CKQ+Michelle+O

again, most of this is from Mr. Stephens
 * Key Question for //Candide//**

In //Candide//, Voltaire is satirizing the idea that this is 'the best of all possible worlds." Therefore, Voltaire wants to you answer the following question:

1. Why is this not the best of all possible worlds? But, at the same time, //Candide// is not an entirely hopeless novel. What 'rays of hope' do you see? As you post your responses to the key question also mention 'rays of hope' that you see in the novel.

**OR**
2. As a nod to some work you have done in history. . . What is revolution and who has the responsibility to change the world? This question is not just about random need for change and pessimism. What places of needed stability do you see? As you post your responses to the key question also mention 'stability' and 'rays of hope' that you see in the novel.

Here are some specific categories to look for: Throughout Candide's journey, he realizes some events that he thhink it is not the best of all possible world. Towards the end of the book, Candide starts to question Pangloss's perspective on how "everything is all for the best". As a student of Pangloss, he believed that everything that happens (good or bad), has a reason to it. "'Now tell us this, my dear Pangloss,' said Candide. 'While you were being hanged, and dissected, and beaten, and made to row in galley, did you continue to believe that all was for the best?'"(pg.88) Candide seems to suspect Pangloss if he is really a strong believer, or if he is just saying that everything is actually good for the way it is since he can't really prove anything. According to Pangloss, he still believe in his words: "I am a philosopher after all: it would not do for me to recant, given that Leibniz is incapable of error, and that pre-established harmony moreover the finest thing in the world- not to speak of the plenum and the materia subtilis" However, how could this be the best of possible world? What are people dying for? Candide has seen numbers of examples that are proven to be "not the best of possible world." In the end, the characters realizes each of their desire, which shows the "rays of hope" how Candide forgets about all the philosophy, and decides to just forget about the best of possible world. He actually finds the meaning and desire of his life, and lives happily ever after, farming. "...all weather- beaten, her eyes bloodshot, her breasts sunken, her cheeks lined, her arms red and chapped, was seized with horror...". (pg.88) This doe not only show rays of hope, but once again, Candide proves that it is not the best of all possible world.
 * religion
 * kings
 * governments
 * war
 * avarice (greed)
 * social pride
 * dishonesty
 * slavery
 * inhuman treatment of others
 * disease
 * cataclysms