Did that really just happen?

What did I just read? Really Voltaire, did you just make every main character come back to life? Was it for fun or did you have a legitimate reason. It is extremely hyperbolic to literally have the Baron, Pangloss and EVERYONE who had ‘died’ survive their death.

On another note, I realized that Candide never liked Cunégonde for her personality, but it was all for her looks. “At the bottom of his heart, Candide had no wish to marry Cunégonde…”(138). This part kind of shows what society really is like. We usually judge people by their appearance before really getting to know them. Prejudice is such a big issue but there is nothing we can do about it. I may have gotten a different message from this section, but I believed that Candide liked Cunégonde more from the outside then on the inside.

On page 141 I thought there was a really interesting quote that I wanted to talk about, “ Will you kindly tell us why such a strange animal as man was ever made?” Sometimes, I wonder the same exact thing. Why were humans put on this Earth when most of the time we ruin it? All our issues, problems and selfishness are destroying the planet. People say that human beings are like parasites. We are growing and destroying, and eventually this planet will get rid of us. 

Differences between time periods

“Music to-day is nothing more than the art of performing difficult pieces, and what is merely difficult gives no lasting pleasure” (119). Okay, nothing is ever right. There will always be haters in the world. Apparently trying to play difficult music is boring. In the twenty-first century we have a couple beats and boring lyrics and it is a hit. So many people would like artists to TRY and create something that is confusing and only they can play. It shows that they are trying their best to create something from scratch. In no way do I think that that is boring. Boring is when you take notes from other songs and change it a bit and add your own lyrics. There is almost no originality left in the world.

With that said I would like to add that I think that no one is ever fully happy. It could be there appearance, what is happening in the world or with other people. There will always be something that is stopping you from accepting that you can be completely happy. Is it in our human nature to not be satisfied with what we have? There is a saying that everyone knows, “ You don’t know what you have until you loose it,” I think it really applies to this situation. Pococurante is not happy with the music that is playing in that time and many people are wondering what is happening to the music now a days. I think that if we lost the music we have now there will be people who say that they miss it. If Pococurante was to listen to the music now, he would definitely want to go back to the “boring” and “difficult” music. 

Fair Or Unfair?

I think Voltaire really tries his best to show how messed up society is. How come the most innocent people have to get punished for something they did not do? If one person makes a mistake others always suffer. For example, on page 94, “’But why should the passengers have perished too? God has punished a scoundrel, but the devil has drowned the rest.’” The captain had stolen Candide’s money and sheep, and then he encountered another ship that began to attack him and the people on his ship. In the end, everyone on that ship had died, so is it fair that everyone suffered because one person?

As I kept reading, there was a part when Martin is talking about the last time he was in Paris. “’I stayed there a short while: soon after I arrived I was robbed of all I had by some pickpockets…and spent eight days in prison on suspicion of being a pickpocket myself.’”(95) If you think about it, the world really does work like that sometimes. You try to do good and make a change, but as a result, you get the complete opposite of what you deserve.

This whole issue about it being fair or not made me think about a real life example, it is exactly like getting hit by a drunk driver. You, the sober and safe driver suddenly get hit by someone who was careless and irresponsible. Your whole life you followed rules, gave back to society and tried to do the right thing. Is it fair that you got hit by someone who just did not care? Does karma really exist or do we try to scare people to do the right thing.