Monday, December 7, 2015

In the concluding paragraphs of Candide, is Voltaire recommending retreating from social commitment?

In Voltaire's Candide, I do not
believe the author's recommendation is to retreat from social
commitment.


Candide is a title="parody" href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_P.html">parody (a
form of satire, making fun of an idea...) of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz and his
philosophy that focused on optimism, mirrored in Pangloss' continual (and well-known)
references to:


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this best of all possible
worlds.



More than anything, I
believe Voltaire wishes people to be more realistic, and grounded rather than having a
"head-in-the-clouds" attitude. Throughout the story, the most unrealistic and horrific
events take place—leading to much suffering by Candide, Pangloss, and those they know
and/or care about—and still Candide and Pangloss see the world with "rose-colored"
glasses. However, as the story nears its end, Candide begins to question this
philosophy.


Eventually Candide buys a farm where he and the
other characters live. Advice from a kindly and neighboring Turk provides the turning
point of Candide's personal philosophy—the Turk suggests that farming keeps one from
life's vices:


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I have only twenty acres of land...which my
children and I cultivate. Our work keeps us free of three great evils: boredom, vice and
poverty.



Candide changes his
philosophy, greatly influenced by the Turk's words; and his outlook on life changes from
"this best of all possible worlds" to "we must cultivate our
garden."


In this the once easily-influenced Candide states
that life is about avoiding vice, and paying attention to the things that matter most in
life: being grounded in family and/or community, and making things grow; for there is
only goodness in these things, and these are not the empty dreams of the eternal
optimists.


Perhaps Voltaire is saying that "cultivation" is
the better part of the bargain in life, as opposed to empty optimism. It is in the
"cultivating" of the garden that the author presents his philosophy that in doing so,
mankind shows an honest and sincere social commitment that creates results rather than
intangibles, ideas, as suggested in von Leibnitz's philosophy.

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