Saturday, May 19, 2012

What does Candide learn through the book?

That's a good and tough question. In the beginning of the novel, Candide simply learns that the world is not what he had thought it was—that it was more, and more rugged. He starts naïve, and sees the world.

He then learns fate and mercy, when he is forced into the military, and then saved from a whipping.

He learns that there are more complex ways to view the world when he talks with the philosopher, and, more generally, that there are many views of the world.

His final lesson, which may not be the book's lesson, comes in the end of the novel, where he learns that this is, as Pangloss taught, the best of all possible worlds, and that we must all "cultivate our garden."

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