candide vs the book of job
Religion has been a staple of human society since the dawn of recorded history and probably traces back even further. All religions found in history have one common theme between them besides their belief in a supreme power. Each religion helps explain what man cannot. Since Emperor Constantine changed the Roman Empire to Christianity, the faith has dominated western civilization. Voltaire, one of the most prominent philosophers of the Enlightenment, deals with the principles of Christianity in the book, Candide. Through an allegory of the Book of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible, Voltaire questions the struggles of men on Earth. Voltaire's main character, Candide, is somewhat of a simple man living a happy life in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh. Voltaire chooses the name Candide, a French adjective rooted in the Latin word "candidus" or white, for this character to show that he is an innocent person with good intentions. He lives here with the Baron because he is the illegitimate son of the Baron's sister who was unwilling to marry his father since he was poor. Voltaire has Candide born out of wedlock, a sin according to Christian principles, to prove that he is born int
" Job also manages to keep his beliefs through his first trials of faith. In Lisbon is where Candide, like Job, begins to lose faith. Candide says, "In spite of what Dr. Although devastated by the loss of his love Cunegonde, Candide manages to keep his belief in optimism. While sitting among his three close friends, Job finally speaks for the first time in a week and regrets the day of his birth. Pangloss makes one last attempt to convince Candide about the theory of optimism by saying, "All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle for being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the Baron, if you hadn't lost all of your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. Pangloss aides his belief by stating that he has caught a venereal disease that can be traced back to the Americas, but he believes that it is okay due to his belief in optimism. He asks himself, "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others?" Voltaire ends his allegory to the Book of Job at this point in the story. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. Voltaire is unwilling to place religion as the key to success on Earth and therefore has Candide determine that hard work, represented symbolically by cultivating one's garden, is the first priority in life. Candide is raised in the castle along with the Baron's son and daughter, Cunegonde, and the three of them are taught by Pangloss. Pangloss said, I often noticed that everything went very ill in Westphalia. The group escapes Spain, and the old woman tells the story of her life to Candide, which not only contradicts his faith in optimism but also mocks the rules of the Catholic church, part of the Christian faith that optimism is a symbol of.
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