Summary:
Throughout his novel Candide, Voltaire utilized satire, characterization, and techniques of exaggeration and contrast to attack Candide's two-dimensional outlook on life and to disprove the overly optimistic philosophy that Candide and Pangloss represent. While the experiences of Candide and Pangloss conflict dramatically with this philosophy, both choose to maintain their beliefs in this regard. The conflict signifies Voltaire's use of the novel -- a purely Enlightenment work -- to criticize certain aspects of the Enlightenment itself.
Candide Analysis
Voltaire uses the novel Candide as a tool to impugn the various aspects of his zeitgeist. Through characterization and satire and his techniques of exaggeration and contrast, he attacks multiple points of view and even the Enlightenment he represented. Candide is a story about the two dimensional character of Candide, who is taught from birth not to think for himself and to accept the ideals of others. He chooses to follow the local philosopher Pangloss, who preaches that everything is good, and that the world is the "best of all possible worlds" (Voltaire 12). Throughout the story, Voltaire dramatically disproves this philosophy over and over, but the protagonist sticks with this belief. Each of the characters in Candide represent a different aspect of his zeitgeist, most of whom Voltaire brutally attacks with his satire. Both.....
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