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Candide: Difference between revisions
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==Themes== | ==Themes== | ||
According to [http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/voltaire3.htm a biography on Voltaire], these are some of the themes to consider. Comic invention; loyalty; utopia; satire; war as play; treatment of garden; evil; religion; optimism. | According to [http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/voltaire3.htm a biography on Voltaire], these are some of the themes to consider. Comic invention; loyalty; utopia; satire; war as play; treatment of garden; evil; religion; optimism. | ||
===The Uselessness of Philosophical Speculation=== | |||
Throughout ''Candide'', three different philosophies are presented: optomism, pessimism, and skeptism. Pangloss is the character who embodies optomism. He states: " It is clear that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve and end, everything necessarliy serves the best end" (378). He also argues: "that there cannot possibly be an effect without a cause" meaning that everything in the world has a specific purpose and reason (378). Martin, however, is the total opposite of Pangloss. He only sees the worst of any situation. Cacambo is the skeptic. His beleif is somewhere in between that of Pangloss and Martin: "That is, Cacambo embodies the notion that one cannot know whether or not ultimate reality can be proven by reason" (Ervin). Cacambo has talents: " he had been choirboy, sacristan, sailor, monk, merchant, solider, and lackey" (398). These talents have furthered his knowledge. | |||
===Greed=== | ===Greed=== | ||
One of the major themes in ''Candide'' is greed. In Candide’s world greed is like an infection that has spread almost everywhere. The only place untouched by greed is Eldorado. Almost everyone Candide meets is driven by the need to acquire wealth. These individuals are portrayed as evil people with no morals. | One of the major themes in ''Candide'' is greed. In Candide’s world greed is like an infection that has spread almost everywhere. The only place untouched by greed is Eldorado. Almost everyone Candide meets is driven by the need to acquire wealth. These individuals are portrayed as evil people with no morals. | ||