannot help but notice the stark contrasts while reading Voltaire’s Candide and watching the film Tom Jones. Voltaire’s work echoes that of Fielding in a chronological structure. While the characters and narrations are different, Candide contains signs of influence from Tom Jones. Tom Jones came out first, and one can decipher that Voltaire made use of a pre-existing text to adapt and create his novel. The thematic concepts of love, morality, society and class, family, philosophical viewpoints, suffering, and betrayal are evident in both stories. The authors build their characters and themes around romance resulting in great, educative pieces of writing.

Both Voltaire’s satiric novel Candide and Frederick Douglass’s autobiographical Narrative shows the life of two men. Each young man experiences injustices in the course of his development. Candide faces his struggles by seeking material gain. Douglass faces his by discovering and applying his inner strength to find reliable sources to aid him in his journey. The result of Candide’s journey through life is unsatisfactory and unfulfilling while Douglass achieves self-actualization and continues to help others by fighting to right injustices. In his quest to become a free man Douglass is self -reliant, resourceful and focused while Candide in his quest to marry his love Cunegonde is naïve, greedy, and selfish.

The strong traits of Douglass’s character allow for a successful and fulfilling life while the weak traits of Candide’s character lead to disappointment. Both Candide and Douglass lived during a time when it was hard to seek freedom. Because of this, each one of them developed differently over time and also lived their lives with different purposes. We know that Candide spent most of his days seeking lost love, while Fredericks main focus was seeking freedom from the bondage of slavery. This does not mean that one’s life is more meaningful than the next, just shows that each man’s development led them different places in life. Each one of them achieved exactly what they wanted. Each narrative came from two different types of genre of literature. One fiction and the other non-fiction, but they both developed statements in regard to societal issues. In Candide, satire is used throughout the story, which is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society, by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. This technique, presented a critique of the hypocrisy of the Enlightenment Age. On the contrary, Douglass’s work presents the slavery era through an autobiography.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass writes about what he went through as a slave and what it took to gain freedom. The way Frederick Douglass describes the brutality of the slave owners made the book difficult to read, but overall the book was very fascinating and enlightening. Growing up, students rarely learn the full extent to how bad slavery is. Many high school textbooks say nothing about the amount of assault and savagery slaves are put through. Frederick Douglass puts into perspective just how horrible conditions were for him and the slaves he encountered. In the first chapter, he talks about how cruel his first slave owner was and how badly his owner whipped his aunt. Later in the book, when Douglass finally realized he wanted to be free, he tried to fight one of his slave masters. I believe this to be my favorite part of the book. It shows how strong Douglass was even after everything he had gone through. My second favorite part was when he, a slave, married Helen Pits, a white woman. At the time, interracial marriage was extremely illegal. For Douglass and Murray to find individuals to be witnesses to their marriage is amazing. One thing I disliked about Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was that Frederick Douglass didn’t talk about himself very much; he only briefly touched on his experiences. There were hardly any mentions of his major accomplishments. and he hardly ever gave his opinion or expressed how he felt about his situation. I would have liked him to have extended his narrative to include more details after his escapes slavery. Fredrick Douglass believed that was freedom to him was legal Freedom and Personal Freedom. Legal freedom is that the government can give out freedom yet take it away. Personal freedom means its freedom that determines how you live, and how your life is controlled. He learns about education, self-reflection, self-realization. Fredrick uses these things teach these to other people.

Candide by Voltaire tells the story of a young man named Candide who can simply not find his way out of trouble but no matter the circumstance, he is in the best of all possible worlds. Someone who helped Candide along his way was his love, Cunegonde. Throughout the story, Cunegonde proved herself to be loyal, preoccupied, and impressionable. Candide, believes that this world is “the best of all possible worlds”. He comes to this understanding through his mentor Pangloss, and his ignorance in the world, from growing up very sheltered, allows him to truly believe it. Within the story, Candide is constantly faced with extreme adversity, but he always maintains his belief in “the best of all possible worlds”. Candide tries to push this belief onto others by giving them money. In his mind, giving strangers money will help them get out of bad situations, and in turn, they might start to also believe in “the best of all possible worlds”. However, what Candide doesn’t realize, is that this might not be helping anybody at all, in fact, it could be hurting people. He thinks that money can solve all problems; this is probably due to the fact that he grew up wealthy and had a very good life, up until he lost all of his money, at which point, is life started to go downhill. Candide’s only way of coping with the adversities in his life was to stay optimistic and try not to think about anything to deeply.

Each young man experiences injustices, sorrow, agony, and pain in the course of his development. Candide faces his struggles by seeking material gain. Douglass faces his by discovering and applying his inner strength to find reliable sources to aid him in his journey. Each character encountered many trials and triumphs on their quest to find what they were looking for. Candide in search of love, money, and power, and Douglass on his quest for freedom. Each man developing differently throughout the stories while serving purposes that are very much so different. Candide reflected on how power was distributed in Europe and how nobility formed and eventually controlled the masses and Frederick’s narrative was all about never having power and fighting through oppression. There was adventure along the way and knowledge and happiness are the virtues significant to Candide and Frederick Douglas. The result of Candide’s journey through life is unacceptable and unrewarding while Douglass achieves self-actualization and continues to help others by fighting to right injustices. In his quest to become a free man Douglass is self -reliant, resourceful and focused while Candide in his quest to marry his love Cunegonde is naive, greedy, and selfish. The strong traits of Douglass’s character allow for a successful and fulfilling life while the weak traits of Candide’s character lead to disappointment.