Literary Synthesis Essay

During, the period of the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century the Europeans held a strong belief in scientific proof. The belief in scientific proof is associated to the Age of Enlightenment, a period in Europe in which people thought their beliefs should depend on reason and scientific proof. This period is referred to a time when people “set out by means of reason and direct observation to discover the fundamental laws governing nature, humanity, and society. The Enlightenment Philosophers believed that such discoveries would free the world from tyranny, violence, and instability” (Davis et al.17). This era influenced writers greatly their ideas were more associated with reason and sociability. Closer to the nineteenth century, the
Authors demonstrate a change in their writing by switching to romanticism. Romanticism deals
With feelings, imagination, and individualism. One text that demonstrates the idea of the enlightenment is a book written by Voltaire about a character named Candide. The story deals
With an optimistic man who is guided by an unwise philosopher named Pangloss.
The philosopher guides Candide with his theories that are not relevant to the real world. The second
Text deals with a character named Abdal Khan in who is believed to be a man with a thousand of skills. He is opened minded and tries to attract people to him to be able to help them. He is also open to learning new things from other people. On the other hand, The Poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” By John Keats from the 19th century reflects romanticism. This style of writing is closer to the nineteenth centuries and the writers dealt with more romanticism in their writing. Rapid changes occur from the eighteenth to nineteenth century and writers demonstrate them very clearly. The text, Candide demonstrates that challenging your beliefs can be tricky. Voltaire became a writer during the enlightenment era which influenced his writing greatly. This story of Candide was written in 1759 and it was considered one his greatest tales. Voltaire was greatly known for writing didactic fiction. This way of writing is greatly associated with the Age of Enlightenment. Voltaire uses didactic fiction as “he is always interested in teaching. In using plot and characters to develop arguments about contemporary issues” (Voltaire, 300). However, it was mainly believed that Voltaire wrote his stories because he intended to attack
religion. In the Candide the character Pangloss is a German mathematician and philosopher named Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. “He claimed that this world is the best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire, 300). This philosopher believed that the world was perfect because it was created by god. Using this idea, Voltaire ridiculed principles that were placed on every situation without an explanation. Therefore, Candide demonstrates an inexperienced character being guided by a philosopher who is out of touch with the real world. Candide and Pangloss go through a storm while there on a ship on the bay of Lisbon with an Anabaptist. During, this incident an Anabaptist fall overboard and drowns during the storm. Candide feels very miserable since he wasn’t able to help. Pangloss stops Candide in the text Pangloss “stopped him by demonstrating that the Lisbon Harbor was designed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in” (Voltaire, 310). Pangloss explains to Candide that this was meant to happen so Candide wouldn’t feel so bad. Another incident that Pangloss and candied experienced was the Lisbon earthquake. When the earthquake happened, Pangloss explains to Candide that this earthquake is something that has happened and it’s probably something that's wrong with the underground in Lisbon. Pangloss says to Candide, “This earthquake is not a unique phenomenon, the city of Lima in South America experienced the same shocks in South America last year. Same causes, same effects-- there must be a vein of Sulphur running underground from Lima to Lisbon” (Voltaire, 310).Pangloss later tells an officer of inquisition “All this is for the best (Voltaire, 311)”. Pangloss mentioned this phrase again to make it clear to Candide that there wasn’t anything they could do.
As the novel continues, Candide and Pangloss go through a series of more incidents that makes Candide question why they happened. Since candide was a naive character he is influenced by Pangloss. Towards the end of the story, Candide realizes that Pangloss theories weren’t relevant to any of the incidents that they went through. Pangloss said to Candide, “All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds (Voltaire, 365). Pangloss keeps emphasizing that everything happens is in the best of all possible worlds. He wants to make it clear to Candide that these events happened and that they weren’t so bad... Candide says to Pangloss “But we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire, 365). In these few words, candide demonstrates a sense of sociability because he tries to explain to Pangloss that by taking care of one’s life, it can improve and become better instead of believing that things happen because of bad luck and fate. Candide, wants to take care of his garden meaning his life to attract people to him.
In Celebi’s Book of Travels, the story on Abdal Khan is very much related to the idea on the swift changed that deals with reason, and rationality.
Celebi’s stories describe are his notes on the different places he has traveled. But, it is questioned whether he exaggerated things or just wrote his opinions. This character is described as a man who holds thousands of skills. People gave him this name because he was believed to be a man with a lot of skills to cure sick people. Abdal Khan being described as a man of thousand skills. The text says “Aside from being versed in alchemy and magic and several hundred occult philosophical sciences, Khan is a master pulse taker and blood-letter according to the nature of the sick and the weakly of the present age” (Davis 163). Since Khan was a man of thousands of skills he was very knowledgeable and he was open to reason as to the passage mentions he is a man with his many skills he’s able to heal people. This passage refers back to the idea on reason, rationality, and
sociability.
A piece of writing from the 19th century strongly is influenced by romanticism is the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” By John Keats. The text reads, “Romantics celebrated instead imagination and feelings as ways to truly connect with the world and oneself” (Davis et al. 20). The poem “Ode on Grecian Urn” is very important since ode stands for the idea of a person focusing on an object and doing a tribute. In this case, John Keats uses the vase as an ode. John Keats puts a lot of feeling into this poem because he describes the vase with so much descriptive language. In the poem he shows a lot of excitement when he says “What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?”(Keats. 782). In other words, John Keats places an emphasis on his feelings. He seems to use these words to allow the readers to understand what’s happening on the vase. John Keats says in his poem,” Heard Melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter (Keats 782)”. This line demonstrates how Keats uses his imagination to express the feelings he has gained from viewing this vase. Art object. By having this experience with the vase John Keats also demonstrates an important aspect of romanticism which is individualism. He is the only person describing this vase from his point of view. The images on the vase are frozen so that allows John Keats to speak about the experience he is having with the vase. As mentioned, before John Keats places an emphasis in unheard melodies. This line from the poem demonstrates individualism in which John Keats is having an experience with the vase it’s all about his inner experience. He believes that something you have never heard is good but something you have never heard can be even better.
Therefore, these texts demonstrate the change during the mid-seventeen hundreds to about the nineteenth century in the styles of writing. The text Voltaire wrote about candide demonstrated by the language, plots and character the ideas that dealt with the enlightenment ideas on reason, rationality, and sociability. The text on Abdal Khan places an emphasis on him being a man of a thousand of skills. Being that this name was placed on him it created a character that was open to reason since he was open to hear and use people’s ideas and skills. But the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” makes it clear that toward the nineteenth century, the romanticism played a huge role and influenced a lot of the writings with feeling, imagination and individualism.