When Candide and Cacambo were on their journey they saw a man "stretched upon the ground, with only one moeity of his clothes, that is, of his blue linen drawers; the poor man had lost his left leg and right hand." Candide then asks him what he was doing lying there in that condition and he said he was waiting for his master. Candide knew who his master was and he was very shocked by the condition the man was. Do you think that there is a purpose for Candide to meet the man ? 

Candide Continues Killing

Candide is just a little crazy. I think his emotions are getting the best of him. When he tries expressing them, he kills somebody. His most influential emotion would be how he feels about Cunegonde. He got jealous about how the guys were sharing Cunegonde, and he didn't want to hare her. So, he killed them. Its so hard for him to enjoy some of the greater things he is shown because he misses her so much. After asking Cunegonde's brother from their hand in marriage, her brother says no. Candide becomes enraged and acts accordingly. Candide kills his love's brother who she was unaware of his survival. He kills when there is someone in the way of his love, and that is very unstable. Falling in love can making someone unstable and confused, slightly crazy too. Therefore, there is a fine line between love and craziness for Candide.

"Everything necessarily serves the best end.”

Pangloss is the driving force behind the satire Voltaire creates.  "Everything necessarily serves the best end.”  This quote is essentially the basis of Pangloss’s belief.  This optimism, that everything happens for a reason, is the main target of satire for Voltaire.  What makes Pangloss such an interesting character is the fact that he is completely unbelievable.  He is a greatly exaggerated version of a person of faith.

An important part of the satirical nature of Pangloss is the absolutely expressive amount of  hardships that he goes through; he has syphilis, is nearly killed, and put in prison. Through all this he still maintains his belief that all is right with the world.  He let a man die.  He could have saved James, but chose not to because “the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in.”  The very nature of this character is utterly ridiculous.  Anyone with common sense would choose not follow the beliefs of Pangloss, but the fact that Candide follows him blindly is part of Voltaire’s commentary that there will always be those who cannot, or do not want to think for themselves and would rather have someone do it for them.

Source: Baruch College

http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/kaufmaneng2850/2012/09/11/pangloss-a-character-study/

Satire

According to the dictionary, satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or  vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Basically is is making fun of all topics. It can be in politics, like making fun of the president, or about phones. When a writer uses satire, they typically use hyperbole's, irony and sarcasm. These literary devices to exaggerate the topic of discussion. There are many people, such as Key And Peele, who use satire all the time. it is all over the internet, they make fun of things that people do or say. There are satirical videos on the iPhone. This book, Candide, is a satirical work of literature. It satirizes romance, science, philosophy, religion and government.

Character Analysis: Old Woman

The kind old woman is first introduced to us when she takes Candide into her care after the auto-da-fe. The old woman was once young and rich. She had everything that she could have ever wanted in life, but one day that all changed. After all of the tragedies that happened to her (raped, sold, eaten), she still remains extremely happy to be alive and she also believes that life is very beautiful. The old woman knows that things are bad, but she still accepts this and stays hopeful. Her honest hope is far greater than the ignorant optimism of Candide and Pangloss. The old woman is a symbol of how someone can go through many obstacles, yet still remain strong and hopeful. An indirect characterization of this character would be that she is strong willed and hopeful. The old woman is also an example of a static character because she stays the same throughout most of the book despite everything that happens.

Candide believes that Cunegonde is dead because he thought he saw her being cut open by a soldier. When he meets the old lady she leads him to Cunegonde. He is so shocked and confused about how she survived the brutally of the soldiers. So he starts drowning her with questions because he is eager to understand how this is possible. She explains to him how she survived the brutality and how she found him. 

Why do you think the author decided to keep Cunegonde alive?  Why did he use the old lady as a way for them to meet again?

Pangloss's Philosophy

"...its the best of all possible worlds..."

It's like the problem of evil. The problem of evil is that there is an all and powerful God, yet we have so much suffering in thi world. Dr. Pangloss has this belief that even with all this strife in the world, this is the best way it can be. That God created the world this way for a reason that we may never know. However, it leads us to question why Dr. Pangloss would tell Candide if this tale that all the bad that is going on is God's plan. Candide suffers alot, and will continue to suffer as we read on from what I assume.

Dr. Pangloss was Candide's mentor, and taught him that God is all powerful and what God did was better than an alternative. In spite of his beliefs, it was what led himn to his ultimate death. He believed in things that was agianst the ways of the Catholic Church, and was hung for that (an audodefe). I don't think Candide has yet to fully understand why Dr. Pangloss died the way he did, but as he comes to face reality.

Cunegonde As Apple Of Eden

Typically in books written in 1700s France, we would expect to see women portrayed in a certain fashion; foolish, meddlesome, nosy, or maybe sexual. They're written to serve, one way or another. Cunegonde is different. She doesn't play the shallow role of the ditsy Duke's daughter that we may expect. Instead, she represents something much more significant to Candide.

Cunegonde was Candide's forbidden fruit. He lived in the garden of Eden, the best of possible castles in the best of possible worlds. He was exiled when he tasted the forbidden fruit, Cunegonde. Even after his exile, even after receiving word of her fate, he continues to lust and want for her. I believe she represents that little rift in this best of possible worlds that makes one question the                                                         legitimacy of its perfection. 

Characterization

There are two main methods of characterization: direct and indirect. 

Direct characterization is what the author directly states about the character. An example of direct characterization would be if the author states in the book that the character is small and weak minded or if the character is scared of anything. 

Indirect characterization is what the reader perceives about the character without anyone telling him/her. An example of this would be if the reader notices that the character gets nervous around females. Another example of indirect characterization would be if another character describes a character as 'Scared of women and small'.
Think about direct characterization as what the narrator writes about the character and indirect characterization as what the reader notices about the character or what another character states about a character.

Characters can either be dynamic or static.
Dynamic characters are characters that change due to experiences in the text.
Static characters are character that do not change due to the experiences that they have in the text. The readers opinion of the static character might change, but the character will stay the same.

Character Analysis: Candide

Candide is Voltaire's naively optimistic protagonist. He lived in a Castle in Westphalia. While there he had a tutor, Pangloss, who taught him that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Pangloss said this about everything and it became Candide's way of life. Candide gets thrown out of the castle for kissing Cunegonde, the baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh's daughter, and travels to Waldberghofftrarbk-dikdorff. While there he gets enlisted in the army and experiences other things that makes him realize that everything is not for the best. Now that he has experienced other things he is no longer as naive or optimistic as before.

Candide, Cunegonde, and the old lady were running away because they did not want to get caught for the murder. They did not have money so the old lady told them to sell one of the horses and she would ride with Cunegonde.