On the surface Candide is a clever story but however when inspected deeper it is nothing more than a tirade of words against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times. Candide has reason only in the form of a companion

Candide is consistently being brainwashed by reason (Pangloss) saying that we live in “the best of all possible worlds”, while it is quite obviously that he does not. For how can there be, in the best of all worlds, war, slavery and many more abominations. Halfway through the book it would appear that Candide has given up his optimism when he looked at the Negro slave. “Oh Pangloss... I’ll have to give up your optimism at last” (73). But to the distress of the readers he has not given up his chafing optimism. “Since I found you [an Eldoradian sheep laden with stones], I’m sure I can find Cunegnde again” (79). Thus we see that he has quickly recovered his optimism. Voltaire is using Candide's blatant optimism to relate to the people of his time that also have the same type of optimism.

Candide is a book that attempts to help explain a time period better. It may be difficult for some readers to understand it because it sometime uses Voltaire’s language. If one wants to better understand him and his work, then they better do some reading before attempting to read Candide. Maybe to better understand Candide one should do a background check on Voltaire end or the Enlightenment. If one can eventually understand the book they will come to realize that it was very important and influential to the people of the time period. It would also be very influential in helping a person nowadays understand the time period and the Enlightenment much better. Candide is one of Voltaire’s many pieces of writings that I would suggest reading to help understand him and views about the Enlightenment period.

This book relates to class lectures and other readings throughout. In class we talked about Voltaire and how he wrote Candide and was the leader of the Enlightenment during his time period. We talked of how it was considered Voltaire’s greatest and most significant work. The book itself tells of all his plans such as his criticism against

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