Voltaire writes of the odyssey that the blindly optimistic protagonist takes to reunite himself with his love in the novel Candide. This sanguine character, Candide, witnesses and endures many highly exaggerated events related to philosophy, war, religion and love, created by the author to satirize blind optimism and illustrate to the reader how it blurs people’s perceptions of life, producing adverse effects.
Voltaire heavily derides adhering to and holding sacred philosophies without thinking about what they truly mean. Pangloss, the professor in the story, acts as a source of much of the blind optimism for other characters, preaching “metaphysico-theology-cosmolo-nigology” (20). Voltaire exaggerates this title by giving it a name with an …show more content…
The naming of this philosophy parallels the author’s scorn towards blind optimism; it doesn’t do anything but complicate and make things seem completely different than they actually are. Shortly after, Voltaire provides an explanation that this field concentrates on the “incontestable” belief that “this [is] the best of all possible worlds” and everything in it was “made for the best purpose” (20). Using the word, “incontestable”, foreshadows one of Professor Pangloss’ idiosyncrasies that no one will be able to change his mindset and he will always look away from other’s beliefs- even if they are more plausible. The author’s amplification on the adjective, “best”, further exaggerates this character’s tendency to remain blind to the non-optimistic side of things. Pangloss doesn’t think about how this philosophy could affect him and simply follows it verbatim. This is prevalent in his statements such as body parts being specifically designed for clothing, instead of the other way around (20). Voltaire also exaggerates this character’s vast naiveness. As the journey progresses, the author employs an understatement when a character claims that Pangloss “lost …show more content…
The author exaggerates the punishment Candide receives for the minuscule crime of “us[ing] his legs” and writes how he has to choose between being “flogged thirty-six times” by all neighboring people or having “twelve bullets” fired into his brain (24). These punishments are so unusually cruel and completely unjust that when the protagonists optimistically chooses to use the “divine gift called Liberty” and then only survives “two floggings” (24), Voltaire exemplifies Candide’s clouded perception of what is right and wrong. The author then describes a battle the primary characters witness on their journey which features an opening barrage that decimates “six thousand men on each side” and creates a harmony even “Hell itself could not rival” (25). This exaggerated statement provides the canonical mode of logos by giving a detailed account of the monstrous number of deaths and also shows the futility of war. In addition, the author stretches the sounds of the battle to be labeled a “harmony” and gives praise of its “beauty and brilliance” (25) to show that a blindly optimistic view of war hides the horrid reality and truly needless nature of it. Later, Candide and Cunégonde reunite. The author hints upon Cunégonde’s blindly optimistic trait when she tells Candide that she wasn’t “ravished or disembowelled”, acts she deems as “mishaps” (39). This understatement is