Humanity In Voltaire's Candide

Since, perhaps, the birth of the human race, humankind has explored in various forms or another, the notion of who they are at the very core. Are humans a dark and selfish species or are they of a more highly evolved respectful and reverent nature? In what is perhaps Voltaire’s quintessential work Candide, the main character Candide asks his scholarly companion Martin, “Do you believe that men have always massacred one another as they do today? That they have always been liars, traitors, ingrates, thieves, weaklings, sneaks, cowards, backbiters, gluttons, drunkards, misers, climbers, killers, calumniators, sensualists, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools (Voltaire)?” This turning point of the story expresses a very dark portrayal of humankind, …show more content…
In Wedding at the Cross, Thiong’o writes of a woman telling the story of her love. Miriamu, the central character, tells of how she loved a man deeply, a love that garnered much disapproval from her wealthy father. The man, Wariuki, was an impoverished town drunk, who sought to improve his standing in the father’s eyes. Wariuki started a business and went to war; he reinvented himself by taking a new, one that was more anglicized and these acts completely changed how Miriamu thought and felt about Wariuki. When it came time for her to marry him, at the foot of the cross, she could not go through with it. Miriamu emphatically stated, “No, I cannot…I cannot marry Livingstone…because…because…I have been married before. I am married to…to…Wariuki…and he is dead (Cross).” The quote illustrates that she is neither a fool nor a coward; she stood up for herself and knew that she could not go through with the wedding and marry a man that was no longer the same as the one she fell in love with. Despite how her father had felt; despite her own feelings of deep and abiding love Miriamu left a man she cared for because he was no longer the same man, but rather, he was only a remnant of his former