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Candide: Difference between revisions

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The old woman is a prime example.  Through all her hardships, all her torturous sufferings, she carried on; a glimmer of hope inside her that all hope is not lost.  In telling her story, she talks of an optimistic outlook, of her own optimism; "A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but I always loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground" (Voltaire 396).
The old woman is a prime example.  Through all her hardships, all her torturous sufferings, she carried on; a glimmer of hope inside her that all hope is not lost.  In telling her story, she talks of an optimistic outlook, of her own optimism; "A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but I always loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground" (Voltaire 396).


Candide is another example. He went through some hardships as well. Candide says "The enormous riches which this rascal had stolen were sunk beside him in the sea, and nothing was saved but a sheep" (Voltaire 413). He was talking about the man who had robbed him of his possessions. He said very optimistic things about the fate of this man and the sheep that was his was saved.
Candide is another prime example. He went through many hardships as well as the old woman. When Candide sees the man who stole his things in the water along his way, he says "The enormous riches which this rascal had stolen were sunk beside him in the sea, and nothing was saved but a sheep" (Voltaire 413). He is encouraged by the man with his possessions in the sea but he is once again blinded by his optimism and goes on thinking that everything that happens is for the best.  


Although their optimism is the main reason for their survival and ability to continue on through their sufferings, the characters view their optimism as one of the main causes for those sufferings they must go through.  
Although their optimism is the main reason for their survival and ability to continue on through their sufferings, the characters view their optimism as one of the main causes for those sufferings they must go through.  
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