Voltaire's CANDIDE is a story about a man who was in search of true happiness
and who was in a journey that proves that not all is for the best. He grew up in
castle of Westphalia , but was exiled when found kissing the baron's daughter.
That was where his misfortunes began, among them was when he was tortured during
An army training, when his philosopher was hanged in an autoda'fe, when he
rescued his true love from the hands of the Inquisitor and the Jew, when the
Anabaptist James and his friend died during the quakes in Lisbon, and when he
realized that a nation ,in order to be happy, should be secluded from the rest
of the world, despite of these… he still believed that there is a "cause
and effect" for everything! At this point, we would still find him
struggling and fighting in hope that he and Cunegonde would still be together.
He started to witness the cruelty of life. There were a lot of times that he
wanted to give up…but the only thing that kept him alive was the hope that
things will get better. As Dr.Pangloss would always say, "Everything was
made for a purpose, all is necessary for the BEST purpose". The theme of
this book is that no one should be a victim…in life we know that there are
struggles and obstacles that SHOULD be overcomed and that not everything should
be passively accepted…Voltaire's initiates the idea that people should work to
make their happiness. Voltaire as the narrator of the story was also able to
criticize some of the present people during his times. He did this by using
their names or siting similar situations that happened in real life. Because of
this he was able to come up with such marvelous characters that was able to
contribute a great deal to Candide's journey. Dr.Pangloss...the greatest
philosopher of all time as his tutor. Lady Cunegonde as the apple of his eye.The
old woman who was said to be the daughter of Pope X. Cacambo ..his faithful
servant. Baron as the brother of his beloved. Martin as his valet and who
accompanied him through Venice. And lastly, this poor turkish farmer whom he
meets, and allows Candide to realize that all he needs to be happy is a garden
that he could build his life around and that he was right not to lose hope. In
the end the reader might think that Candide was happy…Yes...he was reunited
with his teacher and was married to his true love Cunegonde. But he was not
happy, he no longer loves her and he doesn't believe in the principles of his
teacher anymore. This book had so many unnecessary scenes in the story that
wasn't really needed at all. It travelled from places to places allowing the
same things to happen again…and again…there were so many characters involved
but only few were really significant…It's quite dragging because you have this
feeling that you know what will happen next. Another bad point of this book is
the ending part. The climax was so high already, as a reader you will be looking
for something, but instead it ends with a garden scene, it was quite symbolic
but it wasn't satisfying. The only message here is we shouldn't hope for the
best but we should strive for it. It was skillfully written but, it's not
complete…it shouldn't have ended that way.