Candide is dependent upon other characters in Candide by Voltaire by needing them to tell him how to think and how to act and how to look at think of the world. He starts out with Pangloss whose philosophy is that everything is for the best and the world is the best world there is. After Pangloss, Candide finds Cacambo and then after Candide’s separation from Cacambo he enlists Martin to travel with him to France.
For my blogging I’m going to talk about Candide’s dependence upon each of the characters I’ve already mentioned. First is Pangloss: Candide clings to Pangloss’s philosophy throughout the book and depends upon it to help him cope with and explain away all the tragedy and misfortunes around him. Pangloss explains syphilis away by saying that it came back with Christopher Columbus and it was ok because along with syphilis Columbus brought back chocolate and because Pangloss says it Candide believes it.
Next is Cacambo: Candide doesn’t look to Cacambo for philosophical advice he depends on Cacambo to help him through all of the messes he is inexplicably drawn into. Like for example after Candide kills Cunegonde’s brother, the Jesuit Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh Candide looks to Cacambo to help him chose a plan of escape. It was Cacambo who talked their way out of being eaten too when Candide did nothing to save himself.
Lastly is Martin. Martin is the exact opposite of Pangloss. He is a pessimist whereas Pangloss is a optimist. Martin is forever finding the negative and harsh side of life and Candide begins to believe him. The two had many arguments and bets and debates on happiness in life. It says “Candide stopped in Bordeaux only long enough to sell a few Eldorado pebbles and provide himself with a good carriage—a two-seated one, for he could no longer do without his philosopher, Martin” (Voltaire 81) this proves Candide’s dependence upon his new found companion.
So obviously Candide is just a dependent person and isn’t really very picky about who it is he depends on. He went from a optimist philosopher to a experienced companion that helped him out of sticky situations to a philosopher was is so pessimistic it turns the stomach. There is a million different things I could say but I’m not going to, I’m going to depend upon you guys to keeps talking about this blog in the comments.
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First i would just want to say "Hi Patty!"
ReplyDeleteOk. Now that is over. I completely agree with your views because these are'nt the only people he depends on. These are just the people he depends on most heavily. When you think about it he has never had to do anything by himself. He always lived in a Baron's castle where he had people waiting on him and didn't have to pay for anything. Then of course Pangloss. Than he depended on John The Baptist to take care of him AND Pangloss in their time of need. He also depends on the advice from the old women. Within the whole book Candide never does anyhting for himself and I think that's what Voltaire was getting at. That no one in the world can truly fend for themself, that they always need help doing somehting.