Candide is classified as dystopian literature which is a literary form that aims to distupt the human convictions and draw people to question what they take for granted. In what follows, a deffinition for dystopian literature will be provided with further explaining on how does Candid fit into this paradigm. Another point that will be discussed is a set of ideas that Candid used in his novella like optimism, racism, religious toleration, and women rights. The final discussion will be about Candide’s statement “let’s cultivate our garden,” and wheather it pronounces his intention to end his intellectual journey and put words to action or it is a call for further investigation.
The …show more content…
One of the ideas he used was titled in “The Folly of Optimism, The Hypocrisy of Religion, The Corrupting Power of Money, and Rape and Sexual Exploitation”. The Folly of Optimism is a philosophy that took for granted that God existed, and since God was perfect He would not create an imperfect world. According to this phylosophy, people precieve imperfections in the world only because they do not understand God’s great plan. Since Voltaire does not accept that a perfect God (or any God has to exist, he mocked the idea that the world must be entirely good, and he heaps merciless satires on this idea throughout his novel. Another idea that he used was The Hipocrisy of Religion. Voltaire satirizes organized religion by means of a series of corrupt, hyprocritical relifious leaders who appear throughout the novel. He also portrayed religious leaders as men who carry out inhumane campaigns of religious opression against those who disagree with them on even the smallest of theological matters. An example taken from the novel is the inquisition persecutes Pangloss for expressing his ideas and Candide for merely listening to them. Another one was The Corrupting Power of Money. When Candide acquires a fortune in Eldorado, he thaught that the worst of his problems have passed, but the fact was that his money made him even more unhappy. Later on, Candide discovered that money was as …show more content…
This is demonstrated by all the characters that are thinking about all the other things that they could have been doing with their lives instead of what they were actually doing. At this point, Candide has lost his optimistic view of life he had through the novel. Then, Candide settles into the life he is in, and said that he have to make the best of what he has got. Up until the very end of the novel, Candide was an advent follower of Pangloss’s philosophy. After he had experiences all the hardship and seen how the farmer in Turkey dealt with what he had, Candide responds to Pangloss after he essentially says that if they did not struggle through all the trials that they went through, then they would not be together in the gorgeous garden. Candide’s reply was “Yes, but we must cultivate our garden.” This statement is like the Deist motto since Candide is essentially saying that we must be in control of our own destiny. This relates back to Deism because Deists do believe that there is a God, but He does not play any part in human lives. Because of this “clockwork” idea, God is not present to control your fate, so it is back to you to “cultivate your garden”, or be in charge of your own destiny. Candide’s quote is the perfect ending because it represented his shift from the constant optimistic view, to a complete deist aspect.