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( I )
Candide is not a novel centered around individualized realistic characters, who are like other men, whose psyches are deep and complex like the readers, and whose personalities and motivations are related to by the reader. Rather Candide is what literary historians would consider a philosophical tale, a narrative meant to illustrate ideas, or prove a point based on those ideas. ... Had Voltaire simply wanted to illustrate the flawed nature of the philosophy, the narration would not be a means of achieving the philosophical end, but the sharp narration influences the reader by coloring his or her perspective and makes him or her sympathetic to Candide. ... Not only does the narration create sympathy for Candide, but also it assumes intelligence on the readers behalf that he or she is capable of drawing the conclusions established by the devices Voltaire employs to gain his philosophical purpose. ... Historically based, with reference to real events of the eighteenth century, such as the Lisbon earthquake, which killed 40,000 people, Voltaires conclusions of the antithesis of reality and the ideal came into coexistence. ... However what Candide precisely does as a work of literature is demonstrate the impossibility of accepting that position. "Fundamental to Candide is the intrusion, or more strongly, the irruption of the real world into the ideal"(Greider). ... Greider in her essay on Orthodox and Paradox: The Structure of Candide, attempts to show that the orthodox within the novel, establishes the paradox. ...
In chapter two the Bulgarian soldiers engage Candide into conversation and then, "drink to his health" (Voltaire 11). It is here that in Candide accepting this he becomes a soldier, but as the Bulgarian soldier say, "you are now the support, the defender, the hero of the Bulgarians…"(Voltaire 11). ... Hero goes onto assert that perhaps this is the best thing that could have happened to Candide, but as the reader continues on to the end of chapter two he or she realizes that, "he had gone through two flogging…that made for him exactly 4,000 strokes, which lay bare all his muscles and nerves form nape of his neck to his rump"(Voltaire 11). ... This is to say that, like in chapter three when Candide is off at war, and he sees the soldiers viewing "wives dying with their throat cut, and hugging their children to their breast, all stained blood,"(Voltaire 17) things like murder and rape become overused and that perhaps the constant repetition has created apathy and that is the cause of human suffering.
Approximate Word count = 1963
Approximate Pages = 7.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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