Ch. 5-6

Candide

P. 32-37

January 6, 2008

12:00 P.M.

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......Chapter 5 critisizes the selfishness that rules humanity. James, the righteous Anabaptist, rushed to help a soldier that was going to drown, but he was received with his own death after the sailor let him die in the rough sea. As I was reading this example I related it to Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene." Jame was completely altruistic, his own survival did not cross his mind during his heroic act. He was willing to risk his own survival for someone else that wasn't willing to do that for him. This is somewhat survival of the fittest. Once the sailor was safely on board, he knew that if he tried to save James he would probably perish too, so he desisted. James saved the sailor without measuring the risks or the possible repercussions. Apart from connecting this scene to "The Selfish Gene" I think Voltaire wanted to show how selfishless can destroy humanity and leave it in the deepest dump there is. After the sailor indirectly helped drown James and after the earthquake hit Lisbon, he decided to look around the ruined city and the dying people for money to steal. This shows how selfishness and indifference plague humanity. I mean, how evil can you be to steal from a dying person instead of getting them help? How can anyone be capable of that? Yet, we are as amazing as it sounds even to our own ears. What I found peculiar about this chapter was the mention of an Inquisition officer. I have yet to understand what his conversation with Pangloss means or represents.

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.......Chapter 6 is horriby absurd and superstitious. People live by their superstitions and will accept any answer when they are looking for one to explain something which they know nothing about. People in Lisbon thought that by burning and hanging and flogging they could escape the natural disaster that an earthquake represents. Voltaire satires the ignorance and fakes bliss in which humanity lives. Just as well, he wants to portray how gullible we are. In the story people are willing to murder just to prevent something unpreventable. Voltaire does a good job at frustrating the reader. How can be people be so dumb? Superstitions are a horrible plague that will destroy all of humanity.

Ch. 3-4

Candide

p. 25-32

January 6, 2008

9:55 A.M.

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......In the third chapter, Voltaire critisizes how easily life is ended because of silly disputes. After "thirty thousand deaths" the Kings are celebrating their victory. What victory? They just killed thirty thousand men because of their egocentricity; how can anyone be proud of that? He compares the beauty of this scene to hell, but argues that "the artillery produced such a harmony as Hell itself cannot rival (25)." That he whole absurdity of war, how can people celebrate such murder, such misery caused to humanity. When Candide cannot bear this bloody scene, he runs to the nearest village to fiind how innocent civilians were murdered and how "girls who had satisfied the appetites of several heroes lay disembowelled in their last agonies (26)." I think that Voltaire hit the nails right in the head when he stated this. The absurdity is this: how can these men that have violated respect and morality be called heroes? Heroes for the devil people must think because they are nothing more than that. He also this chapter to satire religious morality and the principles that religion teaches. How can someone that preaches religion and CHARITY not lend a helping hand to a lost soul? That's absurd.

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......The only absurdity I understood from the fourth chapter was the fact that Candide was part of the side that murdered his beloved Cunegonde. When Candide goes to help a poor beggar, he finds out it's Pangloss, his teacher. He is shocked to see him in such a deteriorating state. How can someone with such "prestige" be in such rags. His only concern is to find out about his love. When Pangloss tells him that she was murdered by the Bulgars, the side that he swore allegiance to, Candide is completely devastated. The irony in this is that he was one of the heroes that killed his love. How absurd is that? The message here is that ignorance can mislead us into wrong choices.