Guest Blogger - Garrett S.

Is it really all for the best? Does syphilis not matter when you have chocolate? Was the ocean’s one and only purpose to drown you at a certain time in your life? If you ask any of these questions today, people (I would hope) would say of course not. However, in the early 1750’s, when optimism played a very key role in people’s religious lives, they would say it all happened for a reason; it really all was for the best. It was this “blind optimism” that inspired Voltaire to write “Candide”. While this wasn’t his first attempt to raise questions about religion in general (Voltaire’s failed “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster”, was one of his earlier attempts”), it certainly was his most affective piece of literature. But did it really change anything? I personally think it did just a little bit. If the people reading can realize that Candide changes from a blind optimism to a more realistic sense of the world around him, maybe they would too, and begin to question more things, and further fuel The Age of Enlightenment. Also, the ridiculous things that happen in this book could have an impact as well. If someone reading were to say “How can Pangloss say it’s for the best when he has syphilis?” they might look at their own lives and realize that they might have said it’s for the best about something ridiculous too, like say an earthquake followed by a tsunami, then fire, and finally the Black Plague. But those are just my thoughts. Just one last thing! A quick question I was thinking of. If something like “Candide” were written in a modern sense, what would it be written about? What would the issue be? What impact would it have on today’s society? Thanks, and if you have any questions, just comment!