CKQ+Joe

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.

Here are some specific categories to look for:
 * religion
 * kings
 * governments
 * war
 * avarice (greed)
 * social pride
 * dishonesty
 * slavery
 * inhuman treatment of others
 * disease
 * cataclysms

This is definitely not the best of all possible worlds. Too many unfair things happen to Candide and other characters in the book to even call it a "good" world.

After Candide and Cacambo "rescue" the two girls screaming, while being chased by the apes, Oreillons surround Candide and Cacambo. "some were bringing a large cauldron to the boil; others were preparing spits. and all of them were chanting: 'It's a Jesuit!"(40-41) After what they thought is a good deed, they are now going to be cooked alive. Fortunately, they convinced the Oreillons that they are not Jesuit's.

Here's another example that makes this a very not good world. "If I return to my own country, I will find Bulgars and Abars cutting everyone's throats; if I return to Portugal I will be burned at the stake; and if we stay in these parts we may end up on a spit at any moment."(41) This shows war, inhuman treatment of others, and government. It almost seems like bad stuff is attracted to Candide.

Later after discovering El Dorado, they find out that it is the homeland of the Incas, wept out by the Spaniards. "forgive us for laughing when you offered when you offered us as payment the pebbles off our roadside."(45) Gold to them is like a little worthless pebble to the rest of the world. In a land that is perfectly perfect, avarice consumes Candide and Cacombo and they decide that it is better to be richer than everyone else, instead of being as rich is everyone else. So with all their gold, they leave El Dorado.