Optimism In Candide, By Voltaire

Voltaire
During the age of Enlightenment, the philosophers believed that reason could be used to explain just about everything. They believed this in hopes to make the world a better place to live. Voltaire is against such optimism, and believes that true joy can only be experienced in a world that doesn’t exist. In his book Candide, he uses anti-heroism as a satire against the philosophers of the enlightenment. I do not believe that Voltaire intends the reader to see the world with optimism, but rather pessimism. I will further explain why I believe the book draws attention to the horrific “ways of the world” throughout this paper. One could not go through the multitude of misfortunes Candide did in this book without at some point abandoning his optimism. Voltaire disguises his pessimism throughout, by keeping Candide’s spirits higher than expected. Candide learns his optimism from Pangloss who is the like the symbol of optimism and even tries to explain his
At this point, Candide had felt they must cultivate their garden. Yet, Pangloss the optimist attempts to suggest that all their prior misfortunes were part of a necessary chain of events for them to reach happiness. Voltaire paints Pangloss as the true dolt of optimism, never realizing the errors in his own logic.
In a letter to Etienne Noel Damilaville, Voltaire wrote “I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." The book Candide is, for lack of better words, making a joke out of his so called “enemies” or the ones whose views differ from his own. While reading this book you badly want to take on an optimistic view, though it makes it difficult when Voltaire purposely and repeatedly throws curve balls at the main character refusing to give him a