Candide or Optimism: An Initiatory Journey of Self-Discovery

Extract

[...] Voltaire also criticizes religion and religious fanaticism, which in fact does more harm than good. However, it would be to reduce the work of the philosopher of the Enlightenment to say that it is solely critical. Indeed, in the final chapter of Candide, through the theme of the garden, we have a reflection on culture in all the richness of the term's polysemy. The garden is indeed a promise of food in the most material sense of the term through the fruits and vegetables that we can think of there. [...]

[...] In general, we can say that Montaigne and Voltaire have this in common: they are not fooled by the misery of the world. For example, Montaigne is very sensitive to the way the body can deteriorate in contact with fatigue and old age, he is sensitive in his own flesh, they also know what it is to be at war, to be hungry. They both know how to be very critical of their contemporaries, but they do not limit themselves to a radical and sterile pessimism. [...]

[...] Voltaire, like Montaigne, is a fervent critic of religion. We can indeed say that Montaigne, through the reflection he proposes, notably in The Essays is a sort of precursor to the Enlightenment, of which Voltaire will be one of the most brilliant representatives. For these writers, it is indeed a matter of standing against the religious obscurantism that keeps men in ignorance and pits them against each other rather than uniting them, connecting them as the etymology of the word "religion" would suggest, which indeed comes from the Latin "religere which means "to connect" or "to relate" Voltaire in Candide but also in one of his famous works, Treatise on Tolerance, ridicules the wars of religion that pit individuals against each other, despite their respective religions preaching peace and tolerance. [...]

[...] Candide or Optimism - Voltaire (1759) In what way is this tale an initiatory journey in which the eponymous character discovers other worlds? An initiatory journey is a journey in which a young character travels the world, discovers other countries, other cultures, and thus grows on an intellectual and moral level, passing in a way into adulthood. To what extent is Voltaire's tale, Candide, an initiatory narrative? First of all, we can say that at the beginning of the tale, Candide is a young character who appears. [...]

[...] Thus 'Candide' or Optimism' is indeed a initiatory journey where a young inexperienced man travels through the world to elevate himself morally, become an autonomous and responsible adult. Firstly, Voltaire discovers the misfortune of war when he is forcibly conscripted by the Bulgarian troops. War is described in the book through the oxymoron 'heroic slaughter'. Voltaire describes war as something horrible and by no means glorious. The author deploys all his ironic wit to denounce this evil of the world and Candide appears as frightened by the spectacle of war. [...]