Candide: Hope vs. Misfortune
Candide is an interesting adventurous novel written by Voltaire. One of the main ideas in the story deals with the way Candide views optimism versus reality he encounters to learn in the real world. Voltaire has an unusual and exaggerated contrast of how the eighteenth century developed within philosophical views of life. Within the novel, the rise and fall of Candide’s fortunes often depended on his early beliefs in optimism. And the constant confrontation of optimism and misfortune is what makes the novel a very interesting. 
The main theme that is presented throughout the novel is optimism, shown by the title Candide or otherwise known as Optimism. Optimism and hope for the better are the main concepts that I like about the novel. Candide, the main character, is a young man who is early educated by the optimistic philosopher Pangloss. Pangloss believes that everything in the world happens for the better, because “things cannot be other than what they are, for since everything is made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end” (Voltaire p. 42). As various unfortunate situations occur throughout the story, Pangloss defends his theory by determining the positive from negative situations. For this reason, Pangloss is a very hopeful character in the story because he refuses to accept evil.
From the very beginning, Candide, when first introduced to the philosophy of Pangloss, is effected by optimism. Candide grows up in the Castle of Westphalia, in which his life was one of happiness, but he is abruptly thrown out of the castle for kissing Cunegonde, baron’s daughter. “Best of all possible worlds, the Baron’s castle was the finest of all castles” (Voltaire p.42), is how Pangloss describes the castle prior to Candide’s dismissal. This is the first misfortune of Candide, as Pangloss’ philosophy seems somewhat of an unsure thing for him.  
During the beginning of Candide’s journey, an earthquake strikes Lisbon, murdering thirty thousand people. In Pangloss’ optimistic world, “the fall of man and the curse that came with it were necessary components of the best of all possible worlds”(Voltaire, p. 52), meaning the earthquake was necessary in the course of nature. To enforce his theory, Pangloss verbally explains himself, and for his reasoning both Candide and himself were arrested. This mistake affects Pangloss, given you the original assumption he is dead, but fortunately when re-appearing again later on having the same optimistic beliefs originally set forth. 
	After Candide escapes, he begins to question his optimistic beliefs. His own suffering is not what bothers him most, but the alleged death of Pangloss. He finds no reasoning in why Pangloss has died, and no longer find Pangloss’ philosophy ample to explain the reasoning behind the hideous deaths already taken place. The optimistic philosophy for which everything happened was slowly being lost, as in the philosopher, who is now dead. 
For a long time throughout Candide’s life, he believed strongly in optimism, not because he was forced to, but because he was raised in that manner. It could be possible that all along, Candide doubted the philosophy because of his exposure, or there lack of, in the real world. For example, Candide witnessed the public hanging of two Portuguese Jews simply because they refused to eat bacon for dinner. Many horrific things happen to the good people in Candide, which may have led Candide to disbelieve Pangloss’ philosophies. However, still his he does believe in the happy ending despite these harrowing events he encounters throughout his quest.
On a voyage to Surinam, Candide and Cacambo, a new friend, hoped to find a ship for Europe, but instead, Candide runs into misfortune again, losing all but two of his sheep. Again we can look at how any good could come out of losing these sheep. In order for Candide to continue, you might have to believe in his optimistic views. Many other people might have just given up on all hope and faith that there would be any reason to continue.  In Candide’s position, he is quite unaware of the unpredictability of life, and therefore does not have an 
understanding of how horrific his voyage has been to this point.  For example, take a person who has no knowledge, understanding or sense of life whatsoever, hurt him/her in one way or another, while insisting to him that this is a good thing. The unawareness of common life styles are not known until we are constantly involved in a day to day society, in which Candide is just getting accustomed to. 
Optimism is known as the belief that everything will get better, and things are for the best. After Candide kills Cunegonde’s brother Baron Thunder-Ten-Tonckh, he was once again skeptical of how this murder could benefit him. Immediately after, he runs into two girls chased by two monkeys. Taking pity on the girls, Candide kills the two monkeys, assuming that they were assaulting the girls. He spontaneously reacted by killing the monkeys, in hope of pardoning the crimes in which he previously committed. Unfortunately, his one moment of rejoice turned into sorrow, as the monkeys were the girls’ lovers.  Interestingly enough, tragedy occurred in Candide's conscious, which has long been one of optimism.
	By the time Candide gets to finally meet up with Cunegonde, his beloved one, she is has become ugly, thus unwanted. After spending so much time, money and a grueling adventure, it now seems unfair that the once pretty Cunegonde, has had a make over for the worse. Candide’s entire quest now seems to have been unnecessary, along with the idea that he now is going to be with her allows no reasoning for how optimism is defined.
	Candide’s learning’s, and the events that occurred, affected his character in many ways. He had learned to become himself, to accept life for what it had to offer, and that not everything had to be analyzed to decide whether it was good or bad. In Candide’s final statement, “We must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire p. 119), he could symbolize his surrendering to the world and his acceptance of it. He realizes that in finding his happiness, he was successful, but not as great as he once anticipated.  
	Although Candide was written for entertainment reasons, it can be served as a valuable lesson for many people. Often Candide’s optimism leads him to unexpected misfortunes; he reflects on his hopes and desires once set out to accomplish, much like what we should attempt to do in life. Through many hardships and a course of near death experiences, the optimistic view that Pangloss set forth, was one of success. If we all look at life through the eyes of Candide, we would fill no pity for our actions, but instead find a reason why certain things do happen, and move on towards our true goals. 
Bibliography
•	Voltaire. (1981). Candide. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.