Sydney, Candide Awaits

To my highly revered conspirator Sydney,

This is quite a lot of events in such few pages. I shall try my best to be thorough, but not boring.

On the subject of James the Anabaptist, I found him to be the most normal and ethical person in the story. He was not Catholic and therefore somewhat of an outsider, but his actions show his dedication to God and other people. I saw him as the only person who was not hypocritical. I think that Voltaire used James to show how even those who help and love everyone still are subject to terrible fates. James died trying to save people while a terrible man. Life is unfair. Because he was such a minor character and died so quickly, I think we do not need to look to far into Voltaire’s reasons for adding him to the story.

Also, it is ironic that Voltaire hates on philosophers so much when he is considered to be a great philosopher himself.

In the more recent portions of the book, the misfortunes of the people in this story, particularly the old woman, I think are extremely exaggerated by Voltaire. He tries to make everyones horrors as worse as possible, but says them so candidly they are hard to believe. I find it very hard to believe that this many misfortunes have happened to this many people, even in the past when life was rougher. It is even more ridiculous that they have somehow managed to survive all of the terrible things they have described to have gone through. Although, since the entire book only serves the purpose to question various philosophies, the exaggerations are appropriate.

Voltaire also throws a lot of satire into the description of Cunegonde’s relations with both the Jew and the Grand Inquisitor. He shows how corrupt and hypocritical everyone is. The account reveals the immense displeasure Voltaire has with the catholic church and basically every religion in the world. For example, later on the old woman comments that in between a war, pillage, and ravaging in Africa “no one missed the five daily prayers prescribed by Mohammed” (41). Voltaire does not take kindly to religious folks. Were you surprised at the return of Cunegonde and her situations?

Once Candide killed for the first time and then killed for the second he seemed to show no remorse. He had been brought up to know murder is wrong and fights about it in his head before coming to the conclusion that to kill the jew and later the grand inquisitor would be the most logical. I thought it funny that immediately after killing the jew he yells out “if Pangloss hadn’t been hanged… he’d give us good advice in this extremity, because he was a great philosopher” (34). Candide is always wishing he had Pangloss with him to explain why everything happens. It portrays Candide as having a weak mind and being reliant on Pangloss and everyone else. Do you think he is unwise or merely wants assurance that he is doing the right thing?

After all of the horrible things the old woman talks about she ends by saying that her biggest flaw was that she still loved life. She says that to love life is “perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations” (45). Considering all the things she has been through suicide would be fairly heavy on my mind. Why do you think she and all the others have been able to cling to life and hope for better? Do you see this as weakness, hope, or merely the thought never occurred to the others because this is the best of all possible worlds so why should they leave it?

Voltaire has a very disgusting obsession with rape. Literally every single female character mentioned is raped repeatedly. What is his problem?