To put it gently, life sucks. One cannot “suck out all the marrow out of life,” as Thorough proposed, because, contrarily, life sucks the soul out of everyone. In the end, every man gets battered and beaten until he barely stands and eventually collapses. Similarly, this theme of eventual demise resonates throughout the novel Candide as well as throughout the National Geographic news article “The Afghan Girl Revealed” as both show the change of a person over a course of strenuous events. In Candide, an old woman takes in Candide and his lover, Cunegonde, and travels with them across a border. During this time, she reveals the reasoning behind certain physical marks on her body and how they hinder her daily life. For example, the old woman lacks one of her buttocks from when others made her starve during a war. She willingly cut off half of her derriere so everyone could eat and live. Now, she struggles on horseback and walking remains more difficult. In her life, males have craved power and dominance through any means necessary.
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In this dystopia, everyone remains extremely held back, but their limitations appear visible to Jonas. He sees what everyone else cannot, and notices the specialization of each person. This life of limitations and no choices leads to indefinite misery unless one stays completely ignorant of all that surrounds them. In the novel, the government tries to control all that everyone does like clockwork. The jobs of people can be seen in their faces, as Jonas knew in the beginning his friend would become a nurse. Alas, as one could guess, the government control does not work and good prevails. Contrary to this fictional story, though, Candide stands more realistic. In the end, the old woman never stands up to any of her multiple masters. She remains unhappy, but suffers through it, knowing the simplest way. And sometimes simplicity and speed is all we can ask for in harrowing
In this dystopia, everyone remains extremely held back, but their limitations appear visible to Jonas. He sees what everyone else cannot, and notices the specialization of each person. This life of limitations and no choices leads to indefinite misery unless one stays completely ignorant of all that surrounds them. In the novel, the government tries to control all that everyone does like clockwork. The jobs of people can be seen in their faces, as Jonas knew in the beginning his friend would become a nurse. Alas, as one could guess, the government control does not work and good prevails. Contrary to this fictional story, though, Candide stands more realistic. In the end, the old woman never stands up to any of her multiple masters. She remains unhappy, but suffers through it, knowing the simplest way. And sometimes simplicity and speed is all we can ask for in harrowing