Volitaire Candid
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, in his satirical masterwork Candide, critiques both society and humanity wit little mercy. The author obviously seeks to expose all of the human race's self-deceptions and weaknesses, but he does so with great humor. Voltaire gives delight with his humor while planting the deeper message about the fallibility and corruption of humanity. This contradiction holds the power of Voltaire's writing. Candide provides a horrific portrait of the human condition, but it does so with preposterous and outlandish humor. Voltaire especially intends to criticize the popular idea of his era that sees a rational order in the world: "Voltaire shows how the claim of a rational universal order avoids the hard problems of living in a world where human beings have become liars, traitors, and so on" (335). At the same time, Voltaire is not so much the pessimist that he holds no hope for any sort of improvement or salvation on the part of human beings. For example, after putting his protagonist through every sort of awful predicament, Voltaire allows Candide the positive goal of starting and cultivating a garden (402). Yes, Voltaire is saying, there is much corruption in humanity, but there is also at least a glimmer
Nevertheless, Voltaire's own role in "criticizing everything" is certainly softened by the clearly optimistic ending of Candide's story. Candide is a changed man by the end of the book, not quite so innocent, but still optimistic. His repeated claim that "we must cultivate our garden" (402) means in part that human beings should deal productively and responsibly with life as it is presented to them on a daily basis. Whether life is good or evil should not be the defining standard by which human beings act. Evil certainly exists in the world but every human being can effectively combat it by doing good in his own personal life, by nurturing rather than destructive behavior. Voltaire apparently agrees with the Turk that tending one's garden "keeps us from the three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty" (401). Of course, Voltaire saves his hero again, only to throw him into another impossible fix, and then to save him once more. Candide is faced over and over with situations in which evil and corruption triumph, but when he finds one bad person who seems to be meted some measure of justice, the protagonist seizes on this single incident as if it were far more typical: "You see, said Candide to Martin, crime is punished sometimes." In fact, Candide conveniently ignores the fact that while the "scoundrel" was killed, an entire boatload of innocent passengers went down to their deaths along with him (375). To Voltaire, the only starting point for a philosophy of truth is the acceptance that human life is for the most part a miserable set of circumstances. This excerpt from a diatribe from the old woman aboard ship illustrates the author's position: Ask every passenger on this ship to tell you his story, and if you find a single one who has not often cursed the day of his birth, who has not often told himself that he is the most miserable of men, then you may throw me overboard head first (357). Perhaps the favorite target of Voltaire is the philosophy which holds that the world which exists is t
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Approximate Word count = 1361
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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