Candide Reflective Essay

Mr. Hlawaty,
A main struggle I had with this essay was the open-endedness of it. I found it difficult to come up with a dynamic research question and furthermore develop an adequate thesis out of that question, because I was often uncertain about whether or not I was doing it “right.” I worried that my topic would not be significant enough, my claims and appreciation of the craft not literary enough, and my greater implications not great enough. However, one thing I think that I did well was allowing the text to shape my claims, rather than manipulating the text to support claims I was seeking out. My final thesis and claims were much different from my original intention as they evolved a lot as I continued exploring the text. I hope you like my work, and I appreciate your feedback and time.
Humans have a need to understand
Throughout the novel he maintains the ideals and reasoning of paternalistic optimism: that the world in which they lived was the best of all possible worlds, and furthermore, there would never be any effects without an important cause. This theme becomes heavily rooted and associated with Pangloss. Even after he is hanged, Candide consistently refers back to him, usually questioning what advice or optimistic viewpoint he might give. When Candide begins to doubt the philosophy by which he had lived, which Pangloss had taught him, he laments to the supposedly-dead Pangloss, “I must renounce thy optimism,” (p. 49). This is significant because it gives Pangloss ownership over optimism, which is conveyed further when Candide alludes to optimism as “Pangloss’s doctrine,” (p. 52), or “his system,” (p. 51). Through this craft of creating so many direct associations of ownership between Pangloss and optimism, they become essentially one in the same for the purposes of the story. This is significant because any satire of Pangloss throughout the story becomes a direct jab at