Candide Picking Flowers

In “Happiness: Enough Already,” Sharon Begley argues that happiness is overrated and it should not always be a priority in your life.

The Story of Candide is a short but diverse story that tells of a young man’s journey for love and understanding and the hardships he faces, all the while keeping a very strong, positive and philosophical outlook on life. The novel takes place both in fictional and existing locations throughout Latin America and Europe during the 1750’s. Voltaire believed that the society he lived in had many flaws, which are often illustrated and satirized in Candide. Candide’s journey portrays the flawed human assumption that the grass is always greener on the other side as well as giving the reader an apt example of an individual’s journey from innocence through a series of trials and tribulations to becoming a mature, experienced and enlightened individual.

Even though many people practiced this doctrine Voltaire did not aside with it instead, he implanted doubts on the chances of achieving true happiness and real conformism. Voltaire’s opinion was that one could not achieve true happiness in the real world but only experience it in an utopia. With the many hardships that Candide goes through ultimately leads him to abandon his attitude of optimism. Candide’s misfortunes and adversities often contrasted with his optimistic view on life. Noticeably, Voltaire uses this satirical piece as a way to criticize this exaggerated optimism. This tale as stated by William Bottiglia, “ Has had a great effect on modern writers who confront mankind’s inhumanity to fellow human beings by presenting the human condition absurdly, ironically, and humorously...” (Bottiglia 112).

Everyone that is living in the world we live in today are all making their best efforts to obtain that which we all want the most, happiness. Many individuals will pursue that happiness, while others manage to compromise that happiness. Everyone has their own methods at trying to achieve happiness, but sometimes they just cannot pursue it and when they realize that what they want, they cannot have. Their happiness will become compromised. When at the same time some individuals can pursue that happiness and achieve what they truly want in life. Other times those who pursue their happiness, end up compromising their happiness in the process. The image “New York, ca. 1962” can be shown to prove what an

Voltaire's Candide is a novel that is interspersed with superficial characters and conceptual ideas that are critically exaggerated and satirized. The parody offers cynical themes disguised by mockeries and witticism, and the story itself presents a distinctive outlook on life narrowed to the concept of free will as opposed to blind faith driven by desire for an optimistic outcome. The crucial contrast in the story deals with irrational ideas as taught to Candide about being optimistic by Pangloss, his cheerful mentor, versus reality as viewed by the rest of the world through the eyes of the troubled character, Martin. This raises the question of whether or not the notion of free will is valid due to Candide’s peculiar timing of his

The main idea of the article, “Ending the Blame Game”, is about how people have to take responsibility for their own happiness and how they must stop blaming other people if they aren’t happy with their own life. The author begins by stating that one person does not know how another person feels or what they need. She says that only the person themselves has the chance to take specific steps to make changes for themselves if they are unhappy. The author says that it is important to take an active approach instead of a reactive approach to other people’s behaviour. She suggests that one example of how people can take an active approach is to ask themselves what they need, want and are willing to do. The author also points out that other people

Cunegonde is the daughter of a wealthy German lord. She is described as “extremely beautiful” (Voltaire. 5) and is repeatedly referred to as “the fair Cunegonde.” (39). She is the typical damsel-in-distress: a woman who is completely reliant on male protection and

Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness; and the beliefs which have thus come down are the rules of morality for the multitude, and for the philosopher until he has succeeded in finding better. That philosophers might easily do this, even now, on many subjects; that the received code of ethics is by no means of divine right; and that mankind have still much to learn as to the effects of actions on general happiness, I admit or rather earnestly maintain.

In the beginning of Chapter 10, Cunegonde’s jewels were taken. “‘[Cunegonde] WHO COULD have stolen my money and diamonds?... [Old Woman,] ‘I strongly suspect a reverend Franciscan who slept in the same inn with us last night in Badajoz’” (37). This quote is saying that Cunegonde and the Old Woman made a specific remark that a holy man can get corrupted and perform a sin. This is significant because this shows how Voltaire displays the use of greed surmounting a person who is pure. Furthermore, another example is when Cunegonde was about to marry a man because of his money but not for his love for her. “Madam, you have seventy-two years of nobility, but not one penny. You now have the chance to become the wife of a man who's the greatest lord in South America and has a very handsome mustache” (51). Cunegonde’s love for Candide disappears when a man offers her a hand in marriage. This quote is important because as Cunegonde questions whether she should marry a man for money, it creates the idea of corruption for her. Voltaire emphasizes the pettiness of human society and greed. In addition, Martin is one of the main characters who show how the world is full of many problems for people to

Most of Voltaire’s characters were able to explain why they could consider themselves as the “most unhappy” by providing a story of what had occurred to them. Their experiences vary from natural to man-made misfortunes. However, even though, the characters’ reactions to their misfortunes are of a similar, the experiences between the male and female characters of Candide are quite different in regards to what is taken away from them.

