10. What is the significance of the “six kings” (Chap. 26)
The six kings were thrown in to the story for Voltair to make a point that power is not definite. All six of the kings were once in power, but in the end, Candide gives the most amount of charity (pg. 76) and the kings remain obscure beggars.
11. What does "We must cultivate our garden," Candide's epiphany, mean in the context of Voltaire's satire? In the context of 21st century life?
Voltaire satirizes both Pangloss’s beliefs and Martin’s beliefs to show the absurdity of their philosophies. At the end of the book, Voltaire has Candide form his own philosophy stating that you need to work to earn things and not just wait until they happen. Pangloss’s theory takes the idea of waiting for things to happen to an extreme as he believes that tragedies are meant to happen in order to achieve what you want. Martin believes that nothing good happens and that all events are inevitable and don’t lead to anything positive.
Voltaire satirizes their theories to show the ridiculousness of their …show more content…
● Candide falls in love with Cunegonde and gets kicked out of the house.
The next chapter however, Candide gets taken in by Bulgarians and beat almost to death. In writing such a fast paced beginning to the novel,
Voltaire moves along the plot and allows Candide on his journey. (pg 2-4)
● Chapter 7, page 15, the old woman saves Candide from an almost certain death after being flogged.
● When Pangloss and the Baron are actually alive (pg 80) -- to pull the story together with the characters all having been through tragedy and making it out alive. Candide is allowed to form his own philosophy after hearing how two men basically came back to life with terrible odds
● Although Candide travels from place to place for longer periods of time, each place is written only as a few paragraphs or a chapter in the book.
However, El Dorado was the only location Voltaire writes more on to show the importance of the place and the impact it caused on Candide’s journey. The deus ex machina in this instance is that the reader doesn’t know much about what happened in each place, just that it happened.
13. Liebniz' idea of causality drives Voltaire's satire. In other words,