Friday, May 1, 2015

Candide (the division of booty)


Alright-y folks, here's the low down on Candide:

We've got some themes here like...

  • Philosophy (Optimism)
  • Society's class structure
  • Religion
  • Suffering
  • Love <3
  • Fortune
  • War

These themes get expressed through some of the following recurring symbols and motifs:

  • Resurrection - seriously, everybody comes back to life
  • Rape
  • The garden
  • The Lisbon Earthquake
Here are some kinda important quotes:

"When they were not arguing, the boredom was so fierce that one day the old woman ventured to say: —I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fé, being dissected and rowing in the galleys—experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed—or else just sitting here and doing nothing? —It’s a hard question, said Candide. These words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom"

"That is very well put, said Candide, but we must go and work our garden."

"It is clear, said he, that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end. Observe: noses were made to support spectacles, hence we have spectacles."



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