Voltaire: We Must Cultivate Our Garden
...Candide the misconception that “everything is for the best.” They assure him fortune and glory and assure him, “Not only will we pay for you, but we will not see a man such as yourself go short either. Man was made that he might help his fellow-man (Voltaire, 4).” Unknowingly, Candide does the same to Paquette: “Candide gave Paquette two thousand piastres, and Brother Giroflee a thousand. ‘I guarantee you,’ he said, ‘that with this money they’ll be happy (Voltaire 77).’” Martin correctly predicts, “I shouldn’t think so…with these piastres you may make them even more unhappy still (Voltaire, 77).” In both situations, rewards unjustly earned do little to benefit the receiver because the garden has remained un-watered. Voltaire uses the two examples to emphasize the idea that the treasure is not the crop yielded but the seed sown. In his conversation with the old gardener, Candide learns that boredom is among the three evils driven away by work. Voltaire uses Count Pococurante to illustrate boredom’s toll on those who are monastically able to afford comfort but nonetheless lack the purpose and meaning to truly enjoy life. The garden is mentioned in Cadide’s tour of Count Pococurante’s mansion: “Having thus inspected all the books, they went down into the garden. Candide praised all its finer features (Voltaire, 83).” Pococurante speaks of planting a new one “along much nobler lines” and criticizes his garden: “I know nothing that could be in worse possible taste (Voltaire, 83).” Pococurante is obviously unhappy with his garden, suggesting he has not been particularly diligent in cultivating it. Needless to say, his boredom with life is associated with the absence of work. In the Conclusion, the surviving characters of Candide are slowly dying of boredom. The old woman complains, “I would like to know which is worse:…suffering all the misfortunes we’ve suffered, or simply being stuck here doing nothing (Voltaire, 96)?” Candide fulfills what he set out to do since Chapter 1 by marrying Cundegonde. His dissatisfaction is a result of lack of further desire. Candide’s symptoms are similar to those that plague the Count Pococurante. Without work, humans are unable to test their abilities in order to achieve a higher standard of life. In the final chapter of Candide, Pangloss, Candide, and Martin try to summarize the events and analyze them to create a formula for the happiness no one has yet been able to experience. They seek the advice of the dervish who “slams the door in their faces” when Candide asks him to explain philosophical ideas: “Master, we have come to ask you to tell us why such a strange animal as man was created.” This event summarizes the idea that man must cultivate his garden to yield anything of true value. Candide learns to find an answer to his own question: “…when man was placed in the garden of Eden, he was placed there ut operaretur eum—that he might work—which proves that man was not b...