Candide’s Journey to Maturity
In class, Dr. Sol mentioned that Candide’s adventures were his journey of maturity. This maturation ties in with the Enlightenment emphasis on questioning everything and reasoning out what is true through observation. At the beginning of the book, Candide believes all that he has been taught by Pangloss-namely that this is the best of all possible worlds. It is only when Candide is exiled from the Baron’s castle that he begins to experience the real world and to make observations about what the world is really like. He hangs on to what he has been taught even while seeing the evil that men do to each other in battle, but when he is whipped and sees Pangloss hanged, he begins to doubt, saying, “If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?” In his travels he hears the stories of others who have suffered more than he has and he witnesses the mistreatment of man toward man. In Surinam Candide despairs of trusting in Pangloss’ teachings, maintaining that it is the, “madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.” As he continues on his journey, Candide vacilates between embracing and discarding the optimism that he had learned from Pangloss. When he is hopefull of reuniting with Cunegonde, he remarks that “all goes as well as possible,” but reverses his position when she is not in Venice, saying,” all is misery and illusion.” When he reunites with Cunegonde, however, he is not happy. Even Pangloss does not believe his own tenets, though he continues to champion them.
Candide finds an answer to his question of happiness in life by observing the farmer who is content by cultivating his garden with his family. Candide’s newfound belief is not something that he has been taught naively embraces, but a belif that he has arrived at through experience ad observation. The answers to life’s big questions may not be answerable, but one can find happiness through contributing to his society of friends and family by working together with them to accomplish a goal. This combination of experience and seeking one’s own answers in life is a process which we all go through as we mature. Our parents teach us what they believe is true, but to grow up, we must examine their beliefs to see if they are valid for our lives. Sometimes this process results in embracing the very things our parents taught us, and sometimes we reject what they believe, as did Candide. In either outcome, we end up with our own beliefs about life instead of borrowed beliefs that are unexamined.
I would counter that those of us who are thinking adults do look at what our parents taught us and also our experiences and then make our own decisions/ beliefs that may or may not be different. However, I see a lot of people who just believe XYZ because “that is the way it has always been” or simply that is all they have known, so thats what they believe. I guess my growing up in rural West Virginia, I have witnessed such backwardness and non-thinking in the lives of so many people. It takes me about 2 weeks when I visit there to want to run screaming away as far as I can. Even in 2007, there are too many non-thinkers who are just plain idiots when it comes to using their brain to come up with why they believe what they do.
I agree that Candide did in the end form and recognize his own beliefs. Pangloss’ theory was contradicated again and again, and it seemed that he had to taught the same lesson repeatly until it was a situation that left him little choice. Candide did a lot of questioning, but it was interesting that he seemed to want to reinforce what he was taught and was reluctant to change it. And today we have a tendancy to stick with what’s easier and more confortable. Without evaluating and really thinking about it, a lot of people just repeat what they have heard. I agree with first comment that few people seem to question why they believe what they do. Thank you. That was a good post.
When push came to shove, Candide ultimately went the way of common sense, even if underneath he was still questioning the theories of Pangloss. I think he tried to keep those thoughts alive as long as it was actually feasible, but after experiencing both the horrors of European life and the utopia of El Dorado, he came up with the compromise that Volataire was perhaps pointing out: find something sensible that gives you a purpose in life, and little by little you will be able to cultivate a garden that is a relatively good place to live, even if it is not the Garden of Eden. The “Experience and observation” that you point out, are, I believe the essential questions here. Good thought-provoking post.