Do woman have hope?

Candide, is the story of a man who is in search of his lost love Cunegonde. He travels around the world and does the impossible to have her back, that shows true love, huh? That's exactly what I though, what can be more romantic than the love of your life searching for you under the oceans and the mountains. It brings me flashback of Romeo and Juliet, how their impossible love catches the audience attention and ended up being a classic story or for me, a cliché story.

Yet I find myself reading how much Candide loves the Lady, "Cunegonde must be dead, and the only thing left for me is to die too." (93) Can this love be so powerful? What I think or believe is that love is caring for that someone more than caring about your self. To literally dedicate your life and know that person from head to toe, do you believe Candide and Cunegonde have successfully done that? I do believe in love, but love is not just a word or a feeling, it's the actions and thoughts that go through your head.

After reading almost 100 pages of the love and desire Candide has over Cunegonde I was expecting a happily ever after ending, with the huge wedding and then riding away in a really old car to their honey moon. But no,  when finally the Lady was free and into Candide's arms, after weeks of living like a prisoner, she became "ugly" and that led Candide not loving her any more. "At the bottom of his heart, Candide had no desire to marry Cunegonde. But the baron's extreme arrogance determined him to go through with the marriage..." (116)

All of that trouble for nothing?

Do woman have hope after this?

Every Awesome Book becomes a Musical!

In class we saw part of the Candide Musical, composed by Leonard Bernstein, also known for composing and creating the famous musical West Side Story. Even though we only saw 30 minutes or less of the show, it was very similar to the book. You usually expect the visual representation of a book to be worse because it skips important events of the book, the audience is not satisfied with the final result of most movies or musicals. 


Watching the movie and noticing the irony made me understand many thing that happen in the book that I hadn't understood yet. I love how they exaggerate everything to another level, like dressing Candide as a child and making him play with little boy's toys, repressing the innocence of this character. 

This musical was released in 2009, including in the cast some recognized actors and singers like Kristin Chenoweth (Cunégonde). 


It was easier to understand the events of what was going on, obviously because it's visual so it's more clear, but the music and the song or dances kept me interested and entertained. Besides the instruments and wardrobes was just as I had imagined the book.


Sophie Echeverry as Cunégonde in the 2012 version of Candide the Musical. Can you picture it? 

Is he Brainless?

Candide's stupidity can really get on my nerves sometimes, a 6 year old child can be more clever than him. I say this because in page 72 he is found in strange lands, filled with gifts from the "El Dorado" habitants; like gold and diamonds. He can be the richest man in Westphalia and even gain the acceptance of Lady Cunegonde's family and live happily ever after with her. But NO, it's impossible for him to be smart.

Candide drives Cacambo to rescue Lady Cunegonde in Buenos Aires while he travels to Venice, mean while he is in search of a ship that will take him there. Finally he finds Mynheer Vanderdendur a dutch master of large ships that was actually offering a really small amount of money for the trip. Mynheer is a business man, he knows how to read costumers, but Candide is such and easy prey. The master starts offering, ten thousand "piasters" and because Candide agreed without hesitating, the man started rising the price thining he was really rich. The stupid, ends up paying thirty thousand piasters (two little diamonds).

If Candide is not killed in his trip to Venice, i'm sure I will kill him myself.

In Such an Ugly Way, Something so Beautiful

Candide is described as an innocent and naive man, with lack of corruption. Seems like he hasn't open or experienced the world. " 'Men,'he said, 'must have somewhat altered the course of nature; for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. " (pg 33) I compare this quote with what happens to all of us through time, experiences. 

The experiences that we live through everyday make us grow, good or bad. We achieve something because we learn that our societies are filled with people that want to harm us. We loose our innocence and our naivety from the people around us, that's why we turn into wolves. By turning into wolves we force other people to turn from naive to corrupt. 

Satire and cruelty?

Satire is a form of writing used to make fun of the societies weakness, it can be funny but is destined to create excitement to the audience, yet it's not searching for entertainment. In class we read this short story called "A Modest Proposal", written by Jonathan Swift, using satire to an extreme. Talking about his idea of using babies from poor families as food, treat the babies as cows or pigs. "The skin... will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for the gentleman." (p860). Reading those pages made me realize how serious and cruel the text was, but at the same time its was impossible to hold a laugh. Reading the story became a joy, I don't considered my self cruel but I was so eager to see how the story ended I understood satire is a successful technique authors use. I decided to research about Jonathan Swift past text and he is consider a " the foremost prose satirist in the English language" with stories like Gulliver's Travels, The Battle of the Books and a Journal to Stella. 

In page 33 of the book I read a passage that remember me of Swift's story, "Thirty thousand men, woman ad children were crushed to death under the ruins. The sailor chuckled: "There'll be something worth picking up here..." Talking about disasters and laughing made me remember of what I read before in the Modest Proposal. Can satire and cruelty connect? If you want to achieve a correct satire text you need to be vicious? 


"Fools are my theme, let satire be my song." Byron, Lord

A Ladies Man

Voltaire Candide

Voltaire Candide, is it going to be like a typical boring book the school makes us read? About history? With really advance and old literature words? Reading every paragraph more than 5 times to be able to understand the text. That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the cover page and the tittle, but as they say "Don't judge a book by its cover." Being able to read the first chapters in class made me realize what a funny and ironic book it is, filled with dark humor and hidden jokes. I still keep asking myself, is this book written my Voltaire Candide, the french Enlightenment philosopher? Or is the story about Candide's life and adventures. 


Reading I get to feel how Candice is a ladies man, the way he describes him with woman. How he's excitement can only happen if a lady is included. The way he mixes his work as a scientist, philosopher, physics and use the talent he has to describe a scenery with a woman and yet make it sound as a completely different thing. The illusion the author or Candide himself gives the audience is what makes the story different and extraordinary.

Each page of the first two chapters gave me the slight touch of the four elements of satire: irony, hyperbole, target, and absurdity. You get to feel the writers jokes and yet keep a serious tone that help you understand the sarcasm. Sincerely I use a lot of sarcasm with my friends and family, and it's easy to identify it. Yet it seems impossible or very hard to put it into text, you need a really deep understanding on how to manipulate the readers mind and help them understand. You require a talent that we might gain reading this book or text that include irony.