Book Candide Essay

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Candide: Optimism
The book Candide by Voltaire is about a man that gets into some tight spots but he stays optimistic throughout all the trials. The Baron banished Candide from his castle for kissing his daughter, Cunégonde, a woman he claimed to love. After, he had been forced into joining the Bulgarian army; he experiences the hardships of war. He then leaves for Holland. There meets Jacques the Anabaptist, and finds the philosopher and his teacher, Dr. Pangloss. Who has turned into a beggar with a deadly disease. Pangloss tells him that the Bulgarians raped and disemboweled Cunégonde. Next, Candide, Jacques, and Pangloss sail to Lisbon, but during their journey a storm destroys the ship. The Anabaptist drowns, and Candide and Pangloss survive only to find an earthquake and tidal wave wiped out Lisbon.
Pangloss insists that even though the Lisbon has been totally destroyed, “the world is still the best of all possible worlds.” This is him showing his optimism despite their misfortune. Then Pangloss gets hung for making a unlike answer while Candide received a beaten during a Spanish Inquisition ceremony. After this, an old woman reunites Candide with Cunégonde, who survived the Bulgarian raid, the rape, and partial disembowelment. Cunégonde has now become involved with both Don Issachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon. After hearing this, Candide murders both of them, then runs away to Cadiz with Cunégonde and the old woman. When he gets there he volunteers to fight the Jesuits in Paraguay. Then they sail to Buenos Aires, however, shortly after they arrive the old woman spots a ship from Spain following them.
Candide and his servant Cacambo then go and join the Jesuits instead, where the Commandant of the Jesuits happens to be Cunégonde's brother. Everything goes wrong for Candide when Cunégonde brother forbids him to marry Cunégonde, leading Candide to stab him. Candide and Cacambo getaway but get captured by the Oreillons, a tribe of Indians. Cacambo convinces the Oreillons to let them go. Candide and Cacambo then come across the Utopian empire of Eldorado but leave to find Cunégonde. Next they go to Surinam where Candide is hustled by a Dutch sailor and a judge. He sends Cacambo to go and get Cunégonde in Buenos Aires and to meet up with him afterwards in Venice; where Candide
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