A Rare Awareness

There are many ways in which we cope with misfortune. Some people suffer for the rest of their lives, some get over it very quickly, and some relate it to other stories in order to feel better. As I was reading Candide I noticed how everybody has gone through some type of misfortune. If “all things are necessarily connected and arranged for the best” as Pangloss mentions then we should not suffer. Bad things do not exist. All that happens is great. The first time I read all of this I was not convinced with what it was being suggesting. As I go deeper into the book I realized that maybe, what Pangloss taught Candide was wrong. He was very important at the beginning of the book and his death came as a great surprise to me. I wonder if his death was a way of telling the reader that his ideas must die with him.

Competition is something that can be either deadly or great. This urge is what pushes us to beat the limits and the odds and surpass every obstacle. It is one of the few reasons why we can advance so rapidly. The satisfaction we get when we are good at something or better than the other that people go to great lengths to achieve it. It is where cheating started and will probably continue for as long as we exist. Voltaire shows this to the reader by telling Cunegonde’s story: “Unless you have been ravished by two Bulgars, had two stabs in your belly, and two of your country houses demolished; unless you have had two mothers and two fathers butchered before your eyes and beheld two of your lovers flogged at an auto-da-fé, I don’t see how you can rival me, especially as I am a baron’s daughter with seventy-two quarterings in my coat of arms, and yet have served as a kitchen maid (p.48-49).” By saying that she suffered more than the others makes her feel empowered. It is very ironical. You should not feel proud of you tragedy. Voltaire gives the reader a lot of room for interpretation and that means that there is more room for learning.