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Seeing Past Cynicism In Candide Book Review

Even in this moment of supreme individual stupidity and rigidity, which Voltaire plays up with brilliant sarcastic comedy, Pangloss attributes his continued optimism to the intellectual worship of Leibniz. This instance shows that men are generally not stupid individually, in Voltaire's view, but rather that they are dependent on others for this quality. Other examples of stupidity and other negative human qualities being obtained through association abound. In Paraguay, Candide has an unlikely encounter with the brother of Cungeund, whom he plans to marry. Immediately after embracing him as a brother himself, Candide reveals his intentions to marry Cunegund, and explains his careful reasoning over the brother's angry protestations. After Candide again insist that he will marry Cunegund, her brother responds thusly: "We shall see to that, villain!' said the Jesuit, Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, and struck him across the face with the flat side of his sword" (Voltaire, 36). IThough never identified by name, this brother is more human and humane when identified as Cunegund's brother. As a Jesuit priest and a Baron, however -- which is how he is identified in this brief passage of angry reversal and arrogant outrage -- this character has many prideful notions about his and his sister's station, and feels an obvious contempt for Candide. It is not really the man himself that is so petty and impetuous, but rather the training in the religious and aristocratic institutions that cause him to behave so foolishly.

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The novel's closing passage reflect a similar sentiment form the opposite angle-rather than ridiculing the institutions that render man so foolish, the concluding chapter is a more direct, though still satirically presented, celebration of individual determination and solitary endeavors. A Turkish man tells him that he has a garden, "the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us three great evils -- idleness, vice, and want" (Voltaire, 87). Candid settles on this as the ideal way to live, and his companions agree: "The little society, one and all, entered into this laudable design [of cultivating their garden] and set themselves to exert their different talents" (Voltaire, 88). Though they are working together, they are doing so as individuals, each with their own methods, tasks, and talents. Voltaire is insisting that we cannot find our answers "out there," but only within ourselves.
Candide has remained a masterpiece of the Western canon not simply for its humor and readability, but also for its philosophy. It warns against many of the insidious evils that accompany human society, and points us in the direction of increased happiness through individualism.

Works Cited

Voltaire. Candide. New York: Dover, 1991.

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Works Cited

Voltaire. Candide. New York: Dover, 1991.
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