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- Candide
François-Marie Arouet, the man known to all as Voltaire, was a writer, a poet, a playwright, a critic, a rebel, a great thinker, a humanitarian, and above all else the force behind the Age of Reason. ... One of Voltaire’s best-known works, Candide, uses satire to attack everything and everyone he disagreed with. In his tale of Candide’s journey, both literally and philosophically, Voltaire pokes fun at the church, religion in general, at the government, at greed, as well as expresses his loathing of war and cruelty. ... Voltaire’s Candide applied well to the world he lived in, but can also be related to our modern world. Were Voltaire alive today, he would have a field day pointing out that, “We do not live in the best of all possible worlds” with all the injustices and evils that are all too apparent.
Voltaire spoke of his hatred for war, the military, and man’s above all else in Candide. ... Even today, our own country has just ended its war with Iraq, which Voltaire undoubtedly would have been against, no matter what the government’s excuse was. ... Throughout Candide he satirized war and the military at every opportunity. From Candide being punished by the gauntlet to the British admiral being executed, Voltaire continually made his disgust known. ... He writes in Candide, “…girls who had been disemboweled after satisfying the natural needs of several heroes were breathing there last sighs; others, mortally burned, were shrieking for someone to hasten their death”(23). ...
Voltaire also attacks the church and organized religion in Candide. On several occasions throughout the story, Candide’s journey introduces us to a religious leader who is immoral and hypocritical. Candide encounters the Inquisitor who keeps a mistress and attempts to put people to death with an auto-de-fe. ... The current scandals in the Catholic church, in which a number of priests have been accused of molesting and taking advantage of young boys, would certainly fit into his attacks against the Church in Candide. Voltaire also points out the Church’s hypocrisy of being against superstition and the murder of another of God’s children in Candide. Cunegonde, Candide’s love, says of the Inquisitor, “Finally, to ward off the scourge of earthquakes and intimidate Don Issachar, the Inquisitor decided to celebrate an auto-de-fe”(35).
Approximate Word count = 1871
Approximate Pages = 7.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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