Once upon a time there were two fairytales. The first, Candide, is a story of an optimistic young man on a quest to find love; the other, Shrek, is the tale of a large green ogre who reluctantly does a king's bidding. With the help of their trusty sidekicks, the ogre and the young man survive the grueling trials they face. Yet lurking beneath these stories is a biting satire. And now we begin our story of the two fairytales.
             Candide and Shrek use basic plot lines to convey complex messages. They share the same basic tale of a quest to find love, and the perilous adventures along the way. In Candide, the story begins with a happy optimistic young man in love a beautiful young girl. After a series of calamities they are reunited. When Candide saw her, he found her to be horribly ugly, "The tender lover Candide, on seeing his fair Cunégonde dark-skinned, eyes bloodshot, flatbosomed, cheeks wrinkled, arms red and rough, recoiled three steps in horror..." (pg. 96). Candide ends with a disillusioned, and a pessimistic young man. Candide and Cunégonde accept their lot in life and in the end stay where they were, and end any pursuit of the betterment of their lives, " 'I also know,' said Candide, 'that we must cultivate our garden'" (pg. 101). Shrek is also a quest to find love, although it does not start out as such. Shrek starts out on a journey to retrieve the Princes Fiona for the king of the land; Shrek ends up falling in love with Fiona. In the end Shrek married the Princess, just as like Candide did Cunégonde. But Shrek, unlike Candide, loved his wife and did not marry her out of guilt. Candide are Shrek are simple stories that convey complex messages.
             On the surface, the characters, Candide and Shrek, are as dissimilar as the stories are similar. Candide is a "...young man whom nature had endowed with the gentlest of characteristics. His
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