How Voltaire utilizes Candide, Pangloss,and Martin to satirize how blind optimism hinders the perception of reality

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Blind optimism has concealed the eyes of human beings from the defects of the world since the age of Enlightenment. Defying the archaic thinking of society, Voltaire searched for practical and useful knowledge to explain the world he lived in. Voltaire mocked philosophers, such as Leibniz ,who believed in the “best of all possible worlds” ,and presupposed that all things happen for a reason rather than convincing himself that good and bad are one and the same( 12). The term blind optimism refers to naievty, or having a tendency to expect the best of all possible outcomes and never accepting conclusions in a negative way. In the novel Candide, Voltaire strikes his major characters with atrocious events to challenge the unquestionable optimistic view of the world, showing how ludicrous blind optimism truly is. Voltaire exemplifies this notion by utilizing characterization of his characters Candide, Pangloss, and Martin to satirically demonstrate how blind optimism hinders the perception of reality
Candide is outlined to be excessively trustworthy in everything he is disclosed to, and thus, childlike. After Candide is kicked out of his castle, he is approached by two soldiers who ask him if he “has great affection for the King of Bulgarians”, and when Candide replies that he doesn't know of the King, the two soldiers invite Candid to “drink to [ the king’s] health”.As Candide joins them and drinks to a king he has never known “with all his heart”, he demonstrates lack of independence for himself. The soldiers then take Candide to join their army and he goes willfully, contented to be a involved in Bulgarian army. As Candide is exposed to many horrors such as war, abuse, and homelessness, he realizes life is not constantly jubilant ,...

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...the Turk ,Candide finally finds contentment in his work and establishes what Voltaires considers the correct mindset - positivity and negativity are only good in moderation.Candide finds that he mustn't need to find the good or bad in everything; that with cultivating his garden he is also cultivating his own life to his own liking.
Through the characterization of his characters Voltaire shows the defaults of being blind, thus Pangloss and Martin never found contentment when trying to find the good or bad in everything as for Candide found more peace when he found how to “cultivate”(129) his own garden.He found that it does not matter “whether there is good or evil”(128), that even though the world has its positive, and negative moments you have to live them.

Works Cited

Voltaire. Candide. Trans. Henry Morley and Laura Walsh. New York: Barnes&Noble, 2003. Print.

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