In his ground-breaking book Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud postulates that society, despite ostensibly being set up to protect us from unhappiness, has a net negative impact on human happiness.  According to Freud, the three most important causes of suffering are the natural world, our own bodies, and our interactions with other people (Freud 44).  In addition to identifying these as the main causes of suffering, Freud also states that the suffering that comes from other people is the worst of the three.  Given how civilization has changed since Civilization and Its Discontents was published, however, this belief simply no longer holds true.  Freud’s belief that interaction with other people in society is the worst cause of human suffering is no longer valid in today’s world because of the net benefits of society’s protection, because of society’s benefits to the human body, and because of advances in society’s ability to satisfy human happiness.

Although the novel was an attempting to philosophize all the matters of world, it comes to point out to this problem in the time. As we kept going on reading, we have seen many horrible examples of slavery such as the story of the Old woman who was the daughter of a Pope whose life was happy and then kidnapped by pirates, and the story of Cunegonde and her caption by the Bulgur army. Cunegonde during her imprisonment, a Jewish one wanted to lie with her. This kind of behavior regarded as heavy violation towards women. Another point worth making here, Voltaire had tended to use the technique of flashback. In other words, He would let the female victims to retell the event of the beginning chapters from the perspectives of their characters. Like the old women who told Cunegonde all her story and Cunegonde also told Candide her story with all honesty. Moreover, Cunegonde obviously was the most female prominent character in accordance with the plot. Candide was so much in hope for finding his beloved Cunegonde. These stories about female characters lead us to the issue of women rights. The persecution towards women was very obvious such as the attacking against the old women and Cunegonde and treating them badly. Additionally, we may have noticed that there was a variation in religious and cultures. This extension came from the plenty of the countries they had visited and variable people and cultures the met up. There were many religious features pictured in the characters such as the Baptist who helped Candide without knowing his religious and the inquisitors who had worked in the Catholic Church. We saw that the novel get involved several religious cults like Jewish, Protestants and

The Age of Reason inhabited Europe in the early eighteenth century, which sparked a persistence to cease the traditional authority of the Divine Right. Following the execution of a Divine King, the Enlightenment of Reason illuminated across nations. Therefore, causing conviction of God-given power and conclusively allowing enlightenment thinkers to initiate an intellectual exploration of politics, religion, and scientific realizations. Famous works of literature during this time emphasized the impact of social forces, to find that in a conflict of material needs, matter proceeds thought. Dialectical materialism is the illumination of human consciousness based on materials available. The development of hierarchal structures involved nobility and various levels of commoners who lack material needs. Writers call attention to the hypocrisy of social standards while the Age of Reason bled slowly into the Romantic period intervening a system structure that viewed man concerning the Universe. Romantic writers focus on the self-concerning nature: loss, death, fear, joy, sadness, and hope. The causes and quality of the theme apathy provide a thematic concept connection in both Voltaire’s Candide and Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil.

With a distinct level, we should deal with ourselves and remain solid and cheerful individuals. Socially I unequivocally have faith in the proverb, do unto others, as you might want them to do unto you. Complying with this causes society to fill in as easily as imaginable without an excessive amount of argument. Also, it isn't justified regardless of any moment of our short lifetime to be miserable or inconsiderate. We as people can make conscious, individual decisions and assume liability for our actions, convictions, emotions, and states of mind. What's more, I trust we must practice these dimensions.

Have you ever felt the need to brighten someone’s day, or just find ways to even brighten your own day? have you ever felt like you just committed a crime by not taking the opportunity to be kind to someone? A lot of the times, in this world that we live in today people are always trying to find ways to become happier. They go around trying to find new jobs, a different set of friends or a new spouse. Everyone has done something within their lives that had an impact on how happy they were. Happiness is a value that everyone should possess. It is a value that is extremely contagious. Making others happy is something that everyone should try to aim for, even if it is hard to make another happy. It doesn’t only do any good to them, but also to you. Happiness comes from our own actions. Holding the door for someone, helping someone with their bags, or just being polite are all actions that can be taken to make other around you happier. This value is seen almost everywhere you go, even in these short stories “Everyday use” by Alice Walker, The Steve Job’s commencement speech, and the George Saunders’s commencement speech. Since being happy allows us to move forward in life and happiness comes from our own actions, people should aim to make others happy.