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Candide - School Essays

Candide


Thesis: The story of deals with irrational ideas taught to about being optimistic, versus reality as seen by the rest of the world.
I. Optimism – Overwhelming theme
A. learns optimism
B. Pangloss as a very hopeful character
C. Twist in the themes of the story

II. Contrast within the Story
A. Martin as a pessimist
B. Effects of the optimism on Candide
C. Voltaire’s view of Pangloss

Conclusion: Candide learns to become his own person, to accept life for what it has to offer, and that not everything has to be analyzed to decide whether or not it was good or bad. In this way, Candide can be an example for all those who read his story.

Voltaire’s Candide

Optimism vs. ...

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in the story, Candide, the main character, is advised by his philosopher-teacher that everything in the world happens for the best, because "Private misfortunes contribute to the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are, the more we find that all is well" (Voltaire 16). Pangloss, the philosopher, states that everything has a purpose and things are made for the best. As Candide grows up, whenever something unfortunate happens, Pangloss turns the situation around, bringing out the good in it. Candide learns that optimism is "The passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong"(Voltaire 86). Because of Pangloss’s “great knowledge,” Candide is a very naïve and impressionable youth who regards Pangloss as the greatest
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philosopher in the world, a reverence that will soon be contradicted by contract with reality (Frautschi 75).
"Voltaire...made him, Candide, acquainted with the bad and the good side of human existence. The ...

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According to Linguet, "Candide offers us the saddest of themes disguised under the merriest of jokes" (Wade 144). It seems as if Candide was written as a comedy, not because of humor, but because every time something bad occurs, a quick turn of events
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happens which bring everything back to normal. One moment, Candide murders the brother of the woman he loves; the next moment, he travels to a land where he sees women mating with monkeys. In instances like these, it does not seem that Voltaire is serious about tragic events.
During the course of Candide's journey, an earthquake strikes, murdering thirty thousand men, women, and ...

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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 4/3/2006 02:18:54 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1568
Pages: 6

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