Candide's Metamorphosis
...arre forms of reasoning composed by Professor Pangloss. In Chapter 1, Pangloss professes that "our noses were made to carry spectacles, so we have spectacles," and that "since pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all the year round." This rationalization is totally bizarre and could not be applied to any reasonable mode of thought (especially the latter, which would be quickly dismissed by Vegans, Vegetarians, Muslims, and Jews!). After Candide is eventually banished from the house of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, he is taken in by James (the Anabaptist). After discovering Pangloss in a wretched state, eventually Candide, James, and Pangloss set off to Lisbon. As James drowns, Pangloss stops Candide from saving the Anabaptist by saying that the "Lisbon harbour was made on purpose for this Anabaptist to drown here." These quotes symbolize the type of thinking found in Voltaire's day. This was the type of thinking that the Enlightenment school of thought was trying to get away from, and the type of nonsense Candide will challenge to some extent at the end and soon break away from. The first example of Candide's emancipation from mental slavery can be seen in his experiences in Eldorado. In Chapter seventeen, Candide announces his first rejection to Pangloss' way of thinking by stating that "whatever Professor Pangloss might say, I often noticed that all went badly in Westphalia." His understanding (or lack thereof) of the things he and Cacambo discover in Eldorado forces him to at least question the idea that "all is for the best" as perceived by Pangloss. This place also symbolizes Voltaire's idea utopia where man might one day arrive at the type of thinking that Voltaire agreed with. In chapter nineteen, we see several examples of how Candide comes into conflict with the Pangloss school of thought. After much thought, Candide and Cacambo decide to depart from Eldorado to continue their search for Cunegonde. Upon seeing a slave with only one leg and one hand, Candide cries out that he will (directed towards Pangloss who is not there) "have to renounce that optimism of yours in the end." When trying to find a way to reach Venice, Candide is duped by Mr. Vanderdendur. This experience leads him to an overly depressed state of mind ("his mind became a prey to gloomy thoug